Digital Transformations: Weinberg College

Digital Transformations

In today’s multimedia world, learning isn’t circumscribed by the classroom, and scholarly work isn’t limited to paper-and-ink research papers.

So it only makes sense for students and faculty to extend their work into new dimensions.

Teaching them to do that is the mission of the Media and Design Studio, formerly known as the Multimedia Learning Center, or “the MMLC.” The studio, which recently underwent a gut renovation along with the rest of Kresge Hall, offers myriad services that can transform traditional scholarship into mind-expanding digital imagery. Its staff can guide faculty and students to create exciting video and audio projects out of their research explorations.

“Our vision was to make specialized fields visible to other fields — to make the studio a window into interdisciplinary work,” says studio director John Bresland. “We want to help students and faculty tell stories about their research.”

Created by students in courses focusing on film, history and architecture, these images represent just a few of the projects to come out of the studio since its renovation.

After writing a traditional analytical paper on Hitchcock’s work, students in English professor James Hodge’s class re-edited animated clips to reveal new thematic aspects of the director’s oeuvre. This pixilated image from Vertigo that Ryan McGannon ’20 “glitched” to disrupt the male gaze is one example. “It’s basic video editing in the service of analyzing the film, so they can take creative ownership of what they’re studying,” Hodge says.

Students in English professor Kelly Wisecup’s class created an interactive digital map illustrating the history and achievements of Chicago’s indigenous people. One point on the map highlights the Foster Avenue Underpass Bricolage, a mosaic portraying Native Americans such as Maria Tallchief, the first famous Native American ballerina (left). Other points identify places that have evolved since the land was inhabited by the Pottawatomie tribe, such as Indian Boundary Park on the city’s Far North Side. “Students saw how using digital tools requires them to work across disciplines and media,” Wisecup says.

Students in classics professor Francesca Tataranni’s course explored the influence of the Romans on Chicago’s architecture, evident in buildings such as the Field Museum and the Federal Reserve Bank. They then created videos that examined the city’s quest for identity through the ways the buildings engaged with ancient Rome. Finally, they embedded the videos into a virtual walking tour that is accessible to the public. The students “uncovered so much interesting historical information about places you pass by every day but don’t think about,” Tataranni says.