Washington State University, Tri-Cities, Clinical Assistant Professor of Fine Arts Sena Clara Creston displayed her interactive piece at the WSU faculty and staff exhibit last Friday on the Tri-Cities campus.

The exhibit opened January 31st and will be on display until February 28th. 

Fine Arts staff and faculty from all WSU campuses went to last Fridays’ opening on the Tri-Cities campus including WSU Fine Arts Department Chair and Associate Professor Squeak Meisel.

According to Meisel the exhibits opening drew in over 136 people from the campus and community. The exhibit was made up of a collection of pieces from 16 different members of faculty and staff from all WSU campuses. The styles of art ranged from drawn art pieces to large interactive electronic installations. 

Professor Sena Clara Creston’s piece titled “Willow of the Waste” stood out as an electronic interactive art piece that conveys a statement about the environmental impact of plastic. Naturally, the installation is made up of plastic bottles she has been collecting over the last three years.

The juxtaposition of her early life in New York versus her life in eastern Washington served as an inspiration for the piece.

Creston was raised by two artists in New York City, she grew up surrounded by a strong art culture. In order to rebel from her art upbringing, Creston developed a love for math and science. By the time she took physics in high school she was set on becoming a physicist. 

After deciding that solving the problems of the physics world was not where her heart was, Creston transferred to New York University to study art and imaging. Creston’s roommate, Heather Dewy-Hagborg, eventually introduced her to interactive pieces and electronic art installations.

“When I was a photographer, I wanted to make these images little worlds you could crawl into. I wanted to show that these images were emotionally evocative and that’s when I got into installation.”

Her roommate gifted her the book, “Getting Started in Electronics” by Forrest Mims. Creston built up experience building electrical pieces. From there she pursued a job working for interactive installation artist Mark Esper. 

Creston ended up working alongside Esper for three years without pay, which allowed her to study and learn alongside him. From there, she went on to graduate school at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) to further study interactive art installation. She learned from a mentor at RPI that she needed to collaborate to bring all her ideas to life. This advice went on to inspire collaborative work on pieces like “Willow of the Waste”.

“Willow of the Waste” has drawn attention as a statement on the impact of plastics on our planet. While this message is a central facet of the piece, for Creston the themes and meaning go much deeper. For her the installation encapsulates her desire to create a world that people can crawl into.

Creston explained that the choice of plastic bottles came from her search for a material that was both translucent and easy to work with. 

She found plastic to be a viable translucent material that kept the LED lights integrity. Additionally, it sent a dual message of “things that are helpful, nurturing, enticing, things that we want. As well as things that are vengeful and destructive.”

According to Creston, the exhibit is a dark space, only illuminated by a lavender glow coming off a translucent tree.

The tree moves as if it were breathing in and out, as you get closer the plastic tree transitions to a nervous in and out movement. When you travel even closer the branches violently snap their leaves open and shut. This is a representation of push and pull, which has become a common theme in many of her projects. 

According to Creston, “Willow of the Waste” is part of two larger series titled “Plastic Garden” and “Machine Escape”. The latter of the two is currently in development, Creston describes it as a large collection of pieces that come together to form one living, breathing, interactive space. 

For more information on Sena Clara Creston, go to http://www.senaclaracreston.com/ for more information. For more information on the WSU Tri-Cities Art Exhibit go to https://tricities.wsu.edu/art-center/.

For my follow up story I am going to cover the recent cancellation of the artist Doja Cat. I have already contacted the Executive Director of the Student Entertainment Board and have filed a request for the document.

I want to write a story that gives students anticipating her appearance more information on the topic. There has not been much coverage of this story past a statement SEB posted on social media informing the students of the cancellation. So I wanted my story to be a largely informational piece focused on why the show was canceled. I also wanted to get the contract agreement between the artist and the Student Entertainment Board in order to report on the potential penalties of canceling her concert. I think it is an important issue because students pay for SEB and then extra for the events they put on.

At the moment I have reached out to the Student Entertainment Board and I am going to follow up with the organization for an interview. I am also going to reach out either to Doja Cat herself or her manager in order to potentially shed some light on the cancellation. Additionally I would like to interview students who may have bought tickets to the show in order to gage how people around campus feel about the canceled show. To do this I may ask a few people on the mall if they bought tickets to the concert and follow up from there.

Overview: Arts and culture are important fields of expression, exploration, appreciation, entertainment, escapism, and commentary. Washington State University is a rather secluded place, so artistic and cultural events provide opportunities for students who are seeking escape outside of education. Since my passion lies mostly in the arts, particularly music, I thought a beat on arts and culture would be a nice fit. Art and culture are important for exposing people to different perspectives and ideas. The various different departments built around exposing students to the arts allow for many different stories to be told. Everything from Student Entertainment Board events to new exhibits at the Schnitzer Art Museum could be covered as stories. It may not be the most sought after and reported on beat, but I think it is important for students to be exposed to different cultural events and new artistic expressions. Art and cultural organizations are integral for educating students and providing them with creative outlets. On our campus there are a myriad of potential stories for arts and cultural events. For instance, this week WSU’s MLK program is hosting comedian and political commentator W. Kamau Bell. SEB hosts concerts, guest speakers, poets, writers, and various other events. Additionally, there are a lot of students and clubs here on campus that contribute to arts and culture on campus. I think it would be interesting to write pieces on certain individuals and clubs here on campus.Experiencing art and being open to new ideas is important for everybody to participate in. A large population at this school does not attend many of these events, so I think it would be interesting to expose a larger audience to them. Personally I have always connected with artistic and cultural news, most news and information I consume is on these topics. I am comfortable with discussing, reporting, and interviewing on the topic making it an appealing beat. My BeatArts and CultureThree Sources:●Squeak Meisel○Chair and Associate Professor: Sculpture Coordinator○E: squeak.meisel@wsu.edu○T: (509) 335-8686○Office: Fine Arts 5072D●Dean Luethi○Director of the School of Music○T:(509) 335-3898○E: dean.luethi@wsu.edu●Skyeler Sperber○Executive Director of SEB○E:Skyeler.Sperber@wsu.eduThree Stories:●A story on guest speakerW. Kamau Bell. ●A review of “Moonlight” showing January 30th.●A story on SpringFest (a review/news story)

“Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean” – Shakespeare pg. 1.

• Culture-pop culture
• https://www.complex.com/sports/2020/01/kobe-bryant-basketball-icon-lakers-legend-dead-at-41
• Art-College Paper
• https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2020/01/24/art-history-department-to-scrap-survey-course/

“We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices. We live entirely…by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the ‘ideas’with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience” (Didion pg. 12, 1978).

Didion is saying that our narratives are derived from snap shots of our experiences, specific instances and interactions inform our writing. As writers we pick from what we see in the world and interpret it into a story. Writing allows us to construct a reality based upon random experiences. The notion of capturing the world around us is a foundation of journalism. In the class we are going to be following events in our community, (the world around us) capturing and translating them into a story as best as possible.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.