4D Liberal Arts

In May 2019, with the support of a Multi-institutional Innovation Grant from Bringing Theory to Practice, neighboring institutions Oberlin College and Conservatory and Lorain County Community College (LCCC) launched the 4D Liberal Arts Initiative. This partnership reimagines the liberal arts through innovative applied curricula and infuses innovation with context through critical analysis and historical inquiry. Faculty-led workshops in May and August of 2019 at Oberlin College’s Center for Convergence (StudiOC) and LCCC’s Campana Center for Ideation and Invention sparked multidisciplinary collaborations.

Creative writing students at LCCC visited Oberlin’s campus, touring the Special Collections and the Letterpress Studio located in the Terrell Main Library to learn about the history of typeface and printing technologies, make their own prints, and consider the role of print design in fostering meaning. Oberlin students learning about the development of the modern Maker Movement visited LCCC’s Fab Lab (the second in the nation after MIT) to learn the history of these community-oriented fabrication laboratories. Students at both institutions gained a window into each other’s lives through the Postcard Project, a pen pal exchange between partner courses at LCCC and Oberlin.

The 4D initiative also supported in-person collaborations, with LCCC students in Gregory Little’s drawing, animation, and digital design course joining Oberlin students from Holly Handman-Lopez’s choreography course to explore intersections of Virtual Reality and dance. The faculty then presented their research at the Conference for Research on Choreographic Interfaces at Brown University in early March, 2020. The 4D Liberal Arts initiative was highlighted by local media in a feature published by Crain’s Cleveland Business. While the work of the grant was cut short due to the Covid-19 crisis, plans are already underway for continued collaborations across institutions for the 2020-21 academic year.

Why 4D?

The 4D of the title evokes both speculation of a fourth dimension and 4D (shape-morphing) printing, the next frontier in digital fabrication. In 3D printing, digital instructions produce layering of material into a three-dimensional shape, but in 4D printing this three-dimensional shape possesses the capacity to transform over time, with matter itself becoming flexible. The 4D Liberal Arts Initiative seeks to capture both meanings of 4D: the search for new paradigms (a fourth dimension) and the promise of transformation.