Originated by Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist in the 1990s, do it is an exhibition model that centers on the notion of interpretation. Starting with a manual of text-based, do-it-yourself instructions written by internationally renowned artists, the exhibition requires other artists to reinterpret and re-imagine the instructions from their own perspectives. Five of the participants in the exhibition sat for a panel discussion which emphasized the rich theoretical underpinnings of the exhibition, including such themes as interpretation and intention, repetition and difference, language and meaning, and the global vs. the local.

The do it exhibition was presented in the Philip J Steele Gallery and was curated by Cortney Lane Stell.

Vinton is the world-renowned inventor of "Claymation," having coined and trademarked the term, and created some of the most innovative dimensional animation in history. As a producer and director, Vinton has received five Academy Award Nominations for Best Animated Short Film, including The Great Cognito, The Creation, and Rip Van Winkle, as well as a nomination for Best Visual Effects for his feature film, Return to OZ.

In his lecture, Vinton provides a history of his exciting career and focus on the key milestones of animation, along with the changes in the audience and industry that have led to a worldwide renaissance in 3D animation.

Reading List
Suggested materials by Will Vinton can be found here.

Rick Valicenti is the founder and design director of Thirst/Chicago, a firm devoted to art, function and real human presence that has been influencing the design discourse internationally since 1988. In October 2006, Rick was awarded the prestigious AIGA Medal - the highest honor of the graphic design profession - for his sustained contribution to design excellence and the development of the profession.

Valicenti's lecture focuses on how designers often boast about being good problem solvers, but sometimes the extent of their problems deal only with issues like: "What typeface? What color? How can it be done by Friday?" Rick Valicenti provides insights into the responsive and inventive thinking he directs within the Thirst studio in an effort to make a difference by design.

Reading List
Suggested materials by Rick Valicenti can be found here.

Justin Cooper received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and obtained his BFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in places like Hong Kong, Berlin, Finland, and Brazil. Cooper's work emphasizes the liminal spaces and positions between form and concept, conscious and subconscious, real life and TV. For Cooper, characters become sculptures and sculptures become characters. 

Lucy R. Lippard is a writer, curator, activist, and author of 21 books on contemporary art and cultural criticism. At the time of her lecture, she had recently authored works including Down Country: The Tano of the Galisteo Basin, 1250-1782 (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2010), The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society, and On the Beaten Track: Tourism, Art, and Place (The New Press, 1997, 1999).

In her lecture, Lippard discusses “critical” landscape photography.

Reading List
Suggested materials by Lucy Lippard can be found here.

Ethan Jackson is a visual artist working in optical installation, lens-based imagery, and photographic media. He attended the University of Colorado at Boulder and Williams College. He is based in Portland, Oregon.

Scott Johnson obtained his BFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder and his MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. He presently teaches at Colorado College in Colorado Springs.

In their lecture Jackson and Johnson address the work in Light | Drift and their history of shared interests. They provide visual and historical context for key aspects of the works in the show and present important works from past years of parallel production. Their discussion will include ideas of vision and representation, art function and practice, and relationships to meaning and rationality. Jackson and Johnson will also address the collaborative process in present and previous works.

Doss is professor and chair in the Department of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where she teaches courses in American, modern, and contemporary art and cultural studies. She is the author of Benton, Pollock, and the Politics of Modernism: From Regionalism to Abstract Expressionism (1991), Elvis Culture: Fans, Faith, and Image (1999), and Twentieth-Century American Art (2002), to name only a few. Her interests as an art and cultural historian have concerned issues of public reception and response as well as how diverse publics shape and direct culture.

In her lecture Doss focuses on various contemporary public art projects and the heated debates they often generate.

Reading List
Suggested materials by Erika Doss can be found here.

Raised by Japanese manga comics and hip-hop culture, and passionate about art and music since his childhood, SupaKitch found in the street a large choice of mediums and sources of inspiration that flourish in his work. His first graffiti dates back to 1990. Around 1994, graffiti took a major place in his life: under the moniker "Ride," he founded the HV crew with his friends. A year later, he met Hazy (photographer and graffiti artist) and Eone (music producer and graffiti writer), who led him to create his first works that combined various techniques (painting, photography and graphics) to explore the theme of music. 

Golan Levin is an artist, professor, and engineer interested in exploring new modes of reactive expression. His work combines equal measures of the whimsical, the provocative, and the sublime in a wide variety of online, installation and performance media. Through performances, digital artifacts, and virtual environments, Levin applies creative twists to digital technologies that highlight our relationship with machines, make visible our ways of interacting with each other, and explore the intersection of non-verbal communication and interactivity.

Levin's lecture focuses on the medium of response, and in the conditions that enable people to experience creative feedback with reactive artworks (that is, artworks that respond to a stimulus). Levin discusses a wide range of his own projects, with a particular attention to how the use of gestural interfaces, visual abstraction, and information visualization can support new modes of interaction, play, and self-discovery.