Emerging Technology Center and Labs Director talks AI
MIAD’s Lubar Emerging Technology Center
In the context of an art and design college, artificial intelligence has a myriad of uses. Ben Dembroski, Managing Director for the Emerging Technology Center & Institutional Labs at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), was recently interviewed by BizTimes Milwaukee about how AI is shaping the future of creative fields.
Many fields, from healthcare to marketing, have found generative AI to be a powerful tool for improving efficiency. At MIAD, Dembroski helps students creatively adapt to and use this new technology to their advantage. Students are using AI to produce sculptures, organize their schedules and tasks to get the most out of college and even to mimic expensive motion capture technology for animations.
Quoted in the BizTimes article, Dembroski said, “… We’re really encouraging our students to understand that just by asking the questions of AI in their personal work, what they’re doing is they’re honing their skills so that when they enter the job marketplace next year or in two years, they’ll be entering a job marketplace where everybody is going to be trying to figure this out.”
This is not the first time that MIAD students and staff shared their experience with generative AI. Earlier this year, Frank Healy of CBS58 sat down with MIAD creatives who use AI in their artistic practice. In that interview, MIAD community members addressed fears around AI, along with the monumental benefits it is already offering creatives. Quoted in that article, MIAD Lab Technician – Rapid Prototyping Kayle Karbowski said “I think a lot of the fear comes from not understanding how AI works or what it does.”
Addressing that fear, as well as working with students to adapt AI use for their own practices, is part of Dembroski’s job in MIAD’s Lubar Emerging Technology Center. “In the face of uncertainty around just how AI will shape the job market for creatives and artists going forward, MIAD is taking a holistic approach to preparing students for the real world,” writes Maredithe Meyer for BizTimes Milwaukee.
Read the BizTimes article, check out the CBS58 feature, and learn more about MIAD’s Lubar Emerging Technology Center.
News
FYE Juried Media Arts Festival 2024 celebrates first-year student works
Seven students received awards at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design’s juried FYE Media Arts Festival – an in-house screening and celebration of video, animation and sound design works by current and former First-Year Experience (FYE) students held on November 26. The 56 entries were judged by multimedia and filmmaking professionals Emma B. Barany, Gabe Leistekow and Sara Sowell.
MIAD professor brings love of branding to projects and students
Brian Bowles ’01, professor of Communication Design at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), finds freelance projects “deeply fulfilling” and beneficial to himself and to his students.
Independence First and MIAD students produce adaptive clothing
Students in a junior-level Fashion and Apparel Design class at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) collaborated with Independence First to design adaptive clothing. Two Independence First employees worked closely with MIAD students on customized outfits specific to their needs and preferences.
‘GQ Rebranded’ series is a hit for MIAD alum’s new studio
When Justin Thomas Kay ’04 (Communication Design) opened his own studio, JTK Studio, Inc., in New York City early this year, he hoped that his work “would contribute positively to helping to make things look nicer and more enjoyable and speak honestly to people broadly.” The new GQ Sports series “GQ Rebranded” turned out to be a good fit to do just that.
MIAD student support system receives national SMILE Award
Choose Mental Health, the national voice for children’s mental health, named the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) the 2024 SMILE Award–Organization Winner for the college’s commitment to promoting mental health and well-being among its students.