Seeing Past The Looks
April 22, 2015
SeeMe Exhibit aims to promote campus diversity discussions.
Junior Johanna DeGuzman flipped through the dozens of red cards that hung from a clothesline spanning Stamp Student Union’s Atrium.
The back of each card read, “See Me,” while the front showed one of many ways students at this university wrote how they wished to be seen beyond their physical appearance.
“An equal.” “An ally 4 LGBTQ.” “Blonde AND smart.”
The art exhibit, “SeeMe: More Than How I Look,” was a collaboration between the graphic design concentration and the Student Government Association’s Diversity Committee and was on display yesterday.
Graphic design professor Audra Buck-Coleman said the event was designed to promote the committee and prompt discussion about diversity on this campus.
“UMD loves to tout itself as being one of the most diverse [universities]; it is the most diverse flagship, all these sort of statistics and numbers,” Buck-Coleman said. “But what does that really mean? What does that look like for students, and what does that look like for the rest of the population on campus?”
The exhibit featured eight posters that showed different images depending on the visitor’s viewpoint. From one angle, viewers could see a quote from a student about how others might perceive him or her, and from the other, the poster displayed a photo of a student and a phrase explaining how he or she wished to be seen.
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