The University of Connecticut’s Digital Media & Design department opened an exhibition Friday evening to celebrate 30 seniors graduating from Storrs and Stamford with a DMD Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
The exhibition, called Limitless, features student work in five categories: game design, web design, 2D animation, 3D animation and film production. Limitless will remain open to the public on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts until its closing on April 28, 2023.
The exhibition began in 2019 and continued in a virtual format for the following two years due to the pandemic, according to DMD department head Heather Elliott-Famularo. In 2022 the exhibition returned to a physical gallery setting.
“This is the fifth year [of the exhibition] and the [DMD] department has only been here for nine years,” Elliott-Famularo said at the exhibition’s opening reception Friday. “All the students who are getting the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Media & Design are required for their degree to do a senior project and participate in the exhibition.”
Friday’s opening reception included acknowledgements and remarks by department faculty and the dean of the School of Fine Arts, as well as a screening of the students’ animation and film projects. The event was open to the public, with several faculty, family members and friends of students gathered at each piece of work.
One student, Nandita Venkat, who is graduating with a BFA in game design, created a video game called Tender Memories based on memory loss resulting from Alzheimer’s disease. Throughout the game, the user travels through different scenes and collects music notes.
“This entire game is based on the concept of Alzheimer’s and trying to help people overcome their lost memories,” Venkat said at the exhibit’s opening. “The whole thing is a journey to collect all the music notes so that Granny Treble [the main character in the game] can remember her last song that she and her husband danced to.”
Caitlin McCarthy, a motion design & animation student, created a short 2D animation called Escape from the Grey, in which one character tries to escape a nightmare after getting sucked into their friend’s dream while trying to wake them up.
Ken Thompson, a faculty member who teaches courses in the game design concentration, said that many students may use ideas and concepts from their senior exhibit projects in future endeavors, even after they have left UConn.
“These are the ideas they might be turning into future films and future games,” Thompson added.
The unique title of this year’s exhibit also relates to the idea of students contributing to their future aspirations and careers.
“The title Limitless reflects the expansive hopes of the exhibiting artists,” reads the DMD’s exhibition website. “For these students, the future has no limits.”
Open for the rest of the month, the exhibition will remain free of charge in the gallery room of the Jorgensen Center, prior to performances and during intermissions. Parking spaces are available at North Garage, with additional information listed on Jorgensen’s website.
