Jacklyn Brickman and Eric Souther are assistant professors at Western Michigan University for Kinetic Imaging - a brand-new area in the Frostic School of Art that offers Bachelor of Science degrees in animation, game art, and video art. Their students are collaborating with the Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s planetarium for an exhibition of their work.
“Kinetic Imaging started in 2022, so we have just begun our third year,” Brickman says. “We have our first juniors.”
The kinetic imaging core includes coursework in illustration, AR/VR, coding, 3D modeling, world building, sound art, installation and performance art. Students are prepared to work as multimedia artists, combining art with technology.
“It’s an immersive experience,” Southern says about the upcoming exhibition. “We collaborated with the Kalamazoo Valley Museum … to help our students understand how to develop work for the planetarium, which is a very different space. It’s a cinematic space, but it’s a 360-degrees space. Students have to think about what’s in front of them, behind them, and also what’s above them in a geodesic dome that is about two stories above them.”
Jacklyn Brickman is a visual artist and educator whose work combines science fact with fiction to address social and environmental concerns. Her work spans installation, video, and performance, with a special interest in cross-disciplinary collaboration and social engagement.
Eric Souther’s creative research draws from a multiplicity of disciplines, including new materialism, anthropology, ritual, deep time, and toolmaking. His work includes interactive installation, audio-visual performance, single-channel video, and software.
The WMU Kinetic Imaging animation and video students are making work for a public screening in the Kalamazoo Valley Museum Planetarium on December 12th at 2 p.m.