Professor and Chair of the Intellectual Life Committee
jhirschf@email.unc.edu
My artistic expression rests within two genres. The first is the
exploration of ethereal and sacred environments. Using the genre of
installation, I constructed architectonic spaces that control a viewer's
experience. Participants enter my
installations and move through carefully orchestrated moments that culminate in mystical spaces of atmospheric ambiguity and light.
My other great interest is in the area of
public art. My public work is continually influenced by a site's physical characteristics and its function.
Maintaining a close relationship to the surrounding
environment, the artworks effectively blend into their surroundings while
their design can be traced to the psychological, sociological, and
often, historical parameters of a site.
A project that combined my interest in ethereal spaces and my concern
for site is the mediation room at the
Doernbecher Children's Hospital.
The space uses geometry and light to create a numinous
environment. It is a work that makes evident my belief that silence and emptiness of
space have the capacity to stimulate our imagination and focus our attention inward.
My philosophy of teaching is based on the premise that ideas create
technology, and not the reverse. Technique should be a vocabulary with
which to express ideas. I encourage students to expand their visual
thinking, and to look beyond the obvious. With this philosophy as an
organizational structure, my "class side manner" is to stress hard work
and experimentation. I believe students should be encouraged to
investigate the many avenues open to them, and
to do so with a passion. While each has their own way of accomplishing
this, I have found success by maintaining an honest relationship with
students; encouraging commitment, clarity of thought, and the pursuit of
ideas.
Last modified
09/22/2006 09:53am.
) "Meditation Room, Doernbecher Children's Hospital")
) "Meditation Room, Hope and Healing Center")
