A Ball State University professor and 11 Ball State students are attempting to draw positive attention to one of Indiana's biggest rivers. "Streams," a seminar sponsored by the Virginia Ball Center for Creative Inquiry, takes students on a journey along the White River, connecting architectural technology with natural elements, Kevin Klinger, architecture professor and seminar teacher, said.
"The question is, can our understanding of our environment around us be effective in a different way through the lens of digital technology?" he said.
Most of the students in the seminar are from the College of Architecture and Planning, but are of various class standings. This gives the seminar diversity and allows everyone to bring something to the project, Klinger said.
The students have tied together the natural aspects of the White River and architectural ideas to create structures to place along the river. The group completed five structures in Daleville and will produce work at four additional locations.
At Mounds State Park, near Anderson, the students are producing a sound chamber that will amplify the noise of the running river water, seminar participant Christopher Peli said.
The group will finish its project at Mounds State Park within the next two weeks. The students will also complete sites in Muncie, Indianapolis and Nobelsville.
The Muncie site will be built at the Minnetrista Cultural Center and is significant because the river was an important place for the American Indians who lived nearby, Peli said.
One goal of the seminar is to connect people to the river, which is usually overlooked, Peli said.
"The reason we're here is because we see the beauty and potential there," he said. "It's framing something that's been neglected or understated."
People don't connect their daily routines with how the river affects nature, Peli said.
The group has not seen many people down by the river, he said.
"It's not a place a lot of people go to," Peli said. "I think that would change if there was something to bring them there."
Horner said when people understand the river, they understand their own surroundings through it.
Through the project, seminar participant Jorie Garcia said she had learned how to work with nature, not against it.
"Working with the system will get you further than working against it," she said. "When you take time to really think about what you're doing, there's more of a permanence to what you're doing."
Horner said working with the river as part of the seminar has made him see that architecture can have a natural facet that often isn't seen.
"There's a whole different world architecture could be about that's currently untapped," he said.
The products of the seminar are allowing the students to learn, but they are also able to offer a new experience to people, Horner said.
"It's become less about studying and more about providing something," he said. "We're providing a place for people to engage in the river, but at the same time, it's a testing grounds for our thoughts and our processes."
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