University students will have the opportunity to hear ideas from their peers on March 9 at TEDxLSU.
Two groups of University students will present their ideas to the Baton Rouge community.
Music graduate students William Conlin and Nick Hwang will present a
collaboration of ideas about music and performance following the “evolve” theme for the event.
Advertising senior Kristen Hinton and landscape architecture graduate student Prentiss Darden will present on behalf of the University’s Create Lab, a team of University students that aims to find digital solutions in an ever-evolving media world.
Conlin and Hwang collaborate with other artists as much as possible and often work with different art mediums, sometimes creating their own instruments.
The duo met a year and a half ago and decided to apply as a duo for TEDxLSU.
“We felt it would create a stronger presentation,” said Conlin. “We do some things we don’t really see a whole lot. We do some unusual things.”
Hwang said not many presentations feature two people, and presenting together will help them stand out.
Hwang said he believes they were chosen to be student speakers because of the amount of interdisciplinary collaboration featured in their work and the uniqueness of the work they produce.
“It looks good on LSU that students are coming out with these types of skill sets,” Hwang said.
Both agreed the TEDx talk is an important forum for spreading ideas.
“It is local [and] related to Baton Rouge directly,” Conlin said. “It is hugely important for our image to the rest of the world.”
The duo said it hopes to present to the audience the theme of “evolve” in its own unique way of showing the audience rather than telling.
“Music is always changing and becoming different things,” Conlin said. “Our musical practice has evolved and changed with time and exposure to art and other disciplines. We try to absorb other areas.”
Conlin said he is excited to be part of what he feels is the biggest move of his career, given the high level of exposure his work will receive.
“To share the stage with so many high-profile speakers, that’s a great honor,” he said.
Hwang agreed, saying the presentation would be “both exciting and humbling to share my work with so many other people.”
Hinton and Darden will present the Create Lab’s ideas for The Times-Picayune’s transition from print to digital, an industry shift Hinton said can be seen worldwide. The group began work on the project for The Times-Picayune in December and will present its ideas to the company in May.
The Create Lab hopes to use the plan they create for the paper could be used on a global scale for any business with the need for a digital shift.
Darden said their project represents “the evolution of how people consume and create news.”
“This is an amazing opportunity for the Baton Rouge Community,” Hinton said. “LSU fosters a lot of creativity and innovation.”
The TEDxLSU event on March 9 will be in the Reilly Theatre with a live simulcast occurring in the Shaver Theatre.
“I think this is an amazing opportunity for the Baton Rouge Community. LSU fosters a lot of creativity and innovation.”
