Colloquia Series

Art + Engineering = Creative Problem Solving

Apr 10

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

4:20–4:20 AM

Klump Academic Center

Apr 10
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Rebecca Strzelec has been using 3D printing technologies in her work since 1999. These processes have matured quickly resulting in greater accessibility and attention bringing about significant and meaningful advances in many fields including healthcare, safety, architecture, and art and design. It also has raised questions of ownership, ethics, and responsibility. This talk looks at 3D printing’s trajectory, as well as introduces the work Strzelec completed on a 4‐year, 2 million­‐dollar NSF grant focused on origami and smart materials.

Speaker Biography

Rebecca Strzelec, professor of visual arts and program coordinator of visual art studies at Penn State University, Altoona College, earned her BFA (2000) and MFA (2002) from Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Metals/Jewelry/CAD-CAM. Her work consists of wearable objects that are created via computer aided design, three-dimensional modeling, and 3D printing. Her work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, Fuller Craft Museum, Racine Art Museum, and the private collection of Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Strzelec’s work has been featured in many exhibitions in prominent contemporary craft galleries in the US and abroad. Strzelec is a Penn State Alumni Teaching Fellow and the 2016-2017 Penn State Laureate. Strzelec served as chair of the SIGGRAPH 2012 conference, an annual event that brought over 21,000 people connected to computer graphics and interactive techniques to Los Angeles. Strzelec lives in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania (home of the Slinky) with her husband, and two small children.

Rebecca Strzelec

Bibliography/Reading List

  • Out of Hand: Materializing the Post Digital, Museum of Arts and Design, Black Dog Publishing, London, Ronald Labaco, Curator, 2013.
  • Garth Clark, “Neo-Palatial”, Metalsmith Magazine, Curated Exhibition in Print, VOL 30/NO 4, 2010, 40-41
  • https://wikispaces.psu.edu/display/NEO/Welcome (The website for the Penn State EFRI-ODISSEI National Science Foundation funded project, "Multi-field Responsive Origami Structures - Advancing the Emerging Frontier of Active Compliant Mechanisms")
  • Boris Bally, I.M.A.G.I.N.E. (Innovative Merger of Art and Guns to Inspire New Expressions of) PEACE NOW, Humanufactured LLC, 2016, 82-83. Website http://borisbally.com/peace/
  • http://imaginepeacenow.org (The website for the group exhibition I.M.A.G.I.N.E. Peace Now)
  • http://radio.wpsu.org/post/take-note-conversation-artist-rebecca-strzelec-years-penn-state-laureate (A conversation with WPSU’s Patty Satalia about Rebecca Strzelec’s year as Penn State Laureate)