Virtual Reality

Shalan Majors and artist Jeanne van Heeswijk converse about music.

Wexner Center project helps kids reinvent their neighborhoods

When the aqua COTA bus with the mural of city scenes painted on its side pulled up to the Westside Unit of the Boys and Girls Club on July 10, artist Jeanne van Heeswijk immediately jumped out to plug in the cord that powers six computers on-board.

The real power, however, would be generated by the imaginations of the five children eagerly waiting to get started on the next phase of the afternoon's activities.

The Wexner Center commissioned the Face Your World project, which is giving Columbus children the chance to reinvent their urban neighborhoods virtually through an interactive computer environment.

The children on the bus on July 10 -- Devon, Donja, Dejon, Shalan and Amber -- began their journey at the Sawyer Recreation Center, where they are all participants in the Greater Columbus Arts Council's Children of the Future Program. Their first stop was at the Old Franklinton Cemetery, where they spent a half-hour taking pictures using tiny digital cameras.

When they arrived at the Boys and Girls Club, they were ready to play with the images they'd taken.

"It's a shared land, so they are all in the same world," van Heeswijk said. "It's important that they engage in an environment with each other and where they can control the elements. I want them to explore what it takes to be in charge of their neighborhood."

The children enter their world through five computer monitors, situated underneath glass tabletops at two booths. They can access a library of 500 photos already taken by van Heeswijk and Rolf Engelen of people and places in their neighborhoods, or they can use their own digital pictures to create a cityscape of houses, cars, roads, trees, people -- anything they want.

Ten-year-old Amber White holds a printout of his world

Ten-year-old Amber White was sitting at a computer across from her little brother, Dejon.

She was moving herself through the virtual world to see if she could find Dejon's plot of land. The children themselves exist within the virtual world in the form of fanciful hooded creatures, color-coded to each computer. Amber was a little blue figure; her brother was purple.

"I'm trying to find my little brother," she said.

Amber, who had visited the bus before, said learning how to use the computer program was only hard at first. She now appeared at ease as she pulled up onto the screen a picture of Dejon jumping playfully onto her back, the two of them grinning at the camera.

"I like playing on the computer and going on field trips," she said.

The visits to places like the North Market and the Franklinton Cemetery are an important part of van Heeswijk's philosophy for the project.

"There is more in a city than just malls and malls," van Heeswijk said.

When she was granted the commission, she knew she wanted to create a project that could only have been created in Columbus.

"All of my projects are tailor made for a situation and a given context," she said. "Here, I thought it would be nice for kids to travel and meet each other."

The COTA bus transports the children between the Boys and Girls Club and the Blackburn and Sawyer recreation centers on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. The program began on June 17 and continues through Aug. 16.

Cameron Staten and Cassandra Smith try out the computers for the first time, as Kendra Girardot and Heeswijk look on.

Jeff Ostrowski, an art teacher with the Sawyer Recreation Center, accompanied the children on July 10.

"It's really cool for them because there's not a lot of interaction with the other centers. They get to play on the computers and feel really special about that," Ostrowski said.

Kendra Girardot, graduate administrative associate with the Wexner Center's education department, also was helping out on July 10. The kids are learning a lot about how cities are planned, she said.

"It's fun when they see the need for a stop sign or a bus stop -- or a bench at the bus stop," she said. "The hope is that they'll begin to understand how a city planner thinks and why they make the choices they make."

As the children worked, the bus buzzed with the sounds of their voices as they exclaimed to one another: "Where's blue?"; "Is that your house?"; "Can I put a tree there?"; and "Who put the bus in the river?"

Pizza, trees, gravestones, little brothers -- they all take on a different significance when pictured through the artistic sensibilities of an 8-year-old.

Van Heeswijk's site-specific installations have been widely praised in her native Holland and throughout Europe and the United States. For Face Your World, she collaborated with the V2-Lab from the Netherlands and Dutch philosopher Maaike Engelen to create the computer program.

She also worked with Rotterdam designer Joep van Lieshout to create 8-foot-high polyurethane and fiberglass sculptures located outside each recreation center. Each sculpture has a computer monitor that continually shows the images the children have created.

Van Heeswijk has worked with teens on past projects, but this is the first time she's worked with children in the age 6Ð12 bracket.

"They are such terrific kids, it's not so difficult," she said.

As Amber exited the bus to head inside the Boys and Girls Club for more activities, van Heeswijk opened up a cooler and offered her a juice box.

"I buy them lemonade because it's hot. Building the world is hard work, so you need a lemonade," she said, and smiled. "They deserve a little refreshment."

Wexner galleries undergo renovations

Gilbert and George's They will be on display at the Belmont Building Nov. 3-Feb. 2.   Courtesy of the Sonnabend Collection

Exhibits move to off-site venues

The Wexner Center galleries will be undergoing renovations beginning this fall, but the center's programming will continue unabated, using both on-site and off-site venues. Ohio State has allocated $12 million for the renovation project, which is expected to last about a year and will not alter the architectural identity of the building.

The project will entail significant infrastructural changes, including improved environmental and climate control, replacement of the skylight, roof repair, and improvements to the glass curtain wall that runs along the east side of the building. The renovation will restore the center's ability to admit natural light in moderation, as intended in its original design.

Confirmed upcoming exhibitions, which include collaborations with COSI and the Columbus College of Art & Design, are:

• Lawrence Weiner: Until It Is, a sculptural text-based work by internationally known artist Lawrence Weiner, embedded into a campus walkway at Mirror Lake Hollow. The work will be on display from September 2002ÐAugust 2004.

• From Pop to Now: Selections from the Sonnabend Collection, featuring works by some of the most celebrated artists of the last half of the 20th century, including Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein and Jasper Johns -- all from the collection of gallery owners Ileana and Michael Sonnabend. The exhibit will be held at the Belmont Building at Spring Street and Neil Avenue, Nov. 3ÐFeb. 2.

• Away from Home, a group show featuring emerging international artists on the themes of displacement, immigration and travel. The exhibit will be shown in the Columbus College of Art & Design's Canzani Center Feb. 1 through April 20.

• Supernova3 consists of three high-tech installations by internationally renowned artist Hiro Yamagata, featuring ever-changing, multi-colored displays of lights, lasers and reflective surfaces. The installation will be held at COSI Columbus, 333 W. Broad St., May 3ÐSept. 1.

Performing arts programming will sustain its customary pace, using the center's Mershon Auditorium, which will not be affected by the renovations, and other campus venues, including Weigel Hall and the Drake Performance and Event Center. The film program will also maintain an active schedule, screening films either in the Film/Video Theater or in Mershon Auditorium. The Wexner Center's Education Department also will use a variety of venues both within and outside the center for its lecture series, discussions, family events, workshops and symposia.

The Wexner Center Bookshop will be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays through Dec. 23, and will open a satellite shop, the Wexner Center Artshop, at Easton Town Center in September. Books from the shop will be available online at www.wexarts.org later this summer.

View a version of the computer game and learn more about the project at www.faceyourworld.net.

Andy Warhol's Four Colored Campbell's Soup Can, 1965 will be on display at the Belmont Building Nov. 3-Feb. 2.   Courtesy of the Sonnabend Collection

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