simulation Archives - Page 2 of 2

Jul 17

Austin Peay graphic design senior spending summer interning at Chautauqua Institution

CLARKSVILLE, TN – An Austin Peay State University graphic design student has landed a summer internship at the renowned Chautauqua Institution in New York.

Katie Boyer – who is pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design at Austin Peay and last year earned APSU’s inaugural Hazel Smith Summer Research Fellowship – will be a gallery assistant for Chautauqua Visual Arts (CVA) Galleries through the beginning of August.

“This opportunity means quite a lot to me,” Boyer said. “It is a wonderful chance for me to gain more hands-on experience in the gallery world.”

Boyer joined the CVA team in early June, and her responsibilities include working with staff to install and remove exhibitions, helping in the CVA Craft Gallery, and packing and shipping artwork.

CVA is part of the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, and is centered on four pillars (School of Art, Galleries, Lecture Series & Events and Enrichment).

Boyer is the first Austin Peay student to spend the summer at Chautauqua since Khari Turner and Ashanté Kindle earned residencies at the School of Art in 2019.

“I have also never done anything quite like this before,” Boyer said. “The traveling experience alone is something I have never done by myself, and it is just as thrilling – and nerve-wracking – as the internship.

“This is a big milestone for me and my future, and I can’t wait to see what all it has in store for me,” she added.

Boyer’s internship is courtesy of the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts and the Six Talents Foundation.

She’s also thankful for Austin Peay’s Michael Dickins, who has guided her through major projects at APSU – such as establishing an online database of the university’s art collection – since the fall of 2020. Dickins is curator and director of The New Gallery and University Collections at Austin Peay.

“This opportunity would not have been possible without him,” Boyer said. “He was the one who introduced this position to me and who really advocated for me being here.”

During the internship, she’s looking forward to opening nights of the gallery’s exhibitions and installing and removing the exhibits.

“It’s very rewarding to see an exhibition complete and to see people’s reactions to the works,” she said. “The physical labor that goes into putting an exhibition together is one of my favorite parts because you get to be up close and personal with all the amazing artworks. It is very fulfilling to see all that hard work pay off when the exhibition is completely installed.”

After Boyer returns to Clarksville in August, she’ll complete her senior year at Austin Peay. She’s also eager to have “an amazing final marching band season” with the Governors Own Marching Band and creating her senior graphic design showcase.

“My goal is to make this last year at Austin Peay the best one yet.”

Jul 14

Eales wins mural competition

GODFREY – A new interactive mural now greets visitors to the McPike Math and Science Complex at Lewis and Clark Community College (LCCC).

The work, unveiled during a commencement pre-party in May, is the work of LCCC Graphic Design student Avalon Eales. The design was selected by a campus and community vote held online this spring. When she discovered she won, Eales couldn’t contain her excitement.

“I had to call my whole family and tell them I had been chosen,” she said. “It was a super memorable moment for me.”

Eales, the daughter of Greg and Francesca Eales of Glen Carbon, is a 2021 Edwardsville High School graduate. Her entry was inspired by her journey through college.

“I realized how my life was going to be affected by my decisions,” Eales said. “Lewis and Clark gave me the opportunity to create my own pathway. I wanted to show how the main building has stayed strong through the years, despite all the changes to campus.”

As a student tasked with funding her own education, Eales said it was important to make good choices.

“I had to make the right financial decision for me,” she said. “I haven’t regretted choosing Lewis and Clark one bit. I enjoy all the classes, clubs and people.”

Eales is a graphic designer and cartoonist for The Bridge, LCCC’s student-run newspaper. She is also a member of the Gardening Club and Phi Theta Kappa honor society.

“I’ve always had a love for digital and traditional art,” she said. “I chose graphic design, not only because it was my favorite, but because it runs in my family as well.”

She credits her father for her creativity and work ethic.

“He’s a very hard worker with a lot of creativity,” she said. “He is an animator and does a lot of the same things I do. He inspires me to keep doing my own thing and to stay motivated.”

Her goal is to earn an Associate in Applied Science in Graphic Design and a Certificate of Completion in Animation from LCCC, then transfer to a four-year school to complete her bachelor’s degree and forge a career in graphic design.

For more information on LCCC’s Graphic Design program, contact Louise Jett at 618-468-4613 or ljett@lc.edu, or visit the Graphic Design program website at www.lc.edu/graphic-design.

Jul 12

Inside D.C. Police’s Sprawling Network of Surveillance

It was the early days of the Black Lives Matter movement. Protesters gathered in Washington, D.C., in the fall of 2014, awaiting word on whether a grand jury would indict Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson for shooting and killing Michael Brown.

Unbeknownst to the demonstrators, the police were also waiting — and watching. Stowed away in a secure room known as the Joint Operations Command Center, officers and analysts from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department kept eyes on the news, activists’ social media accounts, and closed-circuit television feeds from across the district, according to internal MPD emails. The police were ready to funnel intelligence to officers on the ground, who were instructed to provide updates on protest activity back to the JOCC every half-hour.

Five months later, the MPD “activated” the JOCC again to monitor demonstrations against the Baltimore police’s killing of Freddie Gray, the emails show. In the lead-up to the protests, MPD analysts scoured social media for demonstration times and locations, as well as any possible indications of violence or civil disobedience, while officers on the ground sent photos of the gatherings. Then when marches started, the officers provided constant updates on where protesters were moving as the JOCC continued to gather intelligence, including on how demonstrators were monitoring the police presence and whether they suspected that there were plainclothes cops among them. (The JOCC had a practice of communicating with undercover officers, including to monitor protests.)

The MPD designed the JOCC as a surveillance control center. It contains more than 20 display monitors linked to around 50 computer stations, all connected to the MPD’s broad arsenal of intelligence data programs and surveillance sources. Launched in a rush on September 11, 2001, it was the MPD’s first “war on terror”-era infrastructure upgrade. Since then, the command center has served as a template for area police’s massively expanded domestic surveillance apparatus.

As a jurisdictional oddity and the site of the country’s most powerful institutions, D.C. contains more law enforcement officers — coming from local, regional, and federal agencies — per capita than any other major city in the U.S. The highly coordinated agencies have together built a complex network of partnerships, initiatives, and technology to surveil the district. The JOCC, for example, is accessible to the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and regional police intelligence hubs, in addition to the MPD.

For years, this sprawling web of surveillance has been shrouded in secrecy. Now, more than two decades into the frenzy of police monitoring of ordinary citizens, recently uncovered documents are revealing its scope and practices. (The MPD did not respond to The Intercept’s emailed questions.)

“There’s a real potential for this kind of surveillance to cause a chilling effect and a climate of fear around the right to protest in the city.”

Last year, the transparency collective known as Distributed Denial of Secrets published 250 gigabytes of MPD emails and attachments, stolen as part of a hack by the ransomware group known as Babuk and made

Jun 24

Our Stories: An EK and AHS Graphic Design Collaboration Project

Our Stories is a collaboration project where Early Kindergarten (EK) classes at Northwood Preschool Center provided drawings and writing prompts for graphic design students at Ames High School to illustrate.

“One of our graphic design projects this year is to make a children’s book page,” said Ames High art teacher Lindsey Wede. Early Kindergarten students in Lindsey Wirth’s Northwood classes, bursting with imagination, would come up with the concept. They would often design a page, verbalize a story, or draw a picture of their idea. From there, the high school students would take the idea and create a digital version of it.

Wede is always looking for ways to make their classroom art projects meaningful, whether through engaging with community organizations, gift-giving, or creating something based on personal inspiration. This project is an extension of creating meaningful art.

“I think it reminds them of what it was like being that little kid,” said Wede. “It also reminds them, too, that not everything needs to be perfect. They look at this drawing that this young student did and they realize how fantastic it is.”

Many of the stories are about talking animals but those themes can resonate across grades. “Milo’s Stripes” is about the power of friendship. “Pig on a Beach” is about learning how to swim. Throughout the collection, fears are overcome and dreams come true. “It has been a very fun and meaningful project and I love how it is connecting our students across grade levels.”

When the projects were complete, they were sent back over to Northwood to be shown and read to the class. For the Early Kindergarten classes, to be able to see their idea in a new graphic format was priceless.

You can view the entire Our Stories collection at the PDF link below.

Our Stories EK Graphic Design Book