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Living ArtsEngine February Newsletter No images? Click here 
February Newsletter
Contents:
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Return to Winter SemesterNow that we're well into our winter semester, we're excited to share what's been going on in Living ArtsEngine. As we have continued to adjust to a virtual, distanced community, we've found many great opportunities to hold online workshops and social events to help keep students connected and engaged. Living ArtsEngine would like to give thanks especially to our wonderful lineup of guest presenters and artists who have come in and hold workshops, as well as to the Student Peer Mentors themselves, who have also worked together to provide unique and creative programming for the first-year student members. We've also got some unique community content to feature as well: this month, we got the chance to interview some of our student members over Zoom, to get to know them better as community members and creators. Check out some of those highlights in the Student Interviews section! 
Workshops and Community Meetings
Paper EngineeringIn this workshop, students were able to learn various forms of paper-based art and construction, allowing them to transform simple sheets of paper into three-dimensional pieces. Guest presenter Emily Considine, an alum of the Living ArtsEngine program, taught students techniques from a variety of paper-craft styles, including origami, pop-up art, and more. Intro to Drawing WorkshopRun by Living ArtsEngine Graduate Grace Giordano, this workshop allowed students to learn and practice basic drawing skills. Grace demonstrated drawing techniques over Zoom, while participants drew along with any art supplies they had at home. Intro to TouchDesignerThis workshop taught participants the basics of Derivative TouchDesigner, a tool used for creating real-time interactive media for a variety of applications. Students were able to actively participate in video and image manipulation while receiving a light introduction to interactive inputs like mouse, audio, and webcam. 
Community Meeting Guest Artist: Paul CantaneseLiving ArtsEngine students had the opportunity to spend time with Media Artist Paul Catanese at the Winter Semester community meeting. Paul is a Professor and Director of Graduate Study for Art and Art History at Columbia College in Chicago. We appreciate him taking the time to share his creative journey with us, giving us a glimpse at some of his current work, and offering helpful advice. His discussion was very motivating and encouraging for our students as they work hard to stay creative in a virtual environment. 
Student Interviews
Living ArtsEngine Student Zoom InterviewsHear what our students had to say about their experience as creators and as members of the Living ArtsEngine community! 
Alum Interview: Ayman SaidQ: Why did you decide to join Living ArtsEngine?A: Out of high school I was sure that I wanted to pursue an engineering field, however I had always had an underlying interest in multiple forms of art and creative expression, and I wanted my college experience to reflect all of these interests. When I read that LAE is a community about interdisciplinary creativity, it immediately stood out to me as an opportunity to get to know a broad group of people in a vast array of disciplines and collaborate on all sorts of interdisciplinary projects. Q: How have you been staying engaged in school during COVID?A: COVID has obviously been a huge adjustment for everyone, and a ton of people, myself included, have needed to come up with new strategies to stay engaged in all of our commitments. For me, a more robust routine has been the most important thing. I have been much more strict about setting personal deadlines for myself. On that same note, however, I make sure set aside time every week to spend talking to my friends virtually, or meeting up masked and distanced, or doing other forms of self-care so that I don’t burn myself out. Q: What's something creative you're currently working on that you're really excited about?A: Near the end of my first semester at Umich, I was going for a walk alone on North Campus, when I came across a 3 legged deer, who was shockingly unafraid of me. This deer and I then hung out for about an hour. It was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life, and shortly thereafter I wrote a short story about it. I have since been revising that short story over and over, and am working on getting it published. Q: What is your favorite memory from Living ArtsEngine?A: It’s impossible to pinpoint any one best memory from my time in LAE. Freshman year at Umich was by far the best academic year I’ve ever had. The community gave me some of the most memorable experiences of my life, and many of my best friends. Definitely one of my favorite parts of LAE though was how accessible the whole community always was, at almost any hour. For example, if you wanted to go sledding around North Campus at 2 in the morning, you could almost certainly find a group to join you. 
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