As Fargo-Moorhead welcomes a long-awaited spring season, Concordia rejoices in song. A solo sung by a bronze beetle, to be exact. A cross-collaboration between the art, science, and music departments on campus has brought a flight of insects to life. Dwight Mickelson's ART 340 Sculpture course spent the last few months of the spring semester preparing a special selection of sculpture art.
Piper Whipple ’23, one of the beetle sculptures, describes the intricacies of design required. Clay and wax molds were created to form the proper outlines and ensure the sculptures were fit for music making.
“After it was all put together, we had to create a piping system to allow air out of the plaster when the bronze was poured (as our wax figures would be covered in plaster, and the wax would be melted out to leave hollow plaster),” Whipple said.
Wax beetle mold
“After the piping system was finished, the wax sculpture was submerged in plaster and left to dry. Then the plaster was placed upside down in the kiln to melt out the wax,” Whipple said. “Next, was bronze casting day. We poured hot, molten bronze into our plaster molds. After a few minutes, it solidified and we could chip all the plaster off of it, leaving our bronze sculpture with all the bronze piping.”
ART 340 students visited the Integrated Science Center’s collection of beetles to draw inspiration.
ISC beetle collection
After the structures were complete, it was time for music-making. Tor Kjartansson, a fourth-year student in Dr. Steven Makela’s Music Tech II class, helped compose the works.
“We’ve been working on these compositions for about a month or so,” Kjartansson said. “I have enjoyed getting to participate in one of my music classes while also being able to explore my interest in three-dimensional art. This experience has made me realize that we need to continue to have more collaboration between classes in different studies.”
Using a music software program, Kjartansson tapped on the beetle, recording and modulating the sound. The sculpture used in his presentation was created by Laura Pancoast ’23.
“Sculpting the beetle was a musical process in itself,” Pancoast said. “Working with this particular form, there are several interesting sounds that come about.”
While collaboration was the end result, both the art and music students had no idea their separate projects were being brought together until recently.
“Since we had no idea, any potential bias was removed from each form,” Pancoast said.
The music and art were created with a sense of purity. In this way, there were no limitations.
Laura Pancoast '23 (left) and Tor Kjartansson '23 holding her beetle.