St. Lawrence Music & Digital Media students ‘interact’ with downtown installation for ‘Action Learning’

Mark Aidan Bergin
Students from the St. Lawrence College Music & Digital Media Program visit the Impulse Installation in downtown Kingston. The experience involves interactive playing on seesaws to activate sounds and lights. Photo by Lucas Wimmer.

Students from the St. Lawrence College Music & Digital Media Program took part in a hands-on arts field trip on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022. The second-year Integrated Arts/Installations class moved to downtown Kingston to visit Impulse, an experiential installation that involves sitting on seesaws to activate sounds and lights.

Students in the Music & Digital Media program explore diverse subjects, ranging from traditional music studies to digital media, audio engineering and audio production, sound design, musical composition for visual media, video production, ensemble work, arts installations, and multiple integrated arts courses. Gaining a diverse skill set places them in a positive position for future careers in a world that increasingly demands that new employees enter the work world with multiple talents.

The SLC Music & Digital Media students happily got a feel for how the interactive installment operates. Students in this photo, from left, are Caleb Russell, Natalia Uporova, Adam Dashney, and Julia Good. Photo by Colin Bieganek.
Exploring Impulse in downtown Kingston offered the SLC students inspiration for their own upcoming projects. Photo by Colin Bieganek.
Not all field trips are created equal – Gaining first-hand experience of the interactive displays, which will remain on King Street across from Springer Market Square until Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022, was a different kind of hands-on learning, part of what SLC refers to as “Action Learning.” Photo by Lucas Wimmer.

The field trip was a mandatory visit for second- year students in the Integrated Arts/Installations course. The goal was to help inspire them in the development of their own culminating arts installations that will be publicly exhibited in April. Past showcases are accessible on the St. Lawrence College Music & Digital Media YouTube channel, where the upcoming Spring Showcase in April will be featured in the future.

As the daylight faded during their visit, the SLC students got to see Impulse in ‘a different light,’ and get an idea of the full dynamics of the experience the display offers. Photo by Julia Good.
The darkening blue of the evening sky and the quieter street traffic made for a fulsome experience of the interactive sound- and light-producing installment. SLC students in this photo are Colin Bieganek, left, and Matthew Wren.
Adding a warm glow to the otherwise dull and dreary February night, Impulse was able to demonstrate to students the actual impact such creative digital installations can create. Photo by Lucas Wimmer.

As part of the trip, the students from SLC’s Music & Digital Media class took their own photos of the experience. All of the photos above were taken by those students. Impulse is the creation of Canadian design firms Lateral Office and CS Design.

Mark Aidan Bergin is a Kingston-based photographer, writer, and educator. He is currently a professor at St. Lawrence College, and his works have been published throughout Kingston and Frontenac County, across the province and country, and around the world. His ‘Street Ballerinas Performance Art‘ project is well-known locally for featuring local professional ballerinas juxtaposed against some of Kingston’s most iconic and unique backdrops.

Share156
Tweet
156 Shares

Leave a Reply