Research, creative works to be showcased at ClarkFEST

There’s only one place where you can find the mythological Venus in American art, natural farming, and bats in the same room. All these things and much more will converge at ClarkFEST, the University’s biannual presentation of undergraduate research.

More than 90 students are presenting research on more than 60 topics during Wednesday’s event. Students will display posters, visual art, and interactive media projects; they’ll also participate in roundtable discussions and deliver oral presentations across campus.

Among the participants is Carter Lee ’24, who will present “Belonging: A Photographic Exploration,” an exhibition that explores the concept of being a queer, trans, first-generation Korean American person. The studio art major is a recipient of the Sara Bickman Music and Arts Summer Internship for Undergraduates, the Tamara Gay Walker ’75 Memorial Fund award, and the Center for Gender, Race, and Area Studies Fellowship.

Accessibility is at the center of Lee’s work, and they want to start a dialogue on how art is valued in the academic world.

“Inaccessibility is pervasive in academia,” Lee says, “because overly complex writing is the standard.” Lee believes photography is vital in academic spaces because it “transcends language barriers and speaks volumes without saying a single word.”

Additional poster presentations include machine learning of lyrical style; an analysis of tree health in Worcester’s Longhorned Beetle regulation zone; identity across the Luxembourg, Belgium, German, and French borders; and “Ants on a bog?!,” a comparison of biodiversity on restored cranberry bogs in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

ClarkFEST will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 25, from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Student posters will be on display in Tilton Hall from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m., interactive media projects will be in the Center for Media Arts, Computing, and Design, and oral presentations will take place in ASEC.