Projects - Penn State College of Arts and Architecture

Mengqi Xu: I See Fish in the Somber Woods | 林深时见鱼 I See Fish in the Somber Woods is an immersive light installation that explores the behavioral change and desperate migration of animals to avoid extinction due to climate change. Inspired by traditional Chinese art (calligraphy, poetry, painting, and architecture), Mengqi constructed...

Textural Threshold: Dreadlock The project centers around the work of Felecia Davis and her SOFTLAB researchers on the “Dreadlock Series,” which looks at the art, design, and architectural works that have been inspired byBlack hair and its unique material properties.

Adaptive Envelopes A responsive building façade system featuring screens made of smart and bistable materials that are located inside a building’s windows, which open and close based on the weather conditions and lighting outside, as well as the indoor lighting and climate requirements.

MycoKnit Led co-PIs Felecia Davis and Benay Gürsoy, the project explores using mycelium-based and knitted textiles to form a sustainable building material.

MycoCreate 2.0 MycoCreate 2.0 is a compression-based architectural structure measuring approximately 10 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 6 feet high that is composed of 64 unique load-bearing mycelium-based components.

Marian Bailey: patterns of a life In a world rife with overconsumption, it can be easy to buy into the capitalistic idea of purchasing a new article of clothing for every occasion. Rapidly cycling trends and easy access to fast fashion makes keeping up with what...

Naomi Reis: Talisman for Unknown Territories Consisting of a video, window installation and sculptural objects, the piece addresses our collective anxiety about the future within a warming and divisive global landscape. The video features aerial footage taken by a GoPro attached to helium balloons and flown...

Tactile Perceptions, Two Interactive Installations ‘Tactile Perceptions, Two Interactive Installations’ presents the first iteration of works in progress by artists and Penn State School of Visual Arts faculty members Bonnie Collura and Andrew Hieronymi. The exhibited projects engage notions of immersion, bodily engagement, and experiential...

Nichole van Beek: Grow Forward Together Thank you to the bacteria, yeast, tea, sugar, and water traditionally used in brewing kombucha for producing the translucent, golden biofilm for this project.

Stacy Levy: When Art works Mold Garden (2000) shows enlarged images of common molds (bread and fruit mold) sandblasted onto glass. The carved-out areas serve as miniature petri dishes that are filled with growth medium and inoculated with mold spores. In Tide Flowers (2006) the changing tide on...

Catie Dillon: Remain in Light Like the light from the sun, Dillon’s whimsical wall painting is an energizing force. It is a place to bask, explore, reflect, heal, and feel joyous rejuvenation. It is Dillon’s wish to remain here, in light and in hope, forever.

Fashioning an Archive for School of Theatre The hands-on collection is used to study the historical significance, cultural heritage and technical specifications for designing and producing historically accurate costumes.

Megan Gottfried: Room to Room Room to Room is a dynamic environment made of reclaimed fabric. Megan stitches together strangers’ stories into an intimate installation.

Art History Dissertations and Abstracts from North American Institutions The Art History Dissertations and Abstracts from North American Institutions dataset represents over a year of work collecting, collating, amending, and researching art history PhD dissertations submitted to CAA since 1980.

Alex Russell: kaleidoscope answers “How are you doing?” is a very common question that has become difficult to answer since the pandemic began upending our lives in 2020. This installation, kaleidoscope answers, is an attempt to respond to that question.

Dana Lynn Harper: Field Guides Field Guides is playful and boisterous exhibition exploring the artist’s belief of spirit guides.

First Friday: “Field Guides” by Dana Lynn Harper and “kaleidoscope answers” by Alex Russell Join us on October 1 at 5–8 p.m. for First Friday, for the opening reception for Field Guides by Dana Lynn Harper and kaleidoscope answers by Alex Russell.

Yeonhye Park: The Eternity of the Moment Yeonhye Park depicts the complexity of human emotions by using a wide range of art languages such as cut-out painting, clay work, canvas-based painting, and sculpture.

First Friday: Catie Dillon’s “Remain in Light” Join us on September 3 for First Friday, for the closing reception for The Eternity of the Moment by Yeonhye Park, and the opening reception for Catie Dillon’s mural titled Remain in Light. 5–8 p.m., Friday, September 3, 2021

Jack and the Beanstalk Inspired by Flora Annie Steel’s 1918 edition of Jack and the Beanstalk, the collaborative team of MFA Scenic Design candidates and BFA Lighting Design students from the Penn State School of Theatre used their collective skills, knowledge, and creativity to create a storybook world for Jack and his beanstalk in the windows of the Downtown Theatre.

Brian Alfred: Kinda Lovely "Kinda Lovely" is a music video Alfred created for the musical artist Poolside in 2020. The video animation captures the vibe of California and the feeling of Poolside’s music.

Joshua Frankel: Animation from A Marvelous Order The animations presented are from the body of work created by Frankel for "A Marvelous Order," a forthcoming multimedia opera about cities and how they change, about power and how it is confronted, and about two nearly-mythological figures from 20th century New York—Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses—who clashed through a battle of ideas that manifested itself in the streets.

Rachel Hayes: Syzygy Rachel Hayes was commissioned to create our 2019-2020 Woskob-Wall installation. Hayes creates fabric structures that vibrantly explore painting processes, quilt making, architectural space, light, and shadow.

Dannielle Tegeder: Seigolomsoc / Cosmologies Seigolomsoc/Cosmologies, a wall drawing in two acts, encompasses the gallery walls with a visual dialect for viewers to decipher.