By Olivia Semsel, Arts Management Intern
Our fifth Student Response Exhibition, Outside the Box, is open, and you can come check out the unique creations of 34 students (and vote for your favorite)!
This is our next post in a series featuring the student artists who have created one or more pieces displayed in Outside the Box.
Meet our featured artist, Michael Siegert!
Michael is a senior co-majoring in Computer Science and IMS, from Liberty Township, OH!
He came to Miami because of a memorable first visit to campus. He states, “The main reason is that I felt comfortable here… that and the squirrels. The story I always like to tell is about the day I came to visit Miami as a high school senior. It was the ugliest gray rainy day you can imagine. The traffic was loud and boisterous, and as a more quiet person I was immediately put off. However, that changed when my friend took me to show off his dorm. The dorm itself wasn’t that exciting, but, looking out the window, I saw a squirrel running about under one of the trees despite the rain. It was at that moment that I realized this was the place for me. Despite the rain I felt like that squirrel — excited and happy to be here. When I left that day, I immediately wanted to go back.”
At Miami, Michael is a member of Kode2Learn, Girls Who Code, Students for the Promotion of Writing, and The Lockheed Martin Leadership Institute. He likes to write poetry, watch YouTube, play video games, and read. His favorite genres of art is free-verse poetry. His dream job would be to work as a novelist, or a User Experience Researcher/Designer.
The Student Response Exhibition asked students to think beyond physical limits with the concept of a box. For Michael’s poem, titled Outside the Box: A Dissertation, he states,
“The idea behind this poem began with an image of a box with different words written on it. These were words like creativity, beliefs, and knowledge. In each of these words, I saw the barriers that define what our lives become and how we interact with people. The first part of the poem tries to explain that idea, but it also raises a question. If the abstract ideas that hold our reality together are the walls of the box, what does it mean to go outside the box? For me the answer was to look into other people’s boxes, to share and understand other’s realities. Sometimes, it feels like our lives are the only things that exist, but some of the greatest beauty in existence comes from being able to share what we see with others – even when our reality does not perfectly fit their perception of it.”
Come see the exhibition and vote for your top three favorites! Voting will continue until April 6 and the exhibition celebration and awards ceremony will be held on April 9, from 7-9 p.m.
