University of Iowa 3-D design students get chance to shine in Chicago

Students in the University of Iowa's 3-D design program are used to having to explain what they do. And they're used to people challenging the idea that what they create - chairs and dishes and lamps, for example - is art.

Now they have a chance to show that art to the world.

A group of 3-D design students has been selected to exhibit their work at Structural Objects Functional Art + Design, known as SOFA, an art fair in Chicago that attracts close to 34,000 people each year.

This year SOFA is hosting an exhibition for five universities, including UI, to display a design project. The UI's entry, an interactive, open-air structure inspired by the painting “Storm Over a Landscape” by Leonardo da Vinci, was selected in a competitive process from universities around the world. Students have been working on the piece since June.

“It's exciting, just to show everyone in the world what we do. Even my parents still question what I do, and now they're kind of getting it,” design student Vako Darjania, 25, said. “Even though we are creating all this art, people kind of challenge our authenticity.”

The design program is part of the UI's School of Art and Art History. Associate professor Monica Correia said not many such programs around the country are housed in art schools. They're more likely to be found in programs like engineering, for example. But for her students, the function of engineering is balanced by the beauty of art.

The students use cutting-edge technology like 3-D printers and scanners to create their pieces.

“We use technology as our medium, like a painter uses paint or a sculptor uses clay,” Darjania said.

For the SOFA piece, they rendered designs on computers and then used computers to cut or print the 3-D pieces of their sculpture.

They said they chose a piece by Leonardo da Vinci as inspiration because of a felt kinship -  the 16th century artist also worked in technology and design alongside fine art.

The group of 10 undergraduate and graduate students were putting last touches on their sculpture Friday morning before preparing to ship it to Chicago. The work will be displayed Nov. 1 to 3 at Navy Pier.

The piece, which features specially designed chairs and household objects under a geometric ceiling, is meant to be interactive. It features robotics that sense when people approach and manipulate light and sound accordingly.

“I can't wait to see it finished on the exhibition floor,” student Sharon Davon Novander, 27, said. “Participating in this shows I'm going somewhere right.”