Mel Chin brings art project to UNC Asheville
SARAH SHADBURNE
A&FAssistant Editor
sshadbur@unca.edu
Artist Mel Chin, known for his
diverse collection of work span
ning a multitude of social and po
litical topics, brings his newest idea
to UNC Asheville. Though much
mystery surrounds the specifics of
the project, the exhibition will head
to New York for display in Times
Square beginning on Earth Day
2018.
The project combines the art, new
media, engineering and mechatron-
ics departments, and engages the
use of augmented reality technolo
gy, which enhances the world seen
through a smartphone lens by su
perimposing images and graphics
into the field.
Jesse Juday, a 21-year-old team
leader on the project, coordi
nates communication between the
eight-student engineering team, ad
ministrators, the new media depart
ment and Chin and his assistants.
“Basically we’re working on a
project that’s promoting awareness
of sea level rise,” Juday said. “As a
team, we’re building a physical ob
ject that would be on the ground in
Times Square.”
Chin tackled ocean issues once
before in his 2014 installation SEA
to SEE at the Mint Museum in
Charlotte, focusing on coral bleach
ing, oxygen depletion, species ex
tinction and other issues between
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans as a
result of human industries.
“Mel is really trying to promote
uneasiness from the physical de
sign,” Juday said. “We’re doing
what we can as engineers to make
that uneasiness safe for the thou
sands of people rolling through
Times Square every day.”
Juday said his team works to
proof for potential damages that
could occur over a 10 year period,
such as weathering, rusting, mov-
ability and transportation.
“Something as small as say, they
want to ship it overseas,” Juday
said. “How is it going to interact
with salt? Everything has to be con
sidered: what’s pertinent to the suc
if
f
V
Mel Chin demonstrates an idea for a new engineering project.
cess of the project and what’s not.”
The team must work as indepen
dent pieces of the same project,
keeping the fixed end goal in mind
while accommodating to weekly
changes.
“There’s a conversation back and
forth the whole time,” said Jacob
Fink, a 22-year-old engineering
student and materials and fabrica
tion lead on the project. “It’s kind
of an ever-changing design.”
Fink said the continuously de
veloping nature of the project has
challenged him, as projects in his
field tend to have more concrete
parameters and deadlines from the
beginning, describing it as an inter
esting call-and-response dynamic
between artist and engineer.
“I realize now how difficult it
can be for an artist to have an idea
that he likes — and even probably
loves to a certain extent — and get
ting the idea into something that we
can handle as a team of college stu
dents,” Fink said.
Through his work on the project,
Fink said he has a greater appre-
ciation for the arts and and an ex
panded educational experience rec
ognizing the challenges artists face
translating ideas to reality.
“It’s cool to finally take some of
what we’re learning in class and ap
ply it,” Fink said. “So much of what
we do in class is just theory, so we
don’t have a ton of experience put
ting that into practice.”
This will not be the first time
Chin has been on campus. Adjunct
Instructor of Arts and Ideas Alison
Ormsby incorporated Chin into her
environmental art class in previous
semesters, citing his affinity for so
cial commentary.
“In my class, we deal with any
kind of art that has an environmen
tal topic,” Ormsby said. “Chin does
a fair amount of work with environ
mental restoration and art.”
Beginning in 1991, Chin began a
project sculpting the ecology of a
hazardous-waste landfill site called
“Revival Field,” which continues
today in efforts to detox heavy met
als from contaminated soil.
“There’s lots of different ways
PHOTOS BY EMMANUEL FIGARO
and places people can encounter
art,” Ormsby said. “Every time you
look at an artist, you learn more
about the issue.”
The environmental art class
Ormsby teaches encourages stu
dents to engage in art criticism,
seeing the potential art has for com
pelling a viewer to care about an
issue even if that manifests as just
awareness of the topic.
“The idea is that after the class
students will view art in their daily
lives in a different way,” Ormsby
said. “It might be the only art class
a student takes in college. I want
students to see art in the world and
enjoy it and know more fully some
of the environmental issues facing
us today.”
According to Ormsby, these fac
tors made Chin a perfect fit for her
class curriculum.
“He actually has a hilarious sense
of humor,” Ormsby said. “It’s very
lucky for UNCA that we have him
on campus. I think it’s totally a
gift.”