Duke Kunshan students, faculty and staff attend the second Zijin Award College Student Design Exhibition in Nanjing, China
By DKU Staff
Duke Kunshan received two prizes at the second Zijin Award College Student Design Exhibition (CSDE) in November, scooping best organization and excellence in exhibition for its engaging display space.
Junior student Yinan Du also won an excellence award for her stop-motion animation ‘Truth Hurts,’ which explores how internet boundaries fragment understanding among different domains.
The CSDE, which ran Nov. 12 to 15 at the Nanjing International Exhibition Center, featured displays from 150 colleges and universities including the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts, Tongji University, Wuhan University, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, and Macao University of Science and Technology.
Using a 54-square-meter display area, Duke Kunshan’s delegation created a DKU Cinema to show six student short films: ‘Truth Hurts’ and ‘Wolf Is Coming’ by Du; ‘Light’ by Yufan Zhang; ‘Creativity Generator’ by Xiaomeng Yan; ‘Religion in your Mind, Religion in Reality’ by Shengyue Zhu; and ‘Street’ by Dongchen Zhu, Yuxuan Leng and Yuwei Gu. Topics ranged from quarantine to Buddhism to light pollution.
DKU Cinema showed six student short films, including the prize-winning ‘Truth Hurts’
Duke Kunshan also displayed 11 works of photography capturing lifestyles in six different cities around the world, along with a voice-modification application developed by students in the Data Science Research Center and an interactive selfie application by junior student Zhuoran Ma.
‘I’m very fortunate to be able to participate in a design exhibition of such a large scale,’ said second-year student Yufan Zhang. ‘The works from professional design colleges and the thinking and values conveyed behind them truly opened the door to a new world. One of the biggest inspirations is the interdisciplinary use of art in the design process.’
Faculty members Kaley Clements and Liqi Ren selected projects for the CSDE after an extensive review of student work, while artist and professor Zairong Xiang designed the display area with guest lecturer Jinyu Liu.
Frank Tian, director of career services, whose office organized for a group of around 50 students, faculty and staff to visit the CSDE, said the event presented a good opportunity for students to communicate and learn with peers from top art colleges across China.
‘Through this exhibition, our students can understand the cutting-edge art trends,’ he said. ‘It can stimulate innovative ideas, as well as help them build their professional networks by establishing contact with companies in cultural and creative industries.’
The photo gallery that formed part of Duke Kunshan’s display area
