Brown Hall Auditorium was the center of activity last Saturday as students, faculty, alumni and employers gathered to viewan array of student art and award prizes to the best and the brightest artists on campus.
Sponsored by the ETSU Engineering Design Graphics Extremists Club (EDGE), the non-traditional art show included everything from oil portraits and sculpture to 3-D creations and web-page designs.
“This is like the Academy Awards of the DMC,” said Heather Abels, EDGE president.
The DMC, or Digital Media Center, formerly known as the Advanced Visualization Library, offers a program that is one of the best in the country.
“ETSU can compete with much larger schools and offer the best in education in the field at a very reasonable cost,” Abels said.
Graduates from the program fill positions in corporations from Chicago and Atlanta to San Diego, and the field is predicted to be among the top 10 for the next 10 years.
Students’ work was judged by alumni and industry professionals, including ETSU alumnus Bill Harper, a 1998 engineering technology graduate who now works at Naughty Dog, a subsidiary of SONY Computer Entertainment.
Naughty Dog is best known for its PlayStation 2 creation and video games such as the Crash Bandicoot series and is currently working on a new series, Jax and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy.
Over 100 pieces in nearly 20 categories were judged, and cash prizes and certificates of excellence were awarded. In addition to judging, Harper also served as guest speaker of the event.
He remembered the university’s first show and added that this year’s event was much more professional. Abels was also excited about the show’s turnout.
“We had a lot of people to attend, and we got a lot of compliments, especially about our guest speaker,” she said.
EDGE, a relatively new club, is for students involved in the Digital Media Center.
“EDGE is a way to bring all the students together so we can motivate each other, make connections and become friends,” Abels said. “We’re like family.”
To find out more about EDGE or programs offered by the DMC, contact ETSU technology faculty member Primus Tillman at (423) 979-3154.

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