College of Design

Smithsonian museum features UO instructors’ sound and art installation

Thanks to two instructors in the School of Art + Design and the School of Music and Dance, you can see and hear the carbon footprint of a tweet or a Google post in real time—and visualize how much energy it takes. John Park and Jon Bellona’s #CarbonFeed sound and art installation was featured recently at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

UO buys downtown building for Art + Design faculty studios

In 2018, Art and Product Design faculty are getting new research studios—in downtown Eugene. The move will create “a kind of think tank for art and design,” said Laura Vandenburgh, head of the School of Art + Design.

The building was purchased in July, and faculty will move into the renovated space by Fall 2018.

Outside In: Natural indoor change improves the well-being of people in buildings

Professor of architecture Kevin Nute wants to improve the well–being and effectiveness of people in buildings using a simple but novel approach: bringing the weather indoors.

Specifically, Nute has developed an array of design strategies for bringing the natural movements of the sun, wind and rain, such as the dappled shadows of foliage moving in a breeze, or shimmering sunlight or raindrop ripples on water, into the indoor environments where most people spend the vast majority of their time.

Preservation, journalism students collaborate on oral histories from vanished town

UO historic preservation students are working with journalism students to capture and preserve oral histories from survivors of the 1948 flood that destroyed Vanport, the second largest city in Oregon during WWII. Historic Preservation Program chair and professor Jim Buckley found the opportunity a rich exchange between the programs. “Our students said ‘we don’t know how to interview’ and the J-school students said ‘we don’t know much about the neighborhood history,’ ” he says. “They learned from each other in doing the project.