By snoadmin
The gallery “ANDIAMO! – Italian Design Through American Eyes” opened Tuesday night at the Duncan Anderson Gallery to showcase the conceptual designs and Italian sightseeing of 17 Cal State Long Beach students.
The students’ final conceptual design projects, based on the city of Rome, were displayed under their boards, which defined their concepts in a step-by-step process.
“It has really interactive graphics,” said Amelie Pham, senior interior architecture major and gallery visitor. “The boards are very coordinated, which is a rare thing to see in student galleries.”
Amy Britten, sophomore interior architecture major, said that she learned to look for design in the smallest of all structures, which she presented through her piece called, “Italian Culture through the Biology of a Tomato.”
“We drew inspirations from everything,” said Aaron Wong, sophomore industrial design major. “[These include] the narrow streets, the architecture of buildings, the food, the art of the Renaissance, the culture and even the pace of life.”
Design instructor Jeffrey Adair said that the design and conceptual process included an analysis of the given location, a breakdown of the components and a development of a concept for one’s academic career.
“From the beginning, the three of us decided that we wanted to develop a program that would fully immerse the student into a foreign culture, encouraging them to soak in as much of that culture as possible,” Adair said, regarding the initial proposal of the course idea with faculty members Wesley Woelfel and Hector Magno.
At the gallery opening, Adair and Woelfel welcomed the crowd and explained how the three faculty members worked as a team of “excursion leaders.” They said that Adair did the “legwork” with the proposal of the curriculum, Woelfel organized the “added bonus” volunteer opportunity with the Rome Arts Festival and Magno “rounded it all up.”
Adair and Woelfel said that design transcends communication because the students, who worked with Italian master set designer Igor Geat, fully understood the designer, although he spoke little English.
The students presented a video of their tour of Italy that showed how they grew from strangers into family.
“One of the biggest highlights was being able to see in person what we learned in Art History class,” Wong said. According to Wong, “ANDIAMO!” is a product of all their experiences and work on their trip.
These students come from various majors that include graphic design, industrial design and sociology.
“Being a sociology major, I just thought I’d take this course as an interesting elective before I graduate,” Jamie Gomez said. “I am so grateful that I can now view things from a different perspective that would have never come about without meeting these remarkable people who have taught me so much without even knowing it.”
Adair said, “Each and every student has grown tremendously, and has gone above and beyond all of our expectations.”
“From the original scholarship project, to the project critiques at the Albani Hotel, and to completely designing and setting up the gallery show, the students have all excelled,” Adair added.
The gallery is free and open through Oct. 8 at the Duncan Anderson Gallery in the Design building, room 102.
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