UK Virtually Showcases Best in Digital Video, Animation, Lens Arts and More
LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 14, 2020) — At the end of each semester, the University of Kentucky School of Art and Visual Studies juries and hosts a Digital Media Blast featuring the school’s best work in digital video, animation, lens arts and more.
Usually this showcase is presented at a theater on campus or even on the big screen at the Kentucky Theatre downtown. Now, with theaters and cinemas closed across the city due to the pandemic, UK has taken the production online and presented the work in a film festival format.
In addition to a new presentation format, this year’s Digital Media Blast features work completed by digital media design students at home without all the resources normally available to them on campus demonstrating this group of Wildcats’ ingenuity.
“A lot (not all) of the work included was created by the students at home, without the resources of high-end equipment and computers,” said Heather Stratton, lecturer of digital media and photography. “I had several students make do even with just a cellphone and an iPad for shooting and editing. They got really creative with their problem-solving skills, using the knowledge they all learned right up to midterms.”
Viewers can see 2020 Digital Media Blast, Quarantine Edition on Vimeo. The showcase includes work by UK students — freshmen to seniors — in several categories, including:
- still images;
- quarantine-themed;
- experimental;
- scripted shorts;
- animation;
- montages, monologues, vignettes and visual poetry; and
- music videos, homages, and re-creations.
Names and video start times for individual students are listed under each category. To view the 2020 Digital Media Blast from the comfort of your home, visit https://vimeo.com/showcase/7100819.
The UK School of Art and Visual Studies, part of the College of Fine Arts, offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in the fields of art studio, art history and visual studies, art education, curatorial studies and digital media design.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.
In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.