Special Project: Covid-19

April 23, 2020

Like many colleges across the country, we have been doing remote teaching for almost 4 weeks now. Adjusting to this process has been challenging at times and it’s meant rescheduling and reshuffling some things that we had planned for this second half of the semester, including our Mystery Project and our Visiting Artist day and project.

We have traditionally jump started the second half of the semester with an all-department project we call The Mystery Project. Although we typically challenge students with this project the Monday morning after we’re back from Spring Break, they don’t know what the project is going to be (thus the “mystery” aspect of the project). In the past, we introduce the project to the students at 8:00am and they have 3-4 hours to complete it. Then, once they're done, the pieces are hung up in the studio flex space for everyone to see. With nearly 100 students in the department, it’s really fun to see the variety of solutions for the same prompt. We’ve had some wonderful projects in the past, which are generated by the full-time faculty and/or in collaboration with individuals from the community. This spring it was Assistant Professor Il Sung Na’s turn to come up with the premise of the Mystery Project.

Covid-19 and the coronavirus pandemic have drastically changed the way we do things every day. It has permeated our conversations and our way of life. Considering the way it has impacted education and the fact that we are not in class together this second term of the semester, Il Sung was interested in seeing what kind of imagery the students would create in response to Covid-19. Here’s the brief that was given to our students:

On February 11, 2020 the World Health Organization announced an official name for the disease that is causing the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak, first identified in Wuhan China and has now been detected in almost every location internationally, including the United States.
In COVID-19, ‘CO’ stands for ‘corona’, ‘VI’ for ‘virus’, and ‘D’ for disease. COVID-19 is a new disease that has not previously been seen in humans. So what is COVID-19, how does it spread, what are symptoms, how do we prevent it, what treatments do we have, and what do you do if you are sick?
Depict how Covid-19 impacts our daily lives / Create a visual story about Covid-19.

Students were also encouraged to research and read articles about Covid-19. Unlike our past Mystery Project timeframe of 3-4 hours, students were given a little over a week to create their final pieces.

There was some amazing work created for this project (!) and although it’s not all pictured here, we have created a special page that contains work that the faculty selected to be featured here (see link above). Additionally, the five pieces shown below are the Top 5 pieces selected by the faculty for their creativity, risk-taking, idea development and commitment. Congratulations to these students and to all of our students who participated in this project for your dedication to your work.

Holocaust survivor Sonia Warshawski visits KCAI

March 14, 2017

Every semester, we the faculty put together a 3-hour Mystery Project for our students. Although the timing of the Mystery Project is typically on the first Monday after Spring Break, until it's announced, the students don't know what the project is going to be - they only know that they'll have 3 hours to complete it. Every full-time faculty member takes a turn to create a Mystery Project and this spring, it was up to Assistant Professor John Ferry to put it together.

John had heard Holocaust survivor Sonia Warshawski speak at Hallmark several years ago when he was working there as a studio manager. What she had to say about her experiences was life-changing, impactful and unforgettable. In an effort to expose our students to Sonia's story, John reached out to Sonia's oldest daughter, Regina, who helps to coordinate Sonia's many speaking engagements. Sonia loves speaking to young people, specifically, as it is her hope to tell her story so that it is not forgotten and so that the atrocities of the Holocaust never happen again.

Sonia and her daughter, Regina, were kind enough to take some time to stop by and talk with our students yesterday. Senior Coti Meier posted about her experience in hearing Sonia speak and summarized her visit so eloquently:

"Yesterday KCAI Illustration hosted Sonia Warshawski to tell her story of how she survived the concentration camps during the Holocaust. She told some horrific accounts of what happened to her, what she saw and stressed the importance of reading history, but the most important topic of Sonia's speech was love. She said, "MOLD THEM WITH LOVE," emphasizing the importance of shaping a child's life with love. This resonated with me because she went through immense trauma at a young age, yet she is still here today to tell us to love and to put out hate. Something so simple, yet has the ability to do so much. She is an incredible woman and I feel so privileged to have had the opportunity to listen to Sonia speak."

After hearing Sonia's story, we asked each student to create an image based on her story using the words CONVICTION or RESILIENCY as a springboard for their idea. Here are a few pictures from Sonia's visit as well as a few of the images that were created.

BIG THANKS to Sonia and Regina. Sonia, thank you for sharing your story. Our hearts are with you! Hats off to John Ferry, for making this happen.

For more information about Sonia and the upcoming documentary about her experience, be sure to visit bigsonia.com.

Sonia Warshawski and Steve Mayse, Illustration Chair and Professor

Sonia Warshawski and sophomore Eien Carpenter

Sonia Warshawski, her daughter Regina Kort and Assistant Professor John Ferry

Sonia, telling her story to Illustration students and faculty

Students - if your artwork is posted here and your name isn't listed, please email me, Maura Cluthe, and I'll add your name by your image. Thanks.

Mystery Project 2015

April 30, 2015

It's become somewhat of a tradition in the Illustration Department to drop a "Mystery Project" onto the students from time to time. Although this project tends to happen in the spring, the students really have no idea when one of these projects is going to fall into their lap. The Mystery Project has taken on a few different forms, but it always starts first thing in the morning (at 8 am) and is due by mid-day. Students have about 3 or 4 hours to create a piece around specific parameters, however they want using whatever medium they have on hand.

This spring, instructor Hector Casanova received a generous donation of old vinyl records which he brought into the Illustration Department. On the day of the Mystery Project, each student was randomly given one vinyl record. Their goal was to reinvent the artwork / packaging for the album with fresh sensibilities. They had to keep one element from the original packaging, be it typography, color palette, or any physical element. The results were fun, silly, sophisticated and wonderfully all over the place!

Professor Steve Mayse with students, checking out all the solutions to the Mystery Project

At mid-day everyone put their transformed records up on the wall in the flex space in the studio. Seeing all the different solutions from sophomores, juniors and seniors is always a lot of fun. Department Chair and Professor Steve Mayse then has students vote on some of their favorite submissions. The following pieces are just a few of the results of this project.