Graphic Design MFA Graduation Show,

About the event

PROPOSAL FOR THE YALE GDMFA 2017 THESIS SHOW

THE LASER SHOW

This year’s final exhibition of work from the Yale Graphic Design MFA department features the work of 18 graduating designers—all translated and presented in laser form. Since the technology was developed in the late ‘60s, lasers have been used for everything from nightclubs and festivals to cutting steel and correcting eyesight, while making up part of the very infrastructure of computers and the Internet. 

Rather than conceiving of the exhibition as a retrospective or “salon-style” show, we will focus on the event—the specific, discrete event in time. Beginning on May 10, the show will change and develop over the course of two weeks, building up toward the event itself on May 20. On that day, the exhibition will crescendo in a one-time performance of new and adapted work that will take place over the course of the day. Spread over the whole of the Green Gallery at the Yale School of Art, the show will unfold through space and time, changing from moment to moment.

By translating our work to laser projections, we are processing our work into a medium which none of us knows and which, by its nature, creates an intense, unfamiliar experience not quite at home in a “white cube” gallery. The laser reduces everything to a single point of light moving along persistent lines, forcing graphic designers to work with a new, self-imposed constraint. Rather than treating our work as objects meant for permanence, we will emphasize the transitoriness and ephemerality of graphic design today, dominated as it is by screen work and loose networks of transmission. The continuously moving point of the laser translates everything into pure line, giving the illusion of constancy through a constant state of flux.

We are excited to share this exhibition of our work with the Yale School of Art community, the Graphic Design community, and an international audience. Your funding contribution will allow us to reach the full potential and absurdity of the laser as a medium and this opportunity and help us to continue the Yale School of Art’s tradition of challenging and extending the graphic design discipline. 

Why should you sponsor?

Timeline:

Present: 

Sourcing and testing industry grade laser projection equipment

Equipment and safety setup planning

Exhibition layout and opening event planning

Sponsorship and outreach

March–April: 

Exhibition identity design

Translating graphic design work into laser line work

Finalizing exhibition layout

Event performances planning

May
Exhibition construction and install

Print materials production (catalogs, invitations, publicity)

Exhibition Crew

We are the graduating class of the Graphic Design department at the Yale School of Art currently planning this year’s final exhibition, which will go up this May just before our graduation. As the show has an extremely tight budget, we are currently looking for donors and sponsors and hope your organization may want to be involved in the process.

Contact the Organizer Contact the Organizer