TCD UCARE students present at annual Research Fair

23 Apr 2009    

Madison Simmons with works from her UCARE project developed using digital technology including the department's Mimaki digital textile printer

Several TCD students recently participated in the Undergraduate Research Fair held annually to showcase research and creative work generated by students working in the Undergraduate Creative Experiences and Research Activities (UCARE) Program. Various TCD faculty commit to mentoring undergraduates through the program, a two-year commitment in which students first explore the faculty member’s area of research and then develop their own research or creative projects.

Pages from Madison Simmons' sketchbook show idea development for her child's dress series

Madison Simmons has worked for the past two years with Prof. Michael James on Digital Repeat Design and Printing and became very familiar with the department’s Mimaki digital textile printer and its operations. Madison developed a series of images that she printed on silk organza as the outcome of her interest in old photographs scavenged from second hand and antique stores and the ways that these types of images can evoke unexpected emotions in the viewer. “What I learned in developing the imagery for my child’s dresses is that they represent my own fears and anxieties about my own future.”

Last month Madison’s dresses were included in the annual undergraduate student exhibition at the Eistentrager-Howard Gallery in the Department of Art & Art History, where she is pursuing a second degree in addition to her TCD major. By a vote of the A&AH faculty, her dress series was awarded the Dan and Barbara Howard Creative Achievement Award of $1000. Madison subsequently showed the series at Indigo Bridge Books in Lincoln’s Haymarket, and is currently showing them in the central display case in the TCD corridor.

Assistant Prof. Young Ha with TCD Merchandising major Liz Nguyen and her UCARE project "Online Visual Merchandising Cues: Hispanic Apparel Websites vs. U.S. Apparel Websites."

Also presenting their UCARE projects at the Research Fair were Liz Nguyen (UCARE w/Dr. Ha); Kathryn Alms (UCARE w/Carol Easley; and Alison Goding and Cashmere Boehle (w/Dr. Barbara Trout).

Kathryn Alms worked with Carol Easley on a project entitled Concept to Consumer: Exploring the Product Development Process and developed a collection of men's casual shirts using design artwork by Dan Hergert and printing them on silk broadcloth on the Mimaki.

Alison Goding (l.) and Cashmere Boehle (r.) both worked with Dr. Barbara Trout. Ali's UCARE project From Mourning Veils to Fashion Statement and Cashmere's project Black in Japanese Fashion will contribute valuable information for next Fall's Hillestad Gallery exhibiton Power and Pragmatism: Beyond the Little Black Dress

Congratulations to each of these students on the culmination and completion of their two-year UCARE commitments!