As an artist, Michael Berrios ’16 has focused on music composition, but he’s expanding his vision through his digital arts coursework, in particular the Electronic Arts Workshop with Ella Gant and Sam Pellman. “The workshop is collaborative and cross-disciplinary, so a person specializing in audio production would take on video, and vice-versa. This enhanced my artistic skillset, particularly my abilities in audio post-production and video editing,” says Berrios, a digital arts minor and religious studies major. A project that stands out for him – a video piece he created with two multimedia technicians that focuses on existentialism and distortion.
Shooting video at 120 frames per second in Hamilton’s film studio in the new Kennedy Center, the three set up hard lights on the actor – Berrios – who fell onto a couch. He manipulated the lighting in Adobe Premiere to make it seem as if he’d fallen into a void. The piece resolves with lights illuminating his face to a soundtrack of lilting synthesizers. The work was installed in the Kennedy Center atrium for passersby to experience with headphones and a TV monitor. Post-Hamilton, Berrios is aiming to use the audio, film production, written and oral communication skills he’s acquired in a career in public relations and marketing.
