Reception: Future Forest: Digital Echoes – ISU College of Design, Gallery 181

Interdisciplinary artist Amenda Tate, a 2023 Iowa State University integrated visual arts graduate and current PhD student in human computer interaction, will unveil an interactive exhibition Nov. 10–13 at the ISU College of Design.

In “Future Forest: Digital Echoes,” Tate invites visitors to wander through a paper-and-light ecosystem that reacts to presence — each visit changes the forest and every visitor leaves a trace. The installation, a design research project for her PhD studies that also integrates knowledge gained through participatory practices in museum education, will be on display beginning at noon Monday, Nov. 10, in the College of Design’s Gallery 181.

Regular exhibition hours are 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily. A closing reception will be from 5 – 7 p.m. Thurs., Nov. 13.

Using both scientific and aesthetic processes, Tate creates work that explores movement, our relationship to technology and the understanding of what it means to be human, including the ways in which “humanness” can be denied. She uses custom-designed technology, traditional mediums and social interactions to foster connection.

Tate describes “Future Forest” as part ritual, part experiment and part myth. In the artist statement accompanying the show, she notes that visitors will experience interwoven stories that unfold out of order: “ ‘The Waxen Grove,’ where ancestral spirits are preserved in wax and light; ‘The Translucent Shrine,’ where machines resurrect belief; and ‘The Resonant Core,’ where your movement becomes memory. Experience. Interact. Leave a digital echo.”

Support for the project has been provided by the Iowa Arts Council, which exists within the Iowa Economic Development Authority. Follow the project’s progression at @futureforest_dsm on Instagram.

About the artist

Tate received a master of fine arts in integrated visual arts from Iowa State in 2023. While pursing her PhD in human computer interaction, she also serves as docent and tours program manager at the Des Moines Art Center. A 2019-2020 Iowa Arts Council Fellow, she has work featured in the “State of the Arts: Iowa’s Artist Fellows” exhibition Nov. 7–29 at Mainframe Studios in Des Moines. She has been an artist-in-residence with the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center and Ballet Des Moines, and her work has been published in The New York Times, the Denver Post, the Des Moines Register, Better Homes & Gardens and Popular Science.

Among Tate’s honors are two Editor’s Choice Awards at the 2018 New York International Maker Faire and a special recognition award in the 2017 International RobotArt competition. She received a 2020 project grant and a 2021 Iowa Arts & Culture Resilience Grant, both awarded by the Iowa Arts Council in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work is in the collections of Arrow Electronics, The Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines and Banker’s Trust.

Contacts

Amenda Tate, PhD Student, Human Computer Interaction, atate@iastate.edu
Heather Sauer, Director of Strategic Communications, College of Design, hsauer@iastate.edu