Art allows you to bring your imagination to life—and those who attended the digital art workshop at Capitol Modern on Feb. 27 saw this first hand.

“It was cool that everyone got to see their work and talk about it intertwining with the other pictures,” said Jay McConnell, a UH Mānoa student. “With the animations you can have some sort of life to them, which made the drawings pop more.”

The project got its start in 2018 when Professor MiHyun Kim walked into her classroom and was greeted by all her students being on their phones.

“One day I walked into my classroom and I noticed that nobody is interacting with each other, every single one of them was on their phone not talking,” said Kim. “I find that to be really bizarre, even though they’re all together, they don’t talk to each other and would rather be doing something else on their phone.”

In an effort to encourage connectivity among individuals, Kim’s digital art workshops start off with attendees being asked “What is your cultural identity?”

“I was really curious about how we as humans can share our experiences even though we have all very different backgrounds and experiences,” said Kim. “How technology and this collective creation can connect us together on a more personal level.”

This sparks conversations and highlights the similarities and differences that would otherwise go unnoticed. Since then, she has hosted digital workshops in several locations, including New York, Chicago, Austin, and China, with the most recent stop being Honolulu.

“By the end of the night the stories behind their [attendees] cultural identity and their childhood and their background became more nuanced and it was much deeper,” said Dr. Phoebe Hwang. “And that was probably the most exciting thing about the night’s workshop.”

Attendees learned that when it comes to expressing their artistic style, there are a range of facets that one can discover about themselves and those around them.