Blending Boundaries: SCAD Students Explore Digital Innovation with Beeple
Published July 31st
By Jennifer Gagliardi
As young artists are rising through professional training ranks, they are wondering how to handle new media in relation to more traditional practices. The digital is on our minds, especially in the art world. While countless articles have been published looking at the negatives of technology, we are also seeing the positives of these tools. At Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) this past spring semester, students from a variety of disciplines were given the opportunity to work with Beeple on digital fabrication of their designs. In turn, this collaboration into an immersive gallery space offered students a chance to work beyond their traditional mediums and expand their ideas into the digital realm. The results were intriguing, exciting, and cultivated further positivity in the cross pollination of digital and traditional art disciplines.
Beeple, whose real name is Mike Winkelmann, is a digital artist known for his pioneering work in the field of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and digital art. He gained widespread recognition for his "Everydays" project, where he created and shared a new piece of digital art every day for over a decade. Beeple's groundbreaking sale of a digital collage for $69.3 million at Christie's auction house marked a significant milestone in the acceptance and valuation of digital art in the mainstream art market.In 2021, he opened Beeple studios in Charleston SC, where he continues to create work in what has been called “A Weird Mix of Warhol’s Studio and Bell Labs.” This space is where students were invited to bring their digital ideas, and ultimately over 70 digital artworks were shown at the main event. Students essentially self selected for the project, and were given the opportunity to work outside the classroom in a real world scenario with deliverables. According to Dan Bartlett, Dean of the School of Animation and Motion, “Mike has near cult status in our department, he’s kind of a mythical figure.” So, when bringing students into the space with the chance to collaborate, the ideas were limitless. “It was more about reining them in and managing it in a way that they could add this to the other things they were working on” Bartlett explained.
In working with the Beeple space, students were exposed to new softwares and tools to produce work in new dimensions. The digital and traditional are often mixed at SCAD, with Honor Bowman Hall, Dean of the School of Fine Arts and Visual Communication, explaining how “One of the goals in the painting dept is to introduce students to digital tools.” The faculty and students at SCAD also get to see professional artists using digital technologies in gallery shows, such as Cao Fei’s recent display of an immersive multimedia installation at the SCAD Museum of Art. One of the best lessons was for students to realize that the technology they needed was already built into the SCAD curriculum, along with the support from the faculty. “In working through this project with Beeple [the students] came to understand the individual pieces of building this show, and how the technology processes that needed to be followed already existed at SCAD” Bowman Hall explained. Out of this partnership Bowman Hall hopes to see future collaborations and a potential for new kinds of curriculum.
In the case of the Beeple/SCAD collaboration, scale became a huge factor in the technological approach. Kare’ Williams, who participated in the show as a class of 2024 graduate, explained how “Beeples immersive gallery space allowed my work to be displayed on a grand scale, and was truly remarkable to experience. From the massive screens to the large digital pillars, these are pieces of technology that an ordinary gallery may not have - so this was an opportunity I knew I wanted to be a part of. It’s because of this that during the creative process I now understand what your work from a technical standpoint needs to be scaled.”
One of the biggest challenges and perhaps real world skill development opportunities came from working with an organization that exists outside of SCAD. Bartlett explains how Students are accustomed to iterative learning, they see things and can get feedback or reflect. With this project there was a delay, we had to have a version of the project made and then sent out to see what was wrong.” In working with this delay, students learned to settle more into the client/designer process in which the feedback loop is not so instantaneous. While possibly frustrating, this type of waiting and reflection allows for a more paced understanding of what working in the design world looks like. Deadlines also became even more important, with a real world show opening pushing students to understand that if they did not send projects in up to standards they may not be included. External work like this really transforms a student from top to bottom professionally. Learning to stick to deadlines, your work is or is not going to be included based on your ability to adhere to guidelines” explained Bowman Hall
While much of the experience was technical and commercially driven, there was a huge amount of space for the SCAD students to develop themselves further as artists. While some of the students were specializing in digitally driven majors, others came from more traditional departments such as painting. Williams explains how “This SCAD showcase with Beeple Studios educated me tremendously on the incredible digital software that is out there and will no doubt be useful in my future practice.” In thinking about how he can integrate his previous work into this experience, he notes how “this showcase has prepared me for my career as a traditional 2D painter, this experience has opened my eyes to think about new ways that I can take my work off the wall and create even greater immersive experiences.”
The SCAD and Beeple collaboration demonstrates the exciting possibilities that arise when traditional art practices meet digital innovation. Students not only expanded their technical skills but also gained invaluable experience in a real-world setting, navigating deadlines and client expectations. This partnership underscores the importance of integrating digital tools into art education, preparing students for a future where the boundaries between traditional and digital art continue to blur. As SCAD continues to foster such collaborations, it will undoubtedly inspire and equip the next generation of artists to push the limits of their creativity and artistic expression.
Jennifer Gagliardi is the editor for Number Inc and a professor of Art History at MTSU.