15 minute read
REAL + READY
from Contxt 2019
YOU CAN’T GET A JOB WITHOUT EXPERIENCE. BUT YOU CAN’T GET EXPERIENCE WITHOUT A JOB.
The paradox is as old as the dawn of higher education and as relevant today as it was then. So, we thought we would do something about it.
Five years ago, Ringling College of Art and Design introduced the “Ringling College Collaboratory Commitment*,” a guarantee that every student will have the opportunity to take on actual client work during their time at the College. Students get connected with businesses via a number of channels:
+ ACADEMIC DEPARTMENT PROJECTS + ART NETWORK + CAREER SERVICES INTERNSHIPS + THE COLLABORATORY + DESIGN CENTER + SERVICE-LEARNING + VOLUNTEERISM + STUDENT LIFE + THE RINGLING COLLEGE STUDIO LABS
This section presents a handful of these projects, with an in-depth look at the specific challenge presented, the process, and the results. Notice, you won’t read about our students making copies or running out for coffee. They’re building experience, portfolios, and the confidence to break out of the catch-22 and into the career of their dreams.
*The Collaboratory is an initiative developed by Ringling College in partnership with The Patterson Foundation that provides creative, experiential learning opportunities to all of its students.
ART NETWORK DOCUMENTARY CLASS:
A LESSON IN ULTRA-IMMERSIVE LEARNING
BY LISA MOODY | PHOTO BY RICH SCHINELLER Stills from On the Wings of Performance.
THE CHALLENGE.
In just 15 weeks, students with varying degrees of production experience had to work together to produce a one-hour, broadcastready documentary. My challenge as instructor of an elective course was to respect the students’ time and energy, as I’m highly aware of the workload in their majors. I wanted them to learn so much in a short amount of time, while also keeping everything we do limited to class time. This was most challenging for the shoot schedule, because it meant students had to coordinate all of their subjects to be filmed the one day a week that the class met. The ultimate prize, if the film was good enough, was an actual airing on television.
THE PROCESS.
Nine students signed up for the spring ’18 class. They came from majors including Visual Studies, Business of Art and Design, and Motion Design. First we studied the basics of documentary production, then met with our broadcast partners at ABC7/WWSB to learn their requirements and gain insight into how broadcast television operates. Students then brainstormed topic ideas in groups and developed their pitch for ABC7 network executives. From the pitches presented, the network chose the topic “How mentorship changes lives in performing arts.” Broadcast television still operates through an advertising model, which means we had to produce the show to their exact “clock,” or time requirements. We divided the segments among the students and each was responsible for producing, directing, and editing a segment, with the challenge of making the documentary look cohesive. This is a tall order for highly seasoned professionals, and the students devised creative solutions to ensure consistency throughout the production, graphics, music, and show flow. They assigned crew roles using their classmates, so at some point everyone had to operate cameras, record audio, act as a script supervisor, etc. We hired an outside lighting director, and enlisted ART Network’s Production Manager, Marquee Doyle, to mentor students on set. We were the first class to utilize the new Studio Labs Soundstage A. And it was a joy.
THE RESULTS.
In 15 weeks, these students learned every aspect of documentary production. They worked with network executives, pushed through the challenges, and saw the rewards this level of collaboration can bring. They also saw the challenges. For our premiere, there were many things that went wrong, by no fault of the students, and five minutes before the documentary was to premiere in an auditorium full of family, friends, College administrators, donors, trustees, and network executives, I had to let the students know it was not ready to be viewed. Instead, I asked them to introduce their individual segments, which we showed unfinished before opening the floor for questions. It doesn’t get more “real-world” than this. They rose to the occasion and handled themselves professionally, with more confidence than I’ve seen in industry professionals. In my own 22-year career in television, I have never experienced something so stressful, yet it resulted in the proudest student moment in my nine years at Ringling College of Art and Design. In the end, ABC asked for a year-long license to run the documentary, On the Wings of Performance. It has aired twice as a primetime broadcast, and also shows on its OTT streaming platform. It was recently entered in the Sarasota Film Festival. My students have said that this class is one of the most intense experiences they’ve had at Ringling College. I’m not surprised. I mean, who does this? Yet they say the level of hands-on, real-world experience they got and the skills they developed are more than worth it. I understand that, because as a director/producer, there is no greater reward than seeing your work air on television. Beyond that, these students will graduate with an actual network broadcast credit which is something not a lot of college students can say.
Lisa Moody is an Emmy-award winning writer and executive producer. For Ringling College, she serves as Interim Director for Communication Strategies, Director of the All Ringling Television Network (ART Network), and adjunct faculty.
Antwerp, Belgium
Sarasota, Florida
MAPPING A SITE —
IN AND OUT OF CONTEXT
BY RICH SCHINELLER | PHOTOS COURTESY OF THOMAS CARABASI
THE CHALLENGE.
About ten years ago, Ringling College Photography and Imaging Department Head Thomas Carabasi participated in a traditional faculty and student exchange with Sint Lucas School of the Arts in Antwerp, Belgium and discovered that conflicting academic calendars and logistical issues were making it clear that a different format might facilitate a better experience for all involved. In Carabasi’s words, “Our challenge was to create an immersive and collaborative international art student exchange model focused upon the importance of art as experience and cultural context.” Mapping a Site—In and Out of Context came together in 2012 when Tom and Kurt Vanbelleghem of the Sint Lucas School of the Arts finalized their plans for creating a truly engaging exchange experience for students and faculty. The program was designed to take place annually over the course of six years. Each year, participating students in Antwerp and Sarasota would undertake a seven- to ten-day intensive workshop abroad, with Ringling College students visiting Antwerp and Sint Lucas students visiting Sarasota. Students would visit specific sites in their new city and capture them in their medium of choice, from photography to fine arts and more, keeping that year’s specific theme in mind. The goal, in addition to providing students the opportunity to work collectively outside of the classroom, was to create a “map” of their artistic responses that spoke about each city by the end of the six-year partnership. Visiting students were challenged to approach specific sites and themes in each city through their subjective cultural and artistic perspectives and exhibit the results within a week. At its core, the overarching premise of Mapping a Site was to imbue cultural exchange. Students learned about the areas they were going to represent with their art, while assuring an intense collaborative experience given the compressed time frame of the assignments and exhibition. Environmental Art Professor Markku Hakuri of Aalto University defined Mapping a Site as being “focused on developing methods for understanding the complexity of the environments that surround us and are created by us. This workshop examines sites beyond their visual and aesthetic qualities and investigates the multiplicity of contexts that create a site.” The innovative exchange program launched in 2012/2013 with Historic Neighborhoods as its inaugural theme. Faculty and students from Ringling College, Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland, and Sint Lucas School of Arts and the Royal Academy in Antwerp, Belgium collaborated in Sarasota and Antwerp. Participant expertise spanned multiple artistic disciplines, including photography, fine art, motion design, and graphic design. Mapping a Site 2012-2013 Aalto student participant Salla Salin expressed her experience cogently, saying that “the intensive one-week process of mapping various layers of the chosen sites and sharing these perceptions within our group of international participants, as well as with the people of the respective cities, seemed to highlight not only certain specificities of the sites, but also themes of perspective and identity on a personal level.” The 2013-2014 Mapping a Site: In and Out of Context program focused on Traces of Post-Colonialism; 2014-2015 on Spectacle; 2015-2016 on Waterways; 2016-2017 on Architecture and Memory; and 2017-2018 on Food and Ritual.
THE RESULTS.
Over the six years of the project, students created “maps” of the two cities of Sarasota and Antwerp through the collective sensibilities of young artists and designers. The results took the form of still images, paintings, time-based work, sculpture, installations, and performance.
In the words of Philip Heylan, former vice-mayor of Antwerp, “The importance of art is that it has the potential to inspire people and expand their vision and awareness of society. The Mapping a Site – In and Out of Context project brought young artists and designers together from two cities with very different cultural heritages and gave them the opportunity to experience the many lessons of difference. This experience gave the participants a chance to grow as both artists and human beings and demonstrated my belief that, ultimately, we are united by our diversity.” Mapping a Site – In and Out of Context represented the spirit of students from very different cultural contexts working together to explore both the expressive and descriptive possibilities of collaboration and mutual respect. The results, along with the experience earned, is a very unique tale of two cities.
Stills from Detling’s Vote Together animated GIF.
DEMOCRACY IN MOTION
BY STEPHANIE LEDERER
THE CHALLENGE.
Students can choose to get involved with client work through a number of programs at Ringling College of Art and Design, but many get this first-hand experience in the classroom. In the fourth-year Motion Design Senior Thesis course, students select a project from over 50 client briefs. This means 50+ ways to work on client-based projects, build their portfolios, and gain an understanding of the professional expectations of the industry. In the fall 2018 semester, one student, Paul Detling (also the 2018 Trustee Scholar for Motion Design), chose to work on the Civic Nation’s Vote Together campaign, which aims to “change the culture of voting and increase participating by making democracy an opportunity for community celebration.” From a motion design perspective, the brief asked for four short, looping, animations (GIFS) that would be shared via the Civic Nation social media channels. The project had two end goals: to inspire others to vote in the upcoming 2018 midterm elections and to increase traffic to the Vote Together website, where interested parties could find information about the program, FAQs, and resources for how to get involved. Detling was intrigued. “I chose this project because I have an interest in politics,” he shares. “When I read the brief, I had an immediate idea of what I could do in this space. Couple that with the fact that I like to animate GIFs that loop, with no start or end, and it was an instant fit.” A great fit it certainly was, but he had just two short weeks to bring it to life.
THE PROCESS.
Over the course of the next two weeks, Detling got to work, starting with sketches to develop the look and feel of the story. He tried several approaches, landing on a character-based approach to connect with people and broaden his options for storytelling. He refined his characters to what you see today: an anthropomorphized red circle and a blue circle. Simple, yet highly effective and relatable. He then sketched out rough storyboards for the message each animated GIF would relay. Once the characters and stories were laid out, each GIF took approximately 5-7 hours to create. In these mini-stories, ranging from 4 seconds to 15 seconds in length, the lovable little guys showcase the interactions and details every voter experiences, from the hard decision-making process to proudly claiming the coveted “I Voted” sticker. They remind the viewers to “Get Out and Vote,” “Your Vote Counts,” “Vote Together,” and “Participation is a Celebration.”
Detling also took the current political climate into consideration, taking care to represent viewers from both sides of the aisle, hence red and blue characters, and deliver messages with universal appeal. “This was really about delivering something everyone could enjoy, as well as serving as a reminder of the importance of voting,” says Detling. “The GIFs were supposed to appeal to everyone.” But the artwork wasn’t created alone—like any designer, Detling was tasked to work within the parameters of the Vote Together brand and to meet the high standards of Ed Cheetham, the Head of the Department of Motion Design at Ringling College, and his faculty. Cheetham expounds, “In our department, we provide an opportunity for all the motion design students to use their motion design skills to raise awareness of important social issues, and ultimately use their creative powers for good. Having the Department of Motion Design engage with Civic Nation provides a tangible pathway for students to get involved, take action, and help make a positive difference in the world.” He continues, “I was very excited to see Paul select the voting awareness project. I knew that his creativity, coupled with his love of stop motion animation, would make for a charming and memorable reminder to get out and vote.”
THE RESULTS.
JESSICA BLAIR – CIVIC NATION
CASSIE WILKINSON – LOYALKASPAR
Needless to say, the client was pleased. The animated GIFs were used by Civic Nation on its Instagram and Twitter accounts. “It’s great to see something I had a part in actually be used,” Detling says. But more than that, it was an opportunity for Detling to work with clients to deliver a product that meets their needs, supports their brand, and pushes their message forward. Not to mention, it was also a valuable addition to his portfolio as a professional motion designer.
CROSSLEY GALLERY: A STUDENT TAKEOVER
BY MINNA GANNON ’20
THE PROJECT.
Ringling College of Art and Design loves to give students hands-on projects to gain real-world experience. Every year, two Fine Arts students are chosen as Gallery Directors to curate shows in Crossley Gallery, allowing fellow students to showcase their own works. The students can submit any number of pieces as long as they fit the theme. In 2018-19, seniors Savannah Magnolia and Meagan Hindel chose the theme Macabre. As a number of the participants discovered, curating a gallery exhibition is a complex process where a multitude of works come together to create and hang an engaging show. Many who submitted their work in the Macabre show did so knowing what an invaluable experience the College was offering and would undoubtedly use it to bolster their résumés.
THE PROCESS.
Challenges always crop up when putting together a professional-level gallery exhibition, and Macabre was no exception. Even seasoned professionals of the fine arts world still find certain aspects difficult to conquer. Joe Fig, Head of the Fine Arts Department, explained, “There will always be an artist who wants a few more days to finish a piece or is making last-minute changes and fighting a deadline. The key is communication.” Communication is integral between the artists, directors, and in this case, the faculty. To those who participated, they know the power of a deadline. It looms over them constantly as the driving force of the process. And before that ever-so-close deadline, students had to submit at least one piece to put in the show while exhibiting professionalism, dedication, and hard work. As for the student directors, they were given many tasks. One was to collect and look after the pieces from each student. But their biggest job was to curate them in an aesthetically pleasing manner in the professional, 1,200-square-foot gallery that equals a real-world gallery in any metropolitan art scene. They also acted as the go-between for the students and faculty to ensure everything went smoothly. For the faculty involved, they gave the students the tools and knowledge to put a show together, but mostly gave the students the ability to take full control. How’s that for experience?
THE RESULTS.
The most unique part of the process is what each individual artist took away from the exhibition. For some, like Fig, the outcome reveals a beautiful sense of community and professionalism. For students like Fine Arts senior Kiara Rodriguez, who hung her piece inspired by the series of killings committed by H.H. Holmes, it was a thrilling experience. “Having people view and critique my work without knowing who I am was exhilarating,” she said. “It made me so giddy, I couldn’t wait to be involved in more experiences like that. I think every artist should participate in a gallery showing at least once.” The Crossley’s purpose highlights Ringling College’s dedication to furthering each student’s level of professionalism and experience. No matter your department, stop by Crossley Gallery. Better yet, submit!
Minna Gannon is a third-year Creative Writing student at Ringling College.
Above:
Students prepare the gallery for Senior Portfolio Night.
Opposite:
Various student shows through the years. Photos by Forrest MacDonald, and courtesy of the Ringling College Fine Arts Department.
