December 15, 2009

Owen Stowe ’11 Integrates Design, Music and Art

By Claire Gould

What do toothpaste, turtles, pearls,

corkscrews, bumble bees and galaxies all
have in common?
They're all types of marbles Owen Stowe
'11 researched for his Design Studies III's
"field guide" project, a spin on the traditional
guidebook that typically helps readers
identify wildlife or other aspects of nature.
Instead, Stowe and his peers collected and
researched a series of everyday objects.
"I photographed marbles from my
father's collection and then researched the Currently in his third year of the
types, their names and rules for different program, he looks forward to continue
games," he said. "I never realized there were working next fall with Wollensak as he
so many ways to play." completes his self-designed integrative
Stowe's final project featured a variety of senior project, an intensive research and
marble designs cut into circular shapes and design project that utilizes the skills the
placed them in a cloth bag alongside an Center's students learned through their
accordion-style booklet that described the participation in the program.
history, styles and game rules of marbles. "I plan to explore the visual
"The work was thoroughly collected and representation of music through art and the
beautifully crafted," Andrea Wollensak, reverse - music created by art," he said.
professor of art and co-director of the The musical aspect of the project was
College's Ammerman Center of Arts and inspired by the Electroacoustic Music and
Technology, said. Sound Design course Stowe recently took
Stowe, who hopes to become a graphic with music professor Arthur Kreiger, a
designer, is a participant in the Ammerman popular professor who specializes in
Center for Arts and Technology, a certificate electronic music and composition.
program that combines the study of "This course opened my eyes to more
technology and the arts through independent ways that art and technology can interact,"
studies, internships, workshops and said Stowe. "So I decided to integrate sound
integrated art and science courses, and is a and music with my 2-D and 3-D design
graphic intern for College Relations. work."
"I was so excited to join the Center,
because it offers a unique, truly
interdisciplinary opportunity for study, and
takes my liberal arts education one step
further," Stowe said.