The Ball Building could soon receive a $21 million digital face lift.
Because of a Lilly Endowment grant, what is now empty space will be infused with the most advanced digital capabilities on campus, said Philip Repp, the director of the Visualization, Imaging and Animation Lab.
The grant, the largest in Ball State's history, is being used to implement and study digital technology in the media with labs and new offices.
The labs will be open to students, but they will differ from those in Bracken Library, the Student Center and the Robert Bell Building. The emphasis for the new labs will be on digital media applications.
"These labs aren't focused on traditional word-processing focuses," Repp said. "It's a lot different focus than those kind of labs."
"Imagine a lab where you can do very high-end graphics, animating and editing," said Scott Olson, dean of the College of Communications, Information, and Media.
The labs, though, are a small part of the renovation. Students could also have a digital-audio laboratory, a digital news studio and a digital production and post-production lab. The current studios are all analog, Olson said, and about half of the cameras and two-thirds of the editing equipment are digital.
Hypothetically, the renovations could also allow for interactive conferences between classrooms around the world with the Global Media Network, and plans include a Wireless Innovation Institute, where one can study the media implications of wireless technology, Repp said.
With a new focus on digital technology comes a need for more classes, and the grant includes funding for new classes and a new graduate program. Olson said he is already evaluating applications for fellowships from faculty.
The Global Media Network, the labs and other additions will not require any additional space, though. Part of the grant's stipulations was that it not fund more building construction.
"Lilly made it very clear that they would not fund brick and mortar," Olson said. "They were not funding a new building."
Olson said he doesn't expect analog technology to disappear.
"People still make hand copies of the Bible, but they do it for the love of the craft," he said. "The digital world is of pixels, but you can't touch it."
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