Mowgli Gunn: Engineering Enables Art
Mowgli Gunn with light fabricated by Chey Smith (Strat Comm'20, mCTD'20).
Gunn provided design and fabrication consultation.
"My experience in coming back to school has been more supportive than I could have imagined. The IDE program is specifically built for engineers to personalize their experience on campus and this act of personalizing your experience on campus is my advice. Taking the words from Julia Bryan-Wilson: “Rather than waiting for someone to give us permission, we were trying to make our own culture.” I feel like this is what IDE is about.
I know it is scary to do something out of the norm, but if you are excited about some niche thing, you will have peers and professors that find it equally intriguing, so go out on that branch."
For integrated design engineering (IDE) student Mowgli Gunn, engineering enables art. Six years ago, Gunn left school to pursue their passion for rock-climbing and highlining, a version of slacklining pursued at great heights.
"I ended up buying a school bus and moved into a van-building maker space in North Boulder. That's where my life really changed," Gunn said.
Gunn was invited to help fabricate a large-scale sculpture for Burning Man, a barter-economy arts festival that takes place in the middle of Black Rock City, Nevada every year.
In seeing the process of public art fabrication, Gunn realized that they had a role to fulfill.
"I love problem solving. I love CAD design and I enjoy engineering," they said, "and opening that door into the art world, I realized, artists need engineers, and that's where I would thrive."
From there, Gunn launched their own design consultancy, Mowgli's Concepts. In building a business, they sought out the advice of one of their mentors, Brendan Picker-Mahoney, the Public Art Manager for the City of Boulder.
"He just looked at me and said, you should go back to school," Gunn said.
Gunn decided to pursue their dreams with IDE because the program allows students to choose from six engineering emphases and integrate it with a concentration of their choice. Gunn explained that though IDE didn't have a concentration for public art and sculpture at the time, they could make one.
Gunn is currently working closely with instructor Martha Russo, who offers a class through the Idea Forge called Art, Design, and Engineering: Thinking and Making. This cross-disciplinary environment is part of what has inspired Gunn to start an Art in Public Spaces club.
"Our mission is to bring together students, staff, and faculty across disciplines and work with professional artists, designers, and engineers to bring cutting-edge art to public spaces on the CU Boulder campus," Gunn said.
Gunn said that they think campus is a wonderful place for students coming back to school after time away. Staff and faculty, they explained, are excited for you to do something out of the box.
"If you're a non-traditional student, you have the life experience, and IDE is a really inspiring and really powerful place to come back to with a goal in mind," they said.
If you're interested in getting involved with the Art in Public spaces club, email Mowgli Gunn at Mowgli.Gunn [ at] colorado.edu.