Back to Campus Night features LED lights

By Joanne Santomauro

When you hear the words, "Deejay," "flashing lights" and "free admission," you know college students must be nearby.

Last Thursday, for the first time ever, the San Jose Museum of Art hosted "Back to Campus Night," a showcase of the museum's exhibits, exclusively free for college students, faculty and staff. The event was complemented by a DJ and a make-your-own LED light project booth. On the main floor, the museum featured the artwork of Leo Villareal, who is famous for using light tubes and projectors as his preferred medium. Villareal was inspired through working on virtual reality projects at the Interval Research Corporation in Palo Alto. According to the Museum of Art's web site, his current solo exhibit is intended to "explore how Villareal presents a new vision of art that responds and relates to the innovations of the 21st-century."

This ambition was made clear the second that guests walked through the entrance. The exhibit featured a variety of different light structures, flashing various colors in rhythm. Villareal's "Hive," an orange-red toned lighting structure made of hexagonal shapes and wires, hung from the ceiling, pulsed to simulate a buzzing beehive. "Chasing Rainbows," a series of stacked light tubes mounted to the wall, displayed a slowly changing gradient of all the colors of the rainbow.

Many Santa Clara students attended the event, such as senior Mariesa Kubasek.

"I feel like I'm inside of a video game. I can definitely see and understand his references to modern technology," said Kubasek.

Junior Alex Hanchett is a mechanical engineer. He came to Back to Campus Night out of curiosity, and was pleased with what he saw.

"From a constructional standpoint [the exhibit] is really interesting. Every person has seen lights, but not like this," said Hanchett.

The Villareal exhibit also featured a special room filled with giant, oversized reclined sofas, solely lit by a one of Villareal's signature light pieces. The light cast swirling spiral patterns across the couches, amazing any guest who wandered into the room. To freshman Leigh Nishi, that was the best part of the exhibit.

"When the lights flash, they play with your perception of reality," Nishi said.

Upstairs, the museum featured the "Retrotech" exhibit, which showcased artists who "grapple with the potential of technology as they 'build their own world.'"

One art piece that was impossible to miss was "Gift Horse" by Victoria Scott and Scott Kildall, artists from San Francisco. The artists created the thirteen-foot sculpture as a tribute to the tale of the Trojan Horse and as a pun referring to the technical term for computer malware.

Before the piece's revealing, the museum invited visitors to create their own mini paper sculptures which were later placed inside the horse and "released" during the unveiling. For the duration of the exhibit, museum visitors are encouraged to participate in "Gift Horse," literally contributing their "gifts" to the artwork. Throughout the night, house/trance music flowed through the museum, courtesy of Santa Clara graduate DJ Daniel Stadulis, class of 2008. Stadulis has been deejaying since 2007.

"In college, two of my friends and I DJ'd together, hosting parties and stuff. We would do some events in San Francisco and various places around the Bay, but mostly events around Santa Clara," said Stadulis. Back to Campus Night presented an atmosphere very different from the events that he is used to deejaying.

"Because it's a museum event and there isn't one purpose like, 'you're going to show up and dance,' this allows me to play a little bit of everything. This is like a hodgepodge of stuff; it's more subdued, lighter," he said.

Seair Smith, one of the primary coordinators of Back to Campus Night said the event organizers were pleased with the turnout.

"The museum is trying to build its relationship with local universities and showcase the art exhibits," said Smith. "It's a good turnout, we're quite happy with it."

Coming up soon, the San Jose Museum of Art will be hosting "Full Spectrum 2010," a showcase of LED light art.

Contact Joanne Santomauro at jsantomauro@scu.edu or at (408) 551-1918.