In the “Six Floors Under” video game, users try to beat ghosts on different levels of the character’s journey to the afterlife.
Senior game design major Sally Juettner showed how the student-designed game worked during one of the activations on Thursday, Dec. 5 at the college’s “Power of Persistence” gala held at the Student Center.
Juettner was narrative director of the game, a creative collaboration made in the Game Studio 1 class this fall. She said the “iterative” process of building the game involved many moving parts, leaving the team gratified to show the final product.
“I’m very proud of it,” Juettner said. “It’s been a semester-long thing, and I think we’ve done some really good work on it, so I’m very happy to be able to show it here.”
Juettner was part of one of the eight student teams invited to display their creative work at the college’s annual fundraising gala, which has raised about $1.5 million for scholarships in the past two years.
Attendees strolled through immersive sets at the third annual gala to see student and alumni-made exhibitions. Many of the students exhibiting their activations were presenting their work from their capstone classes, where they spend a semester working towards a project in the field of their major.
The gala’s activations also included work from alums like Nicole Nicolalde, who graduated earlier this year with a bachelor’s in music. She was presenting her range of work at her first gala, which included photography, music and dance performance.
“It’s really nice being able to see different parts of the school come together and be showcased,” Nicolaide said. “I feel like we don’t always get the luxury of seeing what other majors are doing since our campus is spread out. It’s really cool to see everyone come together.”
Activations were held on the first, third, fourth and fifth floor of the Student Center. The groups included the SXSW in the School of Business and Entrepreneurship, the Career Center, the School of Film and Television, the creative writing and game design programs, Shop Columbia, street musicians, comedy improv, photography, illustration, fashion and the Chronicle.
A variety of art mediums were covered such as senior fashion design major Mikey Smith’s collection of environmental design, inspired by the connection and reliance humans have with nature, he said.
“We rely on nature to produce our food, our crops, and really our livelihood and without nature, the human population will fail,” he said. “So, hopefully my collection shows the beauty that nature has within it and inspires people to take more care and caution with it.”
Other fashion collections were showcased throughout the building, such as senior fashion design major Aurora Liston’s ‘Wallflower,’ from the Fashion in Motion: flow through fashion activation.
“When making the collection,” she said, “I listened to individual songs, so each look is inspired by a song that’s kind of been important to me throughout my life.”
Liston said she felt grateful to be a part of the gala, especially as it represents her time at Columbia drawing a close.
“It’s just kind of a culmination of my college life and experience,” she said. “It has all been very new and fast paced but it’s bittersweet since this is a part of my senior thesis collection. I’ve only got a week left.”
A sense of gratitude from the students and alumni circulated each floor of the building, as they were able to show off what they had extensively been working on. Brianna Minor, a junior fashion design major, presented her designs on manakins placed down the staircase to the first floor, featuring a white dress with colorful fringes throughout the piece.
“This means a lot because when you work so hard on it, you want to show it to other people,” she said. “Just to have them be able to appreciate and see what you’ve been working so hard on. It’s a great feeling to have.”
Additional reporting by Araceli Ramirez and Greer Stewart
Editor’s Note: The Chronicle’s reporting and coverage of the gala is separate from its participation as one of the student groups invited to provide a simulation for donors.
Copy edited by Angel Marie Guevara
Resumen en Español:
El jueves, 5 de diciembre, Columbia celebró su tercera gala anual en el Centro de Estudiantes, donde estudiantes y alumnos mostraron sus obras de arte. Las exhibiciones artísticas incluían proyectos en medios como la fotografía, la moda, videojuegos, entre otros. Asistentes a la tercera gala anual de Columbia vinieron para interactuar con los artistas, admirar su trabajo y donar dinero a la escuela.
Resumen por Sofía Oyarzún
