Tisch alumna named a MacArthur Fellow

These days, Camille Utterback is a digital artist living in San Francisco. But a decade ago, she was a student in the Tisch School of the Arts' Interactive Telecommunications Program, where she received a master's degree in 1999.

Her experience in the program and subsequent career in digital art have taken her far. Last month, Utterback, 39, was named one of 24 MacArthur Fellows in 2009, an honor given to people who have demonstrated originality and dedication in their creative endeavors and a great capacity for self-direction.

In particular, Utterback was selected as a result of her efforts in using digital technologies to create visually captivating works that redefine how viewers interact with art. For example, in one of her projects, a video camera films where the audience stands and then uses the image data to create art that responds to the audience in different ways.

"People explore. They are in a space and can tell it's reacting to them, but they don't know the rules, so they just start experimenting with the ideas," Utterback said about her project. "I think that's what's important about the work, about people discovering things on their own."

Utterback said her time in ITP enabled her to avoid being intimidated by technology. She recalled a particular class in which she worked on a project that used web applications to create avatars.

"We were basically making visual adaptations of people at a distance," Utterback said. "That, to me, was this early idea of how to create more presence using technology: the idea of technology not taking us away from our bodies but taking us into awareness of them."

ITP Chair Red Burns said Utterback was an "extraordinary" student during her time in the program.

ITP, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary this year, offers a curriculum that provides a hands-on approach to experimentation, production and risk-taking.

"What we've done is create a space where people from very different disciplines collaborate and create new things that have never existed," Burns said.

As a MacArthur Fellow, Utterback received a no-strings-attached, five-year grant worth $500,000.

"The goals of the program are really whatever the goals of the people are that are selected," said Christina Lovely, a program associate at the MacArthur Fellows Program. "Our goal is to enable people to do what maybe they weren't able to do before because of various constraints."

Utterback said she hopes to use the grant to focus on select projects.

"I can really focus on some new projects and say no to other things," she said. "You can be more choosy and devote some more time to work with other people, not necessarily toward a specific commission but to just sink into some new ideas."

Utterback said her experience as an ITP student was invaluable in shaping her career and success.

She said: "I think the spirit and curiosity and just willingness to try things is what I really learned a lot from there, and I'm very grateful for it."