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Senior class gifts in the past have run to outdoor clocks, cherry trees, and furniture for the Gelman Library—handsome and useful gifts all. This year, however, the Class of 2002 sought to come up with something a little different, and they succeeded big-time.
The image you see here is, obviously, a George Washington mosaic. It was produced for the graduating seniors by the Canadian firm Magic Mosaics by a unique method: The mosaic comprises some 1,600 images submitted by members of the senior class. The images were blended into an original image. That image was fed into a software application to create a template by dividing the image into color-coded vector shapes. The software then runs through the library of snapshots provided, picking those that most closely match the template in terms of tone, shape, and depth. Ultimately, the image is fine tuned through digital enhancements to sharpen the colors and tonal density.
The finished artwork now hangs by the elevator bank on the Marvin Center’s first floor. Students contributed money as well as images to defray the $6,000 cost of the gift. And, while the average gift has been around $25 per graduate, one person pledged and fulfilled a $1,000 gift.
Perhaps best of all, reports credit this year’s gift with generating a tremendous amount of energy and excitement among the students—a decidedly positive way to wind up your time at GW! Copies of a poster made from the artwork are for sale in the GW Bookstore.
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