fresh media 2022

Massachusetts College of Art & Design’s Dynamic Media Institute
Exhibition Dates: Friday, March 4 - Sunday March 13, 2022

Opening on Friday March 4th and running through Sunday March 13th, Boston Cyberarts is pleased to present "Fresh Media 2022", an installation of works in progress by students in the Dynamic Media Institute (DMI) program at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, a graduate program focused on time-based, interactive and computational media art and design.

Powered pickles, interactive flowers, synchronized heartbeats, participatory post-its and telephones tending to community connection will be on view during this Fresh Media ‘22 exhibition. The annual student-run show has shown in venues across the city for the last decade and continues the tradition this year at the Cyberarts Gallery at the Green St. T Station. DMI’s diverse group of educators, developers, designers and artists explore both analog and digital work, bridging the gap between traditional artistic practices such as drawing and painting with more technical means such as the use of microcontrollers, digital displays and projectors, microphones, video cameras, augmented reality, sensors and a variety of computer platforms. Their practice is research based as well, with each student producing work related to their chosen conceptual area of focus while seeking to continuously define just exactly what dynamic media is today, and what it will be tomorrow.

This exhibition presents students with the opportunity to test their interactive prototypes in a public gallery setting, receiving feedback and allowing them to reflect on the work in collaboration with an audience. “Fresh Media”, an annual event at Boston Cyberarts, returns after the pandemic put it on pause back in 2020. 

CURATED BY:

Tatiana Baughman
Nick DiPaola
Timothy Scholl

ARTISTS IN THE EXHIBITION:

Tatiana Baughman
Nick DiPaola
Anish Ghosh
Cailigh MacDonald
Vincent Mainetti
Finnie Mao
Chris Parham
Meghan Quinn
Timothy Scholl
Nandini Srinivasan
Drew Thomas
Crystal Bi Wegner

ARTIST BIOS

Tatiana Baughman is a practicing artist, designer, and storyteller whose work primarily explores areas of social connection, presence and intimacy. Within this technological world, she has been searching for answers of how technology can affect genuine connection and relationships.

Nick DiPaola (he/him) is a Boston based artist and designer who uses interactive tools to explore the relationship between play and rules. He uses the altering of rules and visuals to change an experience and experiment with the line between the playful and the serious, and to explore identity within a community.

Finnie Mao is a Chinese-born artist and designer. She is also a third-year student at the Dynamic Media Institute. She holds an undergraduate degree in Art and work experience in user experience design. She is passionate about combining design and technology and finds inspiration from her life and ongoing social events. Her recent work at the Dynamic Media Institute has involved designing interactive experiences that increased people's interest in social connection and interpersonal communication under the epidemic situation.

Crystal Bi Wegner is a multimedia artist, community artist, and educator. Her participatory art projects explore themes of radical imagination, storytelling, and community care. As a public artist, Crystal works with community members to co-design creative interventions that encourage shared understanding and imagine alternative futures. She is an artist in the 2020 Creative City cohort through New England Foundation for the Arts, Transformative Public Art Program through the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture, and Live Arts Boston through The Boston Foundation for her work on the project Chinatown Story Cart. Crystal currently works as the Creative Civic Engagement Design Lead at Design Studio for Social Intervention. 

Meghan Quinn is a Boston based graphic designer, motion graphic designer and illustrator. She analyzes patterns of conversation and human connection through data abstraction and motion based visuals.

Anisha Ghosh was born and raised in India, and was always the class artist and the one with the best playlist. She merges her technical roots in electrical with audio-visual experiences while keeping UX at the center of it to build immersive and interactive soundscapes focused on the ideas of play, learn and connect.

Nandini Srinivasan is a multidisciplinary artist and designer with a background in fine arts. Her recent work at the Dynamic Media Institute has involved designing interactive experiences that leave her audience with a sense of nourishment, connection, and feeling grounded.

Vincent Mainetti is a graphic designer and visual content creator currently studying for a Masters of Fine Arts in the Dynamic Media Institute at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He received his BFA in graphic design with a minor in art history from Montserrat College of Art. Currently Vincent is working towards a thesis that uses dynamic media to address the conversation of death by applying aesthetics and interactions to the funerary arts.

Drew Thomas is a graphic designer, illustrator, animator, and musician with a focus on storytelling and aspects of magical realism. For Thomas, these mediums are a way to bring out the best parts of reality in his artificial fantasy universes. He believes that art is the one thing that isn’t limited by reality; any person can exist, any story can be told, and any emotion can be captured.