By Jessie Weisner

Local professor wins award for digital project

Dec 5, 2018 | 3:44 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — A local professor famed for bringing new ideas and technologies into the classroom has won a provincial award.

James Kuehn is an instructor at Medicine Hat College, and was recently celebrated at Digital Alberta’s 2018 Ember Awards in Edmonton.

Kuehn’s submission was his final project for his Master of Digital Media Design program at the University of Edinburgh.

“I found it as being a nice way to cap off my masters studies for the last couple years which I’ve been working on,” says Kuehn.

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The project, called Digital Self…ish, combines skills like 3D modelling, programming and video to allow people to interact with the digital image.

“On the technical side I was looking at how can I integrate physical objects and have a human computer interaction physically for an audience or participants,” says Kuehn. “Then be able to project that up onto a screen so that the audience would participate and they’d be able to influence what was being projected in the gallery.”

It’s only been open to the public once during the Art Walk in July, but Kuehn says he wants to show it at more galleries and events.

He says the interactive aspect of the project makes it so it will never look the same two times.

“The great thing about it because it’s interactive and the participant really influences whats up there,” says Kuehn. “It’s not gonna be the same thing, even when you walk away, what was on screen when you left will not be there when you return because when other people participate it influences in other ways as well.”

Kuehn says the technology from his project can be applied to traditional industries like archaeology and architecture as well as digital design.