Kolos Schumy, assistant professor in the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts (DCMA) at NSU’s Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, developed his passion for combining art and technology in Hungary in the 1980s. He grew up playing games on a Commodore 64 and jumped into the computer gaming world while attending a fine arts high school where he received his associate degree in animation and graphic design. He then earned his master’s degree in visual arts from Hungarian University of Fine Arts. He found that his passion is digital experience design, a combination that incorporates his love of gaming and his talents as an artist.

His passion led him to Florida to experience Art Basel, and eventually he joined the faculty at NSU. Here, Schumy has found a supportive environment in which he can create new courses and introduce Art+Design students to cutting-edge technologies that provide unique opportunities for creative expression. He also continues to create his own art, including a recent installation for NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale.

“I’m always looking for new technologies to represent art, and virtual reality is a new way of public art,” Schumy explained. “I wanted to put my art in the museum or around the museum without doing anything particularly physical.”

Inspired by the Surrounded Islands documentation exhibit donated by the Christo Foundation, Schumy began experimenting with covering the museum in a digital format. After trying animated Tetris elements, gummy bears, and more, he discussed his ideas with Bonnie Clearwater, director and chief curator of NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale. Together, they decided to use sharks.

“Christo is the artist who covered large buildings around the world. He covered multiple islands in Miami in the ’80s,” Schumy explained. “He covered big things, and I can do that through virtual reality—without major construction.”

“We decided to cover the museum with sharks because the shark is NSU’s mascot,” he added. “Not only that, but the shark is symbolic, in my view, to shielding and protecting art in downtown Fort Lauderdale.”

Schumy hopes to continue working with the art museum to provide virtual reality experiences for both students and art lovers. In the meantime, he created a new course entitled Extended Reality to introduce students to different applications for designing characters, environments, and sculptures. For the final exam, he took the students to the Marine Environment Education Center, gave them virtual reality headsets, and had them create art on the beach.

Senior Art+Design major Raul Perez serves as Schumy’s teaching assistant and helped develop the extended reality course. When Perez first came to NSU, he majored in biomedical engineering. Most of his courses were focused on science and math, but he managed to feed his artistic side with at least one class each semester. When he enrolled in a graphic design class with Schumy as his professor, he decided to change his major to art. His work is now on display in the Cotilla Gallery at the Alvin Sherman Library through May 1 as a part of Metamorphosis, the 14th Annual Senior Exhibition. In his exhibition piece, Perez combines painting with a digital illustration.

“Getting to see my artwork take actual space in a gallery was a very surreal experience,” Perez said. “I know I’m an artist, but it didn’t quite feel real until that moment.”

Perez was honored by the Mark Lindsay Duncan Legacy Endowment for the Arts with the first Mark of Distinction Award for his augmented reality art piece, Sketchy Breaker. After the exhibition, Perez’s piece will become part of DCMA’s permanent collection. Digital is Perez’s preferred medium, and he enjoys seeing other students exploring the format.

“I like seeing that bit of wonder in everyone’s eyes,” he explained. “The virtual reality class is just the beginning. We’re growing and evolving with the times.”

Schumy couldn’t agree more. The senior exhibition features a wide range of mediums, from hologram art and digital paintings to content that can be viewed and interacted with through virtual reality headsets. One of his former students will soon lead a workshop on Unity, a software used to construct virtual reality games and experiences.

“We’re doing our best to research and discover cutting-edge technology that we can use for making art, design, and functional applications,” Schumy said. “We want to be the first, or at least the best, at educating the next generation of artists and virtual reality, digital experience designers.”

“We have to keep art alive, and it’s proven that art and science go hand in hand. Art gives inspiration to science. So, when you invest in art, it’s also an investment in science.”