By Maegan Murray, ���سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – Mechanical engineering students in a Washington State University Tri-Cities capstone course worked with a university arts professor to design and construct a moving tree sculpture that presents the unfortunate realities of the use and discarding of plastic in today’s society.

Sena Clara Creston, clinical assistant professor of fine arts and digital technology and culture at ���سԹ�, had the idea to create an installation of an artificial tree that, at first glance, welcomes the viewer in with its beauty and reverence, but then encapsulates the viewer and presents the realities of how plastic is used across the world.

For the project, titled “Willow of the Waste,” Creston worked with undergraduate mechanical engineering students to come up with the mechanical design of the tree, which stands approximately eight feet tall and moves gently as though it is breathing. When the viewer approaches, the branches contract, encasing the viewer in a shell under the branches. Upon closer look, the viewer can identify that the “beautiful” leaves, trunk and branches are made of commonly used plastics such as containers for water, grocery bags and others, presenting the harshness of the fact that plastics will outlive most materials on earth.

“When it breaths and showcases natural movements, it is calming and intriguing – it causes people to want to look closer,” Creston said. “When they get closer, they see the materials and the impact that these have on our environment.”

Creston said while plastic has served a utilitarian purpose, and that even as it presents a beautiful material sometimes, it doesn’t degrade, and will outlive many natural and even man-made structures.

“With the Willow of the Waste, it’s art that is made out of this beautiful translucent material, but at the same time, it’s trash. It’s the cleanest garbage,” she said. “And whereas artistic works that feature paint, buildings and even the natural world may decay, this tree is made of immortal plastic. For all intensive purposes, my tree will last longer than any painting. That’s a devastating reality to reflect upon.”

Interdisciplinary partnerships

Creston said working with the engineering students presented a unique opportunity to blend utilitarian skill through engineering with an artistic approach that allows the viewer to reflect on an important topic that concerns today’s world.

The partnership resulted after she spoke with Changki Mo, associate professor of mechanical engineering, who presented the project as an option to his students for their capstone engineering senior design course. The students ran with the project, taking into consideration the artistic components of the tree that also served a functional purpose. The student team consists of Tyrell Turner, Elvin Munoz, Gabby Sanchez, David Garcia, Moises Pinon and Aljon Salalila.

“I’m so impressed with this team – with them thinking about the project conceptually, the necessity of the user experienced and with them thinking about the mood of the piece,” Creston said. “They were truly able to think beyond the fact that is a machine, but that it is also an experience. They went above and beyond. I couldn’t have done something like this without their help.”

Getting creative with engineering

The engineering students said they enjoyed the fact that they were able to be creative with the project using their skill in engineering.

“With the artistic aspect of this project, it has been nice because it allows us to put our own creative spin on how to do things,” said Tyrell Turner, a senior mechanical engineering student at ���سԹ�. “We were able to do the mechanical part and now she has the materials that she will cover it with based on how she wants it to look. It has been fun blending the two together.”

Engineering student David Garcia said they had to overcome a number of challenges to make the project a success, from making small changes to ensure that the movement of the tree was natural and believable, to having to recut and rearrange specific parts, to learning the electrical components of how to make it operate as a “breathing” figure. All served as learning opportunities about overcoming road blocks and challenges.

“It’s been a journey, but it’s all come together now,” Turner said. “We’re all excited to see it all come together and for it to get displayed.”

To be featured at ���سԹ� symposium

Creston said she is still working on the plastic ornamental aspects of the tree, including the leaves, bark and others, but that those will be completed shortly. The base structure of the tree, however, will be on display during the Undergraduate Research Symposium and Art Exhibition at ���سԹ� from noon – 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 3, in the ���سԹ� Art Gallery in the Consolidated Information Center.

The tree will eventually become part of an immersive environment known as “Machinescape” that features a range of mechanical and robotic figures that all feature the same types of translucent plastic. Creston recently completed another figure, which she calls the “Huminal” that will be incorporated into part of the scene.

RICHLAND, Wash. – Students will present on a range of research and course projects as part of the Washington State University Tri-Cities Undergraduate Research Symposium and Art Exhibition, noon-1 p.m. May 1-3 in the Consolidated Information Center on campus.��

“We invite the public to join us for the symposium as it not only gives an insight into the incredible research and projects that our students have spent months and even semesters completing, but also provides students an opportunity to communicate those projects, further allowing them to practice the skills that they will take into their professional careers,” said Allison L. Matthews, clinical assistant professor of psychology and coordinator for the symposium.

Presentations will take place in CIC 120, with Thursday’s presentations also taking place in the CIC Art Gallery. Different projects will be featured each day of the symposium. More than 200 projects will be on display throughout the three-day event.

Academic areas highlighted during the symposium include: biology, chemistry, engineering, English, environmental science, history, political science, psychology, computer science, digital technology and culture, and fine arts.

Some of the projects include:

• Ecological restoration using DNA extractions from soil samples.
• Tri-City Union Gospel Mission data analysis.
• Artax: A distributed real-time informatics system for mass spectrometry.
• Non-destructive tank inspection robot.
• SAE Aero Design – engineering of a small airplane.
• Interactive kinetic sculpture.
• Impulsivity facets and substance use disorder symptoms.

Media Contacts:

Allison L. Matthews, ���سԹ� clinical assistant professor of psychology, 509-372-7146, almatthews@wsu.edu

Maegan Murray, ���سԹ� public relations specialist, 509-372-7333, maegan_murray@wsu.edu

By Maegan Murray

During the couple of weeks that artist and urban planner Sarah Kavage was at Washington State University Tri-Cities this fall, she had quite the busy schedule.

She met with students about her life as an artist and urban planner, provided an in-depth and hands-on look at her works and presented about her efforts in improving communities by introducing art and culture.

But in addition to what she was able to bring to the students and community of the Tri-Cities through her artistic experience, she also had the opportunity to gain some cultural knowledge of the area and explore possible future art installations as part of her own professional repertoire.

Kavage’s visit was part of the new Cultural Capital Residency Program at ���سԹ�, which is the brain child of Peter Christenson, artist and ���سԹ� fine arts and digital technology and culture professor.

An enhanced scholastic experience

Christenson said his goal with the residency program, which kicked off this fall, is to introduce artists and other scholars to the Tri-Cities community with the goal of expanding upon traditional learning opportunities typically held in a university setting. Through the program, scholars with backgrounds ranging from the arts, to engineering, to urban planning, to social work, temporarily live in a living learning community among ���سԹ� students, which is located adjacent to campus.

At the living learning community, the scholars participate in community dinners, discussion sessions and generally interact with the students in the living learning communities. Additionally, the scholars hold open informational office hours at ���سԹ� where they welcome interaction with students on campus, complete art and other creative projects with classes at ���سԹ�, present guest lectures to the students and Tri-Cities community, in addition to using the experience as a means to explore and learn more about the Tri-Cities.

“With the Cultural Capital Scholar Residency program, we wanted to enhance the educational model,” Christenson said. “We want to give exposure to a variety of research agendas and forms of scholarship. Through this program, we get to pick from an international scope of scholars. This way, students get access to a broad range of scholarship.”

Giving back, giving forward

Kavage marked the second scholar to participate in the residency program at ���سԹ�. Her work centers around place, history and ecology. The first scholar was multimedia artist and communicator Laurel Terlesky, whose work examines the use of technology to communicate and build relationships.

Kavage said she had participated in residency programs prior to completing her experience at ���سԹ�, but that this was the first time she had the opportunity to have in-depth interactions with university students.

“It is always wonderful to have people to pass your knowledge on to who are interested in sharing and learning about your work,” she said. “I appreciated the dialogue that we had. Some of what I did in Allison Matthews’ environmental psychology class was asking students about their perceptions of this area, given its history with Hanford. I also had the opportunity to work with students on an eco-art project. It’s been an awesome experience.”

Kavage said one of the things that drew her to the residency program at ���سԹ� was the Tri-Cities’ cultural and historical ties to the Hanford Site.

“Being here and doing the tours of the B Reactor and Hanford site has given me a much better insight into this area,” she said. “There is a lot here. It is a really complex place with a lot of big history. It provides great opportunity, artistically.”

As part of the residency experience at ���سԹ�, every scholar is required to submit an art piece or other works back to the university that becomes part of a collection hosted by ���سԹ�. The piece can consist of something they created while they were at WSU, or it could consist of something they had created, prior. Kavage submitted some sketches about possible art installations that could one-day take shape at the Hanford site.

Diversity of scholars and benefit to students

Christenson has a selection of scholars that will participate in the residency program in the coming year. Those individuals include photographer June Tay Sanders, sculptor and multimedia artist Jon Henry, multimedia artist Tra Bouscaren and milliner Jean Hicks.

The variety and diversity of the artists and scholars selected for the program is important, Christenson said, as it encourages diversity of thought, opinion and sharing of ideas among ���سԹ� students and overall Tri-Cities community.

“The students in our community are really diverse,” he said. “Part of a role of a university is to expose our students to a diversity of views, opinions and ideas. Bringing these folks here gives us all an opportunity to think about the world differently, projects differently and our place and community from a different paradigm.”

Student Jessica Roth said the experience of having a visiting scholar, particularly in the arts, proved to be a major benefit to her academic experience at ���سԹ�. She said she enjoys the fact that the artists come to campus, from not only around the country, but from around the world, and that it adds diversity to their studies.

“This exchange of ideas and exposure to different types of successful working artists and their practice is a huge benefit to students because it helps them navigate their own career paths by exploring many creative professional options,” Roth said.

“The diversity in the resident artists, their works and the creative paths that their careers took helps to expand the artistic perspective of our students and lend insight into the endless ways an artist’s work can be culturally informed, unique and successful,” she said.

For more information on the Cultural Capital Scholar Residency Program at ���سԹ�, contact Christenson at peter.christenson@wsu.edu.