Whitman news since 1896

Whitman Wire

Vol. CLIV, Issue 6
Whitman news since 1896

Whitman Wire

Whitman news since 1896

Whitman Wire

‘Blue Moon’ Expands Digital Media Presence on Campus

“Blue moon’s” digital media section wants to use digital media to redefine our understanding of where media and art collide. The digital media staff hosted a Digital Media Opening in Reid Campus Center on Friday, Dec. 6 to present their work to the public. The digital media staff is one of “blue moon’s” four genre staff groups: digital media, prose, poetry and art.

The opening featured two videos played on the walls of the art gallery, as well as other pieces done by “blue moon” staff members and submitted by students. “Blue moon” Digital Media Editor sophomore Linnaea Weld wants to offer more students a look at digital media through this gallery.

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Photo by Allie Felt

“We’re doing this because every ‘blue moon’ genre does a genre event, and so we wanted to make ourselves more of a presence on campus,” said Weld. “Every year we put out a DVD for digital media, but there could be more submissions, and we like to see more variance. So it’s a way for people to see we exist, and it’s also a way for us as a staff to question what digital is.”

For Weld and many of the other staff members, the opening is a way to expose more people to their art form and display the meaning they take from the genre.

“One of our goals is just to make ourselves more known as a genre,” said Weld. “I think ‘blue moon’ is pretty well-known on campus, but I think that not a lot of people know that there’s a DVD at the end of this [issue].”

According to Weld, digital media does not get the recognition or the attention that it deserves. Through hosting the gallery opening, however, the digital media staff wants to expose the student body to digital art. 

“Digital media in particular is an underrepresented art form in the magazine, so we wanted to get a discussion going,” said “blue moon” Editor-in-Chief Hanne Jensen. “Putting up a gallery exhibit is a great way to invite people to explore what digital media means.”

Through displaying their art form in a gallery on campus, the “blue moon” staff and editors hope to make students, faculty and any others who pass by to rethink what digital art is and how they perceive it.

“We want to encourage experimentation in art and push the boundaries of what people think about when they think ‘digital media,'” said Jensen. “It’s music, it’s film, it’s video games, it’s television and it’s going to be so much more. What the digital media staff did to prepare the exhibit really played with the boundaries between analog and digital media in a way that recontextualizes digital forms. I hope it gets people thinking about process.”

The staff’s goal of creating discussion and fostering thought regarding genre appeared to be successful based on the reactions of those in attendance.

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Photo by Allie Felt

“It was interesting to see digital media on display in such a public locale as the entrance to Reid,” said first-year Andreas Molbak. “Whatever they were trying to say with this exhibit, they set themselves up in a good place to say it, and it was nice to see digital media get some exposure by being in such a public space.”

Ultimately digital media means something different to everyone, “blue moon” staff members like Weld included. For Weld, digital media serves to build on the way she perceives art, and what she considers art to be. 

“My interest in ‘blue moon’ when I applied last year was primarily, like, I do a lot of visual art, so I’ve learned a lot about how important the visual aspect of digital is,” she said. “And just expanding my idea of what art is.”

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