2011 CCS Student Exhibition Opening: Or Why Arts and Engineering Should Never Be Seen As Strangers

The big gala ... the one that College for Creative Studies students and employees alike wait for (and stress over) all year ... finally arrived last Friday. It was my first installation - Kristina Rice and I created a yarn outline of each of our 6 neighborhoods and I filled them with pictures of the various projects in each.

 

(photos by Lynn Wiper)

I brought my father as my guest. He's an electrical engineer and 30+-year employee at Ford, and not the most enthusiastic supporter of the arts. Yet he was surprised to see how many variances in art there are -- he felt the show was different than what he expected to see. I'm not sure he had ever connected to art in such a way before.

Our favorite display was a set of chairs and a table hand-crafted by a senior in Fine Arts. They were positively the most comfortable wooden chairs either of us had ever sat in. (I need to go back and take a picture!)

We spoke with an engineer who was doing research to complete his MFA program for a car that literally expands with you and has a longer life cycle than the current market, but would generate ongoing profit through applications and personality enhancements for the car.

We ate a drool-worthy pork chili from Slow's To Go, and a number of other delicious tidbits from Detroit area restaurants like Zazio's and Cass Cafe. 

This was a wonderful artistic feast, which both delighted and amazed. I'm looking forward to a few lunch breaks where I can wander the halls and make sure I get a chance to really contemplate the works.