Technological advances around the world and on campus are helping advance the University's mission in areas such as medicine and communication.
But an often overlooked beneficiary of such innovation is the artistic community.
Today and Saturday on the second floor of Hyde Hall the Institute for the Arts and Humanities is hosting workshops in preparation for Collaborations: Humanities Arts and Technology" a digital arts festival slated for 2010 that will take place on UNC's campus.
""Our point of view is that new digital technologies are transforming the arts and how people teach and present and understand their work"" said John McGowan, director of the IAH.
We're trying to gather people on campus working on those new technologies and have a festival to display their work. We're going to bring in people from around the world who are doing this innovative work and show it to the community.""
The festival will incorporate more than a dozen venues and performance spaces all over campus" from Memorial Hall to the Ackland Art Museum to Morehead Planetarium during a 10-day span in February 2010.
But as a whole the concept of advances in digital art still might be a bit foggy.
McGowan gave a few more concrete examples of the types of projects CHAT will encompass" from the utilitarian to what he described as ""almost a publicity stunt.""
That publicity stunt would involve getting Google Earth's satellite focused on Chapel Hill.
""We can enlist 600 students to form something that says 'UNC' or 'Go Tar Heels' on the quad and have it displayed on Google Earth"" McGowan said.
For the most part, organizers said the workshops will bring together people still very much in the brainstorming phase of their projects.
Participation in the workshops isn't a prerequisite for being involved in the festival itself, but McGowan said the workshops will serve as one of the first opportunities for putting heads together.
If you're interested in working on a digital humanities or arts project" come explore the possibilities for collaboration and support the institute's Web site announced. Share ideas" resources and skills and start to collaborate with people who share a common interest.""
Many organizations on campus are involved in the collaborative effort" ranging from Carolina Performing Arts to the School of Information and Library Science and to the Renaissance Computing Initiative.
With the amount of support and the number of minds collectively involved with this weekend's workshops and the upcoming event itself organizers say the CHAT festival will be one of the few events of its kind" especially in this area.
""In San Jose" the center of Silicon Valley I think they're in their third year of having a digital arts festival McGowan said.
But I must admit" I've never heard of another campus doing this. We might be out in front as far as other universities.""
Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
