Every now and then it happens. You catch a glimpse of the Dana Porter Library aglow against the night sky and you notice that its illuminated windows spell out something or take a recognizable shape.
Students and other library-lovers have used DP’s curtains and windows over the years to create thought-provoking, and sometimes eyebrow-raising, works of public art that are visible at night. In fact, DP’s window art is often captured on the website "The Spirit of WTF" which aims to showcase "some of the pranks that occur at the University of Waterloo."
The latest DP window creation (that we know of) is by Fine Arts students Tiya Sisson, Melissa Johns, Sarah Carter, Hohitha Kathir, Chris Sheffield. They used DP’s windows to create an animation installation piece for their Experimental Drawing course which depicts an apple being eaten and then regenerated.
“We decided to go with an image that was thematically related to the building itself,” says Melissa. “We chose an apple as an age-old symbol of wisdom, and our final animated piece has the apple being eaten and regenerated to reference the endless pursuit of knowledge that goes on inside the library.”
Melissa and her group members planned the installation by creating a small digital model of the front of the library, along with a series of ten formations that would serve as frames for their animation. “As our model had a numbered grid of the windows, each team member assigned to a floor knew which of the windows to change according to their formation sheet,” Melissa explains.
The group accomplished their project during the time when students were studying and were surprised at the interest and support most students showed during the installation.
“For the most part it was a really positive response,” Melissa says. “We had students offering to help, or telling their friends about it. When we set out to do this we were only thinking about the end result for our project, but the interest and reaction we got from people who saw it really changed our perspective on the art form itself.”
University of Waterloo Library
200 University Avenue West
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1
519 888 4883
contact us | give us feedback | privacy statement | © 2011
University of Waterloo