A Master Class of Digital Art, Animation, and Design

At an opening reception in early May, M.F.A. students in the Department of Digital Art and Design celebrated the culmination of two years of hard work at an eye-catching thesis exhibition. Attendees mingled with the artists, viewed work including posters and animations, some of which were viewable through a virtual reality headset, and took home gifts—including bookmarks and 3-D printed figurines—that tied to the artwork.

“They’ve finally completed a process that was in the works for two years,” said Christine Kerigan, academic coordinator for Beijing programs and administrative assistant at NYIT College of Arts and Sciences, who taught the exhibition portion of the Thesis Exhibition and Paper class. “For the students, it’s exciting, a lot of emotions.”

The students have either done their entire program at NYIT-Manhattan or began at NYIT-Beijing and came to NYIT-Manhattan for the final year. Twenty-nine computer graphics M.F.A. students with concentrations in animation, graphic design, and fine arts and technology exhibited thesis projects, including the following:

• Patrick Farrell created Creatures of the Dark, an animation of a child whose drawings come to life when he is asleep. “You find out what your mistakes are, and you take it to the next level,” he said about his artistic process.
• Xiaoyue Zhang also created an animation. DaLi gives viewers an in-depth introduction to her hometown of Dali, China. “NYIT taught us what we can do and what we should do. They put us in the right direction,” she said.
• Lisa Amundsen drew on personal experiences to produce Jojo and her Shadows, a children’s book about a little girl dealing with negative emotions. “You’re so nervous the whole semester,” she said of finalizing her thesis. “But it’s nice to see everyone else’s projects come together.” Next up, Amundsen hopes to publish the book.

Works from the exhibition will also be featured during the Creative Tech Week Conference.