UAB Briefs: Cool art books, super-fast internet, fighting Zika
Welcome to another installment of UAB Briefs, in which we keep track of interesting people and events on campus.
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Know people, places and programs at UAB campus that deserve a mention? Email Iron City Ink at sydney@starnespublishing.com and jchambers@starnespublishing.com.
Art students get collected
Several UAB photography students recently received a creative and career boost by having their zines and artist books added to the collection of the Clarence B. Hanson Jr. Library of the Birmingham Museum of Art.
They produced the works this summer while taking a class called “CAMERA-less,” taught by faculty member Jared Ragland, in which they studied contemporary trends in photography and lens-based art.
The class challenged students to ponder the changing practice of photography in a digital age and to examine the increasingly non-traditional ways in which contemporary photographers work, according to Ragland.
“Photographers are thinking about the nature of photography itself and Investigating how we as a society… experience images, how we speak through images, how we live in an increasingly visual culture,” he said.
Ragland encouraged students to make art from all kinds of sources, including social media content and internet imagery.
And they used a variety of techniques to make their unique, personal statements. “Some used photocopiers or scanners,” Ragland said. “Some used cameras to take photographs of photographs (in books). Some used drawing, cooking, making, collage.”
For example, Terrence Wimberly’s artist book, “NAP,” uses collaged images of traditional African hair with illustrations of flora and comes with a hip-hop soundtrack.
Daniel Senko’s “Taking Portraits” is a collection of photographs made from the portraits of famous artists on book dust-jackets, with glints of reflected light obscuring the faces of the subjects.
In “Wedgwood Digest,” Rachel Hendrix created and photographed Wedgwood-inspired recipes and paired the foods with Wedgwood pieces from the BMA collection.
“One of the great things about the artist book (is that) it’s a platform for experimentation, for specific artistic exploration,” Ragland said.
“An artist book allows you to explore an idea, a thought, a theme… put together in a specific structure,” he said.
“CAMERA-less” also was a great chance to connect students with the BMA, according to Ragland. “Anytime that we [at the department] can provide research opportunities for our students to move outside of the classroom and apply the knowledge we are teaching, we want to take advantage of that.”
Despite the fact that we live in a digital, online culture, books and other objects remain very relevant to young artists, according to Ragland. “I think the making and presentation of an object is still important,” he said.
The other students included and their works are as follows: Anne Marie Cartwright, ‘disorder’; Kerrie Allred-Pirkle, “Kudzu”; Jonathan Givan, “Life?”; Peyton Hollis, “Eye Contact”; Jacob Lawley, “Anima Mundi”; Meredith Martin, “Original Sin”; Augusta McKewen, “Papercut”; and Jonah Grice, untitled.
Ragland is the Visual Media and Outreach Coordinator for the Department of Art and Art History.
Faster than the speed of analytics
UAB announced this week that it’s the first university in Alabama to launch internet speeds of 100 gigabits per second, boosting available bandwidth by 10 times its previous capability and up to 10,000 times many standard home internet speeds.
The upgrade cost $2.5 million, but the new, higher speeds will give the UAB community “a competitive advantage” in such areas as education, research and patient care, according to a news release.
“Hundred-gigabit speeds are not just about the flow of information and data into the university,” said Curt Carver, UAB’s vice president for information technology and chief information officer. “This is ultimately about collaborating worldwide and the creation of novel ideas, new approaches and UAB’s delivering innovation.”
David Crossman, director of Bioinformatics in the UAB Heflin Center for Genomic Science Core Laboratories, said the upgrade has big benefits for clinicians and researchers.
For example, it recently took UAB faculty more than a month to process and analyze a genomics package – something that can now be done in a few days thanks to the faster speeds.
Stopping Zika
The UAB Office of Public Health Practice is working with the City of Birmingham and the Jefferson County Department of Health to increase awareness of the dangers of the Zika virus and how to prevent it.
The effort has reached more than 2,500 residents in the Birmingham area, according to a news release.
In the past three months, the three organizations made town hall presentations and phone call. They also passed out information at events in the city and through neighborhood associations and community organizations.
“It is important to educate our community about Zika and about how simple steps can help prevent the spread of Zika,” said Lisa McCormick, director of the School of Public Health OPHP. “Mosquito abatement is the key, and there are things we all can do in our own yards to help reduce the number of mosquitoes in our community.”
Innovation Challenge deadline Oct. 19
Students at UAB with great ideas and enterprising spirits can now take part in their own, local “Shark Tank” and compete to get their ideas funded.
UAB students who develop new solutions to product, service or process challenges can seek rewards in the Blazer Innovation Challenge.
It was created by the UAB innovation Lab at Innovation Depot and the Collat School of Business and is sponsored by IBERIABANK.
Entrants can win up to $5,000 in prize money. And throughout the 2016-17 academic year, entrants can receive valuable mentoring, coaching and other iLab resources to help incubate their ideas and potentially launch their own startup companies throughout
“The Blazer Innovation Challenge will help us engage bright and creative students from throughout UAB to put great ideas into practice,” said Joel Dobbs, Collat’s entrepreneur-in-residence.
The first round of submissions is due by midnight Oct. 19. Five finalists will be selected to receive coaching through the UAB iLab.
The first-place winner will receive $5,000, while the second- and third-place winners will receive $2,500 and $1,000, respectively.
To apply or to get all the details on rules and deadlines, go to www.uab.edu/innovationchallenge/submissions