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The Daily Tar Heel

UNC-system happenings for April 28, 2017

ECU professor wins prestigious Southern writer award 

Liza Wieland, an English professor at East Carolina University, was recently awarded the prestigious Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction by the Fellowship of Southern Writers — a nonprofit dedicated to cultivating and recognizing emerging literature from the American South.  

While she always hoped her work might be recognized one day, Wieland was not expecting the award. 

“I almost can’t believe it,” she said.

Wieland said her work often blends past historical figures within contemporary cultural and political contexts in order to interpret the present through the eyes of the past. 

“I am in the moments my characters are, and I enjoy putting people in new and interesting predicaments,” she said. 

As a writer with a deep connection and affection for the South, Wieland said she believes it is her role to inspire Southerners to read widely, write frequently and engage actively in the literature of not only their own region, but that of the whole world.

App State professor creates "post-digital" artwork

Taekyeom Lee, assistant professor of graphic design at Appalachian State University, has recently unveiled a new set of 3-D printed ceramic pieces that explores the concept of “post-digital” artwork. 

His research delves into the implication of new technology upon the creation of art and what it means to be human in the modern world.

Lee specializes in producing complex geometric shapes and 3-D text fonts in English as well as in other languages with 3-D printers — an emerging craft that, according to Lee, is not as simple as pressing buttons on a computer screen. 

“The machines require a lot of babysitting,” Lee said, saying that behind each one of his pieces lies many attempts that were not printed properly. 

Ultimately, Lee hopes to contribute to the debate amongst many in the art world over how much digitization of our everyday world — from the internet transforming communication to automation transforming the economy — is desirable. 

“It's like walking in the fog," Lee said. "I can’t really see the path, I just keep walking forward.”

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