Jan Piribeck

Arctic Dream, Animation with soundtrack by Frank Mauceri

Arctic Dream, Animation with soundtrack by Frank Mauceri

Jan Piribeck is a Professor of Art at the University of Southern Maine. She has an MFA from Northern Illinois University in Painting and Drawing, where she also studied Computer Imaging. For over a decade, the focal point of her work has been a series of projects that fuse Art and Geographic Information Science. She helped establish the Digital Art Concentration offered by the USM Art Department and often works with students on collaborative research/creative projects that merge Art, Science, and Technology. She has been a Visiting Artist/Professor at schools of Art, Architecture, Design, and Engineering in China, France, Germany, and Latvia.

Statement

Arctic Dream was originally done as a study for The Qayak Journey, an animation piece shown at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in 2019. While the Qayak Journey was meant to present a more linear narrative about Arctic exploration and environmental change in the Arctic region, I decided I would also like to show the iceberg study as a stand-alone piece. The goal with Arctic Dream was to create, with digital content developer Jordyn Curley and sound artist Frank Mauceri, an animated environment representing the North Pole: a convincing iceberg structure, moving water, and sounds that evoke water, wind and cracking ice. The iceberg and its surrounds bear similarity to pictures that many photographers are taking these days, except that this is a purely fabricated imagining, not taken in or from an actual physical location. I see it as being a moving visualization and soundscape that represents what is happening in the Arctic, and it does so without providing a linear storyline. Like a photograph, it is a snapshot that freezes time at least momentarily. 

As an artist, how do you feel your work relates to STEM teaching/learning?

My artistic interests include exploring ways in which digital and electronic technologies can be integrated with Arts and Humanities research, scholarship, and creative practices. This merger yields results that would be very difficult if not impossible to achieve in other ways, and extrapolates what any one discipline in the arts and sciences can do on its own. As an educator, I believe higher education should prepare students to function well within the cultural, economic, and environmental systems of today while imagining new systems for the future. Students need to be prepared to use all the resources available to them to resolve, if not solve, the most challenging issues of our times, including the climate crisis, social injustice, and economic disparity. STEM disciplines play an important role in educating students, but I have learned through focus group studies with employers in the southern Maine region that they want both “hard” and “soft” skills. Being able to write, craft a narrative, and communicate, are invaluable skills, as are skills in collaboration and creative problem-solving coupled with digital competency. I once commissioned a 3D printed version of the goddess Athena wearing headphones; it was produced to be a memento for a conference on Digital Humanities. This contemporary version of the Greek goddess associated with civilization, mathematics, and the arts is my own muse and I think a good role model for higher education.

-- Jan Piribeck

Professional Preparation 

  • Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Il, Fine Art, Ba 1973

  • Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, Il, Fine Art, Mfa 1983

  • School Of The Art Institute (Post-graduate Work) , Chicago, Fine Art, Fall 1995

Appointments

  • University Of Southern Maine, Portland, Me, Art Professor, 2000-present                                                 

  • University Of Maine At Farmington, Farmington, Me, Art Professor, 1988-2000

  • University Of Maine At Farmington, Farmington, Me, Gallery Director, 1988-1993

  • Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, Il, Curator, Education/Exhibitions, 1983-1988

Projects

  • Exhibition: Platform Projects/Walks: Ecologies Of The Local, A Group Exhibition And Series Of Artist Led Walks, Speedwell Projects, 2020, Portland, Me (Curated By Julie Poitras Santos) 

  • Maine-greenland Collaborations, 2019-present, Principle Investigator: Interdisciplinary Research Project That Explores The Impacts Of Ecological Change On Coastal Communities In Casco Bay And South Greenland. 

  • The Moving Tides: My Arctic Journey, 2016-2019, A Digital Arts And Humanities Project Examining The Relationship Between Culture, Commerce And The Environment, In Maine, Iceland And The North Atlantic, With Support From The Maine Economic Improvement Fund 

  • Exhibition: Meltdown (Refereed) 2019, An Exhibition Of Lens-based Artists Whose Subject Matter Is The Arctic And Antarctica, Center For Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, Me

  • Presentation: Commerce, Culture And The Environment (Refereed) 2018, Iceland, Maine And The North Atlantic, Arctic Circle Assembly, Reykjavik, Iceland

  • Presentation: New Digital Humanities Projects And Innovations (Refereed) 2016, 9th International Conference On Education And New Learning Technologies, Barcelona, Spain

  • Envisioning Change: Sea Level Rise In Casco Bay 2016-present. A Digital Arts And Humanities Project Visualizing The Impact Of Sea Level Change In Casco Bay. With Support From The Maine Economic Improvement Fund 

  • Exhbition: Anthropocenic: Art About The Natural World In The Human Era, 2019 (Refereed) Bates College Museum Of Art, Lewiston, Me

  • Presentation: Water And Sea Level Change: Maine Perspectives (Refereed) 2019, In Conjunction With Anthropocenic, Bates College, Lewiston, Me

  • Presentation: From Observation To Activism: Reflections On The Role Of Artists 2015, In Communicating Climate Change (Refereed) Jan Piribeck, Michel Droge, Jennifer Deprizio, In Conjunction With The Dorothy Schwartz Forum On Art, Science, And The Humanities: Communicating Climate Change, Hosted By The Maine Humanities Council At The Portland Museum Of Art, Portland, Me

  • Exhibition - Metadivers: Worlds Beneath The Waves (Refereed) 2013, A Multimedia Environment Blending Sound, Light And Form By Jan Piribeck In Collaboration With Zero Station Gallery, Musicians From Hi Tiger Band And Artists John T. Bullitt And Christopher Byron, Zero Station Gallery, Portland, Maine, Funded By A Maine Arts Commission Good Idea Grant.

  • Paper: Good Fences For Good Neighbors: A “Meeting Place” Intervention 2012 (Refereed) Jan Piribeck And Marty Pottenger Published Online: 24 Jan 2014 In Journal Of Poverty Volume 18, Issue 1, Special Issue: Intervention, Instigation,  Interruption: Art Activism And Social Policy, Taylor And Francis Online

Synergistic Activities 

  • Certificate Of Completion: Arctic Futures Institute (Afi) 2018, A Weeklong Summer Institute Conducted By The University Of Maine Climate Change Institute And School Of Law And The World Ocean Observatory, University Of Southern Maine, Portland, Me

  • Participant: Arctic Futures South Greenland Workshop 2019, Selected To Participate In A Week-long Summer Workshop In South Greenland Organized By Afi 

  • Report - Research Innovation And Institutional Growth: Digital Humanities, Usm, And The      University Of Maine System, 2018, Commissioned By The Usm Digital Humanities Initiative, Funded By Maine Economic Improvement Fund Grant (Co-pi)

  • Participant/Presenter: Usm Digital Humanities Institute 2018, The Institute Brought Together A Small Group Of U Maine Faculty And Staff To Focus On Multimodality, Writing Across The Curriculum, Design And The Integration Of Digital Technology With Teaching, Research And Creative Activity. 

  • Director/Founding Member King Tide Party: An Artists’ Collective 2013-present, That Seeks Creative Ways To Communicate About The Impacts Of Sea Level Rise On Maine Communities

John DanosSTEAM