Cutting-edge technology and traditional arts will converge when Indiana University takes part in the 2012 Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., held June 27 to July 1 and July 4 to 8.
Hosted outdoors on the National Mall, the annual festival is an exposition of living cultural heritage. One of this year’s programs, “Campus and Community,” commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act, which established land-grant universities and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Participating as a member of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, IU will showcase the university’s role as a high-tech innovator in the state while also recognizing its dedication to preserving Indiana’s rich cultural traditions.
At IU’s exhibit, visitors will be able to watch portions of a multimedia opera composed by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis music professor W. Scott Deal; search digital archives on Hoosiers in the armed forces, the music of Hoagy Carmichael or the writings of Frederick Douglass; and participate in an interactive art installation by digital artist Margaret Dolinsky, an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences‘ Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts on IU’s Bloomington campus.
Exhibits also include Places & Spaces, a science-mapping exhibit that illustrates links among scientists across disciplines and continents; and GlobalNOC’s Worldview, an interactive system that uses GPS and software developed at IU to visualize multiple layers of real-time network data.