Abigail Dunagan, Campus Carrier arts and living editor

The four years that a student spends in college is a time of growth, learning and change. Now that the school year is coming to a close, Berry will soon send fond farewells to the class of 2024. Depending on the field of study, many seniors will have to compile a portfolio or take a capstone course that requires them to demonstrate the array of skills and knowledge that they have acquired during their time at Berry.

This past Saturday, senior creative technologies and computer science major MJ Shaffer presented their capstone titled “Sonic Spectrum: LGBTQ Music Icons of the Future.” This was a DJ and visual show put on by Shaffer held in the Hackberry Lab that aimed to bring attention to the challenges faced by LGBTQ artists in the music industry.

For those majoring in the field of creative technologies, this final project is completed through the course CRT 499 I Design Project Capstone that is offered during the Spring semester. This is a project-based course that allows students to design and build a concept that solves an open-ended need. This class follows the class CRT 450 Professional Development Seminar II that is offered in the fall. These courses are designed to be taken during the senior year with the goal of allowing students to develop the skills necessary for the job market. 

Clinical Assistant Professor of Creative Technologies Zane Cochran has taught CRT 499 I for the past nine years. According to Cochran, he challenges his students to think about how they can make their capstone project something that will catapult them into their professional life and catch the attention of future employers. The capstone allows students to choose between three different pathways: innovation, enterprise and advocacy. Innovation focuses on creating an improved technology, enterprise refers to commercializing a product and advocacy challenges students to use their project to spread a message. 

“In general, the creative technologies capstone is an opportunity for students to define a project that has a lot of personal meaning to them,” Cochran said. “It also allows them to combine a lot of the different technologies and skills that they have learned throughout their four years and to combine those into one passion project.” 

Shaffer has had experience DJing for several shows in the past.  According to Shaffer, this project fits into the advocacy pathway of the capstone. They have been working on this capstone for the entire semester, and preparation involved coding the lights in the space to fit with the songs and researching the artists whose music would be played. 

“The overall message was just exploring some of the challenges that LGBTQ artists face in the industry,” Shaffer said. “Some of the issues that they have had to grapple with as they have found stardom or some of the negative pushback that they have had from people.”

Visiting Clinical Instructor of Creative Technologies Chris Whitmire said that in order for a capstone project to be successful it has to be worked on consistently throughout the year. Students are able to complete the project at their own pace, but with other class obligations it can be challenging to find time to work on their final project. The capstone is intended to be something that represents the student’s time at Berry College, and it can be difficult to do well with such a broad topic. 

“That’s kind of an intimidating thing,” Whitmire said. “If you say, ‘hey student, I know you have been here four years, but make one project to celebrate your whole body of work. It has to be exceptional, but do whatever you like.’ What do you choose? That’s a big challenge.”

Shaffer said that while DJing this set has been similar to the shows that they have done in the past, they have learned more about video editing. Working on this interactive presentation has helped them learn more about different career opportunities in design for museums or concerts. Shaffer hopes that guests at the show will be open to learning more about the different       music artists. 

“I hope that people will expand their horizons and think more about what an artist’s identity means to them, and how that comes through in their music,” Shaffer said. “That is so important. A lot of songs people will just listen to on a surface level, but it’s also really important to get to know the artist and to understand their identity.”