Principal Investigator: Leanne Elias, Associate Professor, University of Lethbridge
Project funded by the InterDisciplinary Research Development Fund, University of Lethbridge.
New Media Intersections is an interdisciplinary research project that explores where traditional artistic practice and emerging technologies overlap. Through video interviews with new media luminaries the project provides a window into how artists work across disciplinary lines.
What was involved?
My primary contributions include the logo design and designing the website for the Intersections videos.
The logo was designed to reflect emergence, path seeking, the precision of technology, and traditional craft. The fine lines of the emblem was carried over to the lettering with the FF Mark Hairline typeface (which we love!)
The success of the website is rooted in the user experience: single-click access to the videos (there is only one step to any page on the site) while maintaining simplicity in the navigation. I took advantage of there only being a few top level categories - Artists, Students, and About - and a reasonable number of videos. As a second point of access and to encourage the exploration of intersecting disciplines, a gridded video gallery with topic filters is included at the bottom of every page. So even if a user doesn't have any particular artist video in mind, they can easily select topics of interest to narrow down their choices.
The visual design of the site is clean and simple, focusing as much as possible on the work from the artists and videos, and getting more use out of our beloved FF Mark Hairline typeface.
Update: The response to New Media Intersections has been remarkable! The website itself has had thousands of visitors in its first year and the videos themselves have received almost 4 thousand plays.