Faculty Spotlight – Haein Kang and Sarah Dunham
The Vanderbilt University Department of Art would like to Shine a Spotlight on two faculty who joined our team in the Fall of 2024.
Haein Kang, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Art
Internationally active artist Haein Kang explores uncharted territory at the intersection of art and technology. Born and raised in South Korea during a time of rapid democratization and industrialization, her artistic journey began in traditional painting before evolving into new media art deeply influenced by Bay Area conceptual art.
Her professional career was launched in 2002 when she received the Construct Award from the San Francisco Art Commission, followed by a major solo exhibition at the Seoul Olympic Museum of Art in 2009. With specialized training in computational media engineering from Sogang University, Dr. Kang creates innovative, poetic expressions that utilize emerging technologies.
Her boundary-pushing work has garnered international acclaim, including an Honorary Mention at the 2019 Prix Ars Electronica. Her academic credentials include a Ph.D. from the University of Washington, where her research focused on artistic applications of brain-computer interfaces.
Currently an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University, Dr. Kang maintains a dynamic creative practice that spans Nashville, Seattle, and Seoul, and continues to expand the possibilities of new media art.
See more of her work here – haeinkang.com/works
In the department, Kang is developing a new media curriculum that will expand the studio arts forward in the field of visual art.
Among the new courses being developed, Kang has offered the following courses:
ARTS 1502 – Installation: Immersive Art
Installation art has evolved into immersive art utilizing spatial augmented reality technologies. This studio art course explores the metaphysics of virtual reality and spatial illusion through hands-on practice in site-specific augmented reality and projection mapping techniques.
HONS-1850W-25
College Honors Seminar in Mathematics and Natural Sciences – Brain and Body Scaling
Can we control machines with our minds?
If so, what is the mind and where does it come from?
This course approaches these fundamental questions from a multidisciplinary perspective, including philosophy, physiology, neuroscience, and art. Students will experiment with several possible scenarios using brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), a direct communication channel between consciousness and machines. The course will culminate in the proposal of a breakthrough idea for a novel application of brain-computer interfaces.
Sarah Dunham
Assistant Professor of the Practice of Art
Sarah Dunham is the Managing Partner at communications design studio MTWTF and a Professor of the Practice at Vanderbilt University. Sarah’s work explores how design can contribute to a rich public realm and our capacity to imagine a world beyond capitalism. At MTWTF, Sarah shapes design processes, facilitates community engagement, and manages interdisciplinary design teams. The studio situates itself within the broadest discipline of design – the shaping of our shared physical and electronic environment – and creates communication tools that foster discussion and facilitate change. Sarah has led projects with clients including the Civic Data Design Lab, the Brookings Institution, the National Public Housing Museum, the Equal Rights Heritage Center, and the Humanities Action Lab. Sarah has an M.Arch from California College of the Arts and a Bachelors in Studio Art from Wake Forest University. She is a 2024 Independent Projects Fellow with the Institute for Public Architecture; a 2023 Design Writing Fellow with The Writing Space; a Fellows Forum Grant Winner with Glen Cummings through the Design Trust for Public Space; and a member of the Design for Social Impact jury for the Core77 Design Awards.
See Dunhams work here: mtwtf.com/
Dunham joined to the department to offer graphic design – an area that has been consistently a point of interest of students that progress through the Studio Arts classes. While teaching, Dunham is also spear-heading the development of a Design Minor – a brand new offering through Studio Arts.
Related courses Dunham currently teaches include:
ARTS 1505-01: Typography and Representation
Design has come to be recognized as a professional practice, an economic force, and a potent form of personal and cultural expression. In this studio course, we will explore graphic design through projects, reading discussions, in-class exercises, and presentations. Topics include form, color, contrast, hierarchy, scale, material, image, and typography.
Projects will focus on typographic expression across a range of mediums. We will work with data collected by organizations like the Endangered Languages Alliances to use non-Western typographic to help us better understand Western typography.
ARTS 1505-02: Visual Identities
Design has come to be recognized as a professional practice, an economic force, and a potent form of personal and cultural expression. In this studio course, we will explore graphic design through projects, reading discussions, in-class exercises, and presentations. Topics include form, color, contrast, hierarchy, scale, material, image, and typography
Projects will focus on the creation of visual identities — for organizations and exhibitions. We will work with the Vanderbilt University Museum of Art to create the visual identity for an upcoming exhibition of prints. The work that is created during this course will be produced and installed for the exhibition opening in the fall of 2025.