As "eMotion," this year's Summer Arts Festival, kicks off, Mary Flanagan, chair of the new digital humanities department, awaits the arrival of a mysterious new piece of technology called the "Play Cube." The arts festival touts this sixteen-by-eight foot cube as a mobile exhibition space that will host performances and art exhibits at various locations across campus, as well as enable a unique style of interactivity with the student body. Though the Play Cube was scheduled to arrive on campus this past weekend, complications with contractors have delayed its debut.
Flanagan developed the idea for the Play Cube during the winter, when she served on the planning board for the Summer Arts Festival. Flanagan said she had been eager to incorporate her idea for a "mobile interdisciplinary showcase" in this summer's festival since she came to the College last fall through an endowment from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation.
"I came up with the idea of the Play Cube to bring to campus as an experimental mobile exhibition space," Flanagan said. "The Cube is supposed to move around campus and become part of our community."
According to Flanagan, an important part of her vision was her desire to encourage experimentation with interdisciplinary arts, which the Cube helps make possible.
"I don't see the departmental distinctions in the same way," she said. "I was really interested in finding a place for those kinds of boundary-crossing works to live."
The Play Cube will act as host to a multitude of events this summer, including cookouts, dance parties, one-act plays and 24-hour game design "jams." The Cube is also equipped with an electrical generator that will allow for lighting and air conditioning.
"The Cube can do anything," Flanagan said.
Anna Lotko '10, a student curatorial intern for the festival who has studied game design with Flanagan, volunteered to help bring the Play Cube to campus. Lotko said she expects the Cube to encourage student participation in the arts.
"The Cube caters a lot more to student interests," Lotko said. "It's really accessible, and you can just stumble upon it and see an amazing exhibit that you wouldn't have ever had the chance to see."
Lotko commented that the presence of the Play Cube may also help change many students' perspectives on what defines the limits of artistic expression.
"It will reframe art in a fun, interactive and participatory mode to gain more interest across campus," Lotko said. "Having really silly events inside the cube like a dance-off, which might not normally be thought of as art would become a spectacle to watch."
In addition to setting up the Cube, Lotko is also working with a grant from the Leslie Center for the Humanities to design her own project titled "Feed The Cube." The Summer Arts Festival has not yet released information about the project, however.
Lotko was not willing to disclose any details other than the event's tagline: "Know your environment. Change your scenery. Feed the Cube." The event is scheduled to premiere July 10.
Lotko encouraged students to use the Cube for their own projects by e-mailing the organization with a proposal.
"It has so much potential and I want students to use it in the best ways that they can," she said.
According to Flanagan, the interactive potential and artistic vision of the Cube made it an ambitious and groundbreaking project. The Play Cube may mark an important point in technological innovation at Dartmouth, Flanagan said, and could become a part of the College's history in cutting-edge technology, which includes advancements in the programming language Basic, the once-revolutionary BlitzMail e-mail system and conceptual advancements in Artificial Intelligence.
"Dartmouth is known for its wired history and has always been one of the most innovative technology campuses worldwide. The Cube has the potential to bring that culture back ... We can celebrate not only the college's history, but also its future," Flanagan said.
The small space of the Cube also plays an important role in stimulating innovation, she said.
"The scale helps us work in constraints, the constraints help us be creative," Flanagan said. "Sometimes taking us out of the ordinary helps us make the extraordinary."
Flanagan expects the Cube will arrive soon, although she said she is unsure of how long delivery will be delayed.
"We don't know when it will show up," she added. "When it decides to come, it will come."
