A new student organization has arrived on campus. DigiCo, or Digital Art Collective, was made for students to have a place to create and share their digital art. DigiCo allows any student from the University, art major or not, to learn about digital art, have a space to create and work with other students to help them learn.
The University has many art organizations, but none of them focus specifically on digital media. With the major’s growing popularity, faculty member Aaron Higgins spoke with senior Elias Brinkman about the need for a new organization.
The goal is to allow students of all majors to come together, learn about the art department at TU, try out different software and create works of art. Brinkman teamed up with junior Amelia Som de Cerff to found this new organization. Som de Cerff took on the role of president, working with the Student Association to get the club chartered. DigiCo became an official SA chartered club in February.
“We want our organization to be a place for people to come together to work on things; to make art,” stated Som de Cerff. “You don’t even have to be an art major to come in and learn how to use the software. Everyone is welcome.”
According to the organization’s Facebook page, DigiCo aims to “increase appreciation of the digital arts among members of the student body by hosting events to develop individual skills and collaborate with other organizations and departments of the University.”
Brinkman, now the vice president of DigiCo, stated that the club has given him many new opportunities to share with other students. “One thing I’ve been wanting to do for a while is hold a workshop on modeling in 3D, which I can now finally do,” he said. This workshop will be held in April, and will focus on 3D modeling software, such as Blender, to learn the different tools available. It is open to all students.
“Art software can get really expensive, and sometimes that can make it hard to get. We wanted to make a place for students to come and try out different software, or learn the tools and apply them to whatever they’re using,” stated Som de Cerff. “We just want to make art more accessible to any given student on campus.”
Apart from sharing with other students, the founders of DigiCo hope to collaborate with other organizations to create a more creative and cooperative campus. “We really want our club to work with other organizations on campus as well. We were thinking about reaching out to do things like animating logos or working with the film festivals,” Som de Cerff stated.
“The club is a nice way to communicate collectively with other departments, like music and computer science. Animated and interactive art pieces are always desperately in need of music/audio in general, and events like the Heartland Gaming Expo lend the need for programmer-artist relationships,” said Brinkman.
DigiCo meets on Thursdays at 8 p.m., or Fridays at 1 p.m., in Phillips Hall. The organization will be having an open initiation next year, welcoming any and all students to come join their club.
