MHC instructor wins Digital Alberta award

By Mo Cranker on December 4, 2018.

mcranker@medicinehatnews.com
@MHNmocranker

An instructor at Medicine Hat College recently won a provincial award for a digital art installation he did as part of his Masters program at the University of Edinburgh.

James Kuehn teaches in the visual communications program as well as the built environment engineering technology program and he was recently celebrated at Digital Alberta’s 2018 Ember Awards in Edmonton.

“It’s one of those things where I put my name in not to win, just to see how my work stood up against the work of others around Alberta,” said Kuehn. “I ended up watching the livestream the night after it was streamed and ended up surprised seeing myself as the winner.

“I was surprised and thrilled to win. Seeing my work with no budget stand up against all of these amazing other projects was really amazing.”

Digital Alberta is a not-for-profit that works to find diversification of Alberta industry towards technology and is involved with basically everything digital. Kuehn says the project took about 16 weeks to create and he is happy with the outcome.

“The project I submitted was a dissertation for my final my final project for my Masters in digital media design,” he said. “The topics in it surround the theme of human-computer interactions — it’s something that’s evolving very quickly.

“Everyone has a phone now in their pockets and we’re seeing things being introduced to homes like Alexa and Echo Dot. I think it’s important to look at how those interactions are benefiting us or detracting from our experiences.”

Kuehn says the video will not be made public and that it has been shown to an audience before at The Hive downtown. He says it is a very interactive show with different audiences interacting with it in different ways.

Kuehn says he completed his degree in the summer and is now focused on spending time with his family, his teachings at the college and on the next Downtown Art Walk.

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