Taylor Lobb
@TAYLORLOBB
Imagine yourself shoulders deep into studying for midterms during one of your various half-hour to hour long breaks throughout the day. In each of them you’re consumed by assignments, appointments, work scheduling, or trying to keep up with social and family matters.
Empty stomach, but how could you possibly think about making time for a meal with so much to do? Sometimes life is so loud.
Day to day life can be so chaotic, that we forget entirely to take a moment to unwind, and appreciate our surroundings.
For Bay Area artist Kirk Sylvester, exploring and appreciating the world is a neccesity that he belives is 100% attainable for any regular person, just like him.
Luckily, he has brought global beauty right here to campus, for all students to enjoy in order to quiet their busy brains.
The LPC student and traveler encourages his viewers to spend more time on the background of a photo itself, interacting with life outside of their personalized worlds, which can be hard to do in such a “Facebook, social media era”, as he calls it.
Instead of scrolling past a photo, Sylvester hopes that with his art, he can “engage other senses” of his viewers to make his work “more memorable”.
One can now experience the beauty of Sylvester’s interactive art display in the Mertes Center for the Arts, building 4000. “Into the Night” is gracefully displayed in the art gallery on the bottom floor of the Mertes center, inviting students to take a virtual trip around the world. It will be on display until Monday, Oct. 23rd.
“Into the Night” gives an entirely new interpretation to the simplistic qualities of our complex world. The 17 different 3D photos are guaranteed to remind you of where life’s true importance lies.
Not only are Sylvester’s photos themselves peaceful in demeanor, but the artist reinvents the idea of the photography with sound boxes to accompany each photo. This gives each piece an individualistic depth that the average photographic art does not provide.
Each sound button associated with the different photos ultimately bring to life the moment captured. The related sound of each picture allows the viewer to feel, hear, and almost see the moment, as if they were the artist himself. Which is the ultimate intention behind Sylvester’s art.
Kirk Sylvester resides locally, however travels frequently to fulfill his desire for cultural knowledge and “mind opening” experiences. His position in the Air Force first sparked his passion for traveling and he now documents them through images. The artist expresses his encouragement for his viewers to see moments through the eyes of the cultures, rather than to view it on a screen, hence his interactive style of art.
The piece is gripping in its dimensional form, but also adds the element of sound to give an entirely new perspective to the different experiences and culture our world is full of.
I highly encourage students to take 5-10 minutes of their time to enjoy this hidden gem. The benefit of a clear head and cultural understanding is well worth it. You will leave feeling refreshed and capable of conquering the day.