Last year, the country broke out in rage when the 17-year-old silverback gorilla, Harambe, was killed. Cincinnati zoo officials were forced to make the difficult decision to kill Harambe after a three-year-old boy crawled into the enclosure and fell into a 12-foot-long moat. Harambe drug the boy through the moat and inadvertently risked ending the boy’s life. The encounter lasted 10 minutes before the decision was made to kill Harambe and save the little boy. This incident obviously shows a severe lack of responsibility of the zoo and a degree of negligence of the parents, but more importantly, it shows the extreme hypocrisy of the American people.

First of all, many people responded to this violent tragedy and parents’ reckless behavior with violent and thoughtless remarks. There were death threats plastered all over social media and people suggesting that the parents should be imprisoned for their negligence. While I do think the loss of Harambe is tragic and that the parents should be reprimanded in some way (possibly a fine or ban from the zoo), suggesting that the parents should be shot point blank or go to prison is too extreme.

Humans are flawed. We all make mistakes and, unfortunately, sometimes those mistakes cause devastating, irreversible consequences. Although the parents exhibited senseless behavior, they do not deserve death for their ignorance. It is illogical to conclude that a gorilla should be spared over an innocent child who had just started forming sentences. As an animal lover and activist myself, I am thrilled to see that so many people care, but we should be careful to not misplace our anger and sadness and to not allow passion to cloud our judgement.

Moreover, a large portion of people were enraged that this beloved creature had to die, but only a small portion of the inflamed bystanders are equally angered by the millions of land animals that are ruthlessly tortured and murdered every day. According to “A Well Fed World,” over nine billion land animals die every year, in the U.S. alone, for meat, dairy and egg consumption. Where is the outrage for these innocent animals? Land animals such as pigs, cows and chickens have proven themselves to be intelligent, compassionate companions, yet the vast majority of people choose to not care about their pain and suffering. Thousands of people shout expletives when Cecil the lion or Harambe the gorilla or elephants in zoos and foreign countries are killed, but choose to continue to inflict pain and death on animals by purchasing and using animal products. I am not attempting to downplay the deaths of Cecil and Harambe and elephants across our planet. Rather, I am trying to highlight the flaws in our thinking. Just because an animal is conventionally thought of as food does not mean that their suffering is non-existent.

Our culture has taught us that furry creatures, like dogs and cats, and beings closely related to our form, like apes, are superior to other animals. We have laws sending dog abusers to prison and, in stark juxtaposition, have laws protecting the disgusting practices of the meat and dairy industry. It is completely legal to grind male chicks alive, castrate piglets with no pain killers, and rape mother cows after separating her from her children. We have turned a blind eye and a numb heart to these malicious acts because they are committed for our pleasure. We have given ourselves the power to say that this animal is meant to be cherished, but this one is meant to be raped, beaten and eaten.  If anyone wants to be a crusader for animal rights and scathe the people who cause incidents like the death of Harambe to occur, then they need to open their eyes and realize that as long as they are consuming and using animal products, then they are also complicit with abuse and exploitation.

It’s old hat at this point, but at the beginning of the season, nobody could have predicted that  Tech men’s basketball would find itself where it currently is. However, those opinions gradually changed over the season and when the team narrowly missed the NCAA Tournament, there was a sour taste left everyone’s mouths.

That includes mine. Like head coach Josh Pastner, I was convinced that our quality wins and improvement over the course of the season would be enough to put the Yellow Jackets in the tourney, particularly considering the strength of the ACC. However, the committee made the choice to put plenty of other qualified teams in over us. I understand that, and at this point I’m happy we didn’t make the tournament. This year wasn’t the year we needed to go to the NCAA tournament; it wasn’t  even supposed to be a year where we qualified for any postseason tournament.

With that being said, I think the NIT was perhaps the perfect tournament for us to make this year. First, the games aren’t played at a neutral site until the semifinals. Lucky for us, this meant that we got to see two more home games in McCamish. These home games served as the perfect spring board for Tech to build momentum heading into the tournament. Had we made the NCAA tournament we most likely would’ve had our first game a decent way away from Atlanta, against quite the high seeded team. Particularly for a team inexperienced in such situations, that would have been a difficult experience indeed.

Second, it allowed the crowds to continue to build at McCamish. With Josh Pastner trying to reignite the idea of the Thrillerdome, a couple hyped up postseason games simply added fuel to a fire that was just beginning to burn. As the regular season wore on, a combination of giveaways and an unexpected influx of wins contributed to an increased fan turnout. Particularly in games such as the Indiana contest, which was nationally  televised, commentators consistently noticed the size and vigor of Tech crowds. That is the perfect antidote for the tepid image we had earned in the Brian Gregory years. And it might make the difference on the recruiting trail. Highly-touted forward Jordan Tucker, who was leaning towards Indiana over Tech, might think twice after watching the McCamish crowd rattle the Hoosiers (and the team thoroughly outplay now-unemployed coach Tom Crean’s bunch.)

I could talk for hours about the future of Tech basketball under Coach Pastner, because it is a lot brighter (and clearer) than it was under Coach Gregory. He has demonstrated a willingness to reach out that is difficult not to admire. But more specifically, these feats have been possible thanks in large part to fans.

Earlier this season, the Technique interviewed freshman guard Josh Okogie. Okogie took the opportunity to plead for more fan support. And whether it’s thanks to the Krispy Kreme donuts or free T-shirts or raffles or just their style of play, that support has come in spades.

So if you have shown up to a Tech basketball game, rumbled the bleachers and chanted, “Airball!” with the rest of the student section, pat yourself on the back. You have been part of the first season of what may well be a legendary turnaround. And whether Tech won their NIT championship game against TCU or not, that is something to relish.

Tech men’s Basketball continues to march on against all expectations. This Tuesday they beat Cal State Bakersfield 76-61. The win was the second straight wire-to-wire victory for the Jackets following their win against Ole Miss 74-66 in Oxford, MS.

Tech’s current four-game win streak in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) has come on the back of a strong offensive performance. After Tuesday’s game, the Jackets are 17-0 when scoring above 70 points this season; in all four of their NIT games they crested that mark. The offensive performance has been led by freshman Josh Okogie with other players chipping in for one or two of the games; Okogie has topped 20 points in each game with impressive efficiency.

The Jackets entered the NIT being given the No. 6 seed in the section of the bracket headed by ACC rival Syracuse. Through some luck and dwindling faith in a head coach, Tech hosted their first-round game against the 3-seed Indiana. The Hoosiers, uncomfortable with the idea of hot-seat coach Tom Crean being booed in front of a home crowd on national television, agreed to play at McCamish Pavilion. Head coach Josh Pastner paid for all student tickets to the game to pack the house in hopes of bringing home the win.

The energy in the dome was electric as Tech pulled away late to a 75-63 victory. Throughout another stroke of luck, higher seeded Georgia dropped their matchup to Belmont. Tech hosted Belmont the first Sunday of spring break with Pastner continuing to buy student tickets while also tacking on 1,800 Krispy Kreme donuts for fans attending the game. The Jackets grabbed a lead halfway through the first half and did not look back with their 71-57 win.

With the win against Belmont, Tech travelled to Oxford, Miss. to face Ole Miss after the Rebels upset 1-seed Syracuse. The road has been a tough place to play for the Jackets this season. With only two wins on the road heading into their game against Ole Miss the odds were stacked against them. The Jackets had played a solid pair of tournament game, but it was here that their streak was supposed to meet its end.

But Tech jumped out to an early lead and held it for the entire game. A scary moment came in the second half when Ole Miss came within four points and a packed arena roared to life, but Tech kept the lead and punched their ticket to New York City.

Tech faced upstart No. 8 seed California State University — Bakersfield, who had made their tournament run in a similar style to Tech. Both teams came into the game as great defensive teams, but Tech came out swinging early and continued their hot streak, even away from home. The win gave Tech its second ever berth in the NIT finals, with its first coming in 1971, 46 years ago.

The tournament was much smaller back then, and every game was played in Madison Square Garden. Tech reached the finals with wins over La Salle, Michigan and St. Bonaventure. After the time of writing, Tech will have faced off with TCU to determine who wins the 2017 National Invitation Tournament, an accomplishment that has catalyzed the likes of South Carolina and Baylor in recent years.

TCU’s path to the NIT finals has been quite different than Tech’s. The No. 4 seed from the Iowa region began their run with a close win over Fresno State. They then travelled to Iowa to face off against the top seeded Hawkeyes. In a slugfest, the Horned Frogs came out with a 94-92 victory. They then punched their ticket to Madison Square Garden with a rout over Richmond.

Tuesday night, after Tech took down Bakersfield, the Horned Frogs faced off with UCF. In the 68-53 victory, big man Vladimir Brodziansky was the leading scorer with 18 points in only 22 minutes on the floor. The biggest takeaway from this game was the offensive outburst from the Horned Frogs in the second half. TCU outscored UCF 39-22, showing that much like Tech, the second half is where they shine.

The biggest key for Tech will be holding steady on defense and forcing turnovers. A cursory glance at TCU’s tournament run shows they can put up plenty of points, but also winning in slower, more drawn out games.

Junior Ben Lammers has been on a hot streak, but will have his work cut out for him against Brodziansky. That will be the matchup to watch, and it will be important that Okogie and the rest of the team continue their offensive outburst. If the Jackets come out early like they have so far this tournament their chances are great for bringing home a postseason title.

This year’s Celebrating Teaching Day, where different groups showed off their work on teaching and faculty-development innovation, was held on March 14 in the Student Center Ballroom.

A large portion of those groups were Faculty Learning Communities: Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL)-sponsored teams of eight to 12 faculty members who collaborate over the course of a semester or year to develop a project around a teaching-related theme with a budget of $2,000.

Among the presenters was Dr. Todd Zakrajsek, associate director of fellowship programs in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of North , who argued for engaging “independent of pedagogy.”

“The concept is: to what extent is the student actually interested in and working toward acquiring some information in the classroom, however that’s being delivered?” Zakrajsek said.

Over 140 faculty members attended this year’s Celebrating Teaching Day, making it CTL’s largest event of the year.

While CTL primarily offers a support structure that faculty can tap into at any time of their career, it also plays a role in instructor assessment and administering the Course Instructor Opinion Survey (CIOS) and the Teaching Assistant Opinion Survey (TAOS).

Administrators at Tech often stress the difference between summative and formative assessments of teaching performance and their respective roles in faculty development. The numerical CIOS results that are averaged from student responses at the end of the semester is a good example of a summative assesment.

However, while perhaps useful as a metric, summative assessments offer less qualitative information in terms of guidance on how to improve teaching.

One option that instructors currently have to receive informal, formative guidance is through a Class Dialogue, in which a professor invites a CTL-trained facilitator into the classroom in a guided activity where students can openly discuss their thoughts about class structure and potential improvements to be made.

Afterward, the facilitator compiles student responses and discusses them with the professor in a formative style, and the professor can choose whether or not to implement changes based on student feedback.

“As I tell the students, with the others, I’ll gather that and report it as data with what you write now, I will quote your group exactly with what you say, so the professor is hearing it through your words,” Weinsheimer said.

The final step of the process is that the professor later talks to the class and explains his or her rationale on any decisions made or not made, completing the collaborative exchange between students and professor.

In terms of long-term plans to improve teaching on campus, one exciting development is the recent completion of the Task Force on the Learning Environment’s final report and action plan developed on its recommendations.

Working between May and December 2015, the Task Force on the Learning Environment, composed of administrators, faculty and students, sought to identify ways to improve academic culture on campus and develop new initiatives to raise Tech educators to an even higher caliber.

“Our work was underpinned by a large, fascinating data set arising from the Student Experience Survey, which was an impressive, student-led undertaking that generated a great deal of valuable information,” said Paul Goldbart, dean of the College of Sciences, who was a co-chair of the Task Force on the Learning Environment.

Some programs have already spawned as a result of task force recommendations.

First, a mid-semester survey pilot program began in the School of Physics, in which professors receive feedback from students during the actual course of the semester, contrasting the post-semester results CIOS offers.

Additionally, a new class of teaching fellows, the Provost Teaching and Learning Fellows, was launched in the hope that they would help connect faculty members across disciplines and departments to educational innovation. Each Fellow is supported by $14,000 and must attend at least one conference on teaching and learning.

Another relevant recommendation of the Task Force was to release written CIOS comments, currently only available to professors, to administrators as well.

“My expectation is that the sharing of written CIOS comments between faculty and leaders (such as school chairs and, possibly, deans) would engender valuable, informed dialog that would allow recognition of excellent performance and give important clues about opportunities to address challenges and help instructors achieve excellence,”
Goldbart said.

“I am, however, concerned about the potential for serious personal discomfort and even professional harm that could arise when students harass instructors by making offensive, inappropriate statements under the veil of anonymity.” Goldbart said. “We as a community should not tolerate such behavior.”

Although passed in Student Government, administrative access to written CIOS responses has not been approved at the Faculty Senate level at the time of writing.

Winning their first six games and nine of their first 10, Tech baseball looked poised for a strong campaign. There were questions about the rotation’s depth, but those issues seemed ill-founded.

As of late, though, doubts have surfaced. The Jackets have dropped to 14-9, including a measly 3-6 in ACC games. Yet despite the slump, individual performers have shown significant promise.

Bart Goes Deep

Catcher Joey Bart has been one of the most valuable players on the team at this point in the season. Bart is batting .374, has 29 RBIs and 11 home runs. That last figure puts Bart in the team lead. Against Mercer, he notched two more home runs to put him in a tie for second nationally. On the day, he went a perfect five for five at the plate with the two home runs and five RBIs. His contributions helped lead to Tech’s convincing 11-3 win against Mercer.

Already on watch for the Johnny Bench Award, Bart’s hot bat cannot be understated. A well-rounded catcher is hard to find, and Bart is shaping up a player of that caliber.

Bart’s contributions will be especially crucial if the pitching rotation does not solidify its performance and Tech is forced to put together high-scoring outings to earn wins. So far, Bart has been performing well, but one hitter cannot carry always carry a team to victory.

Fast Starts Are Key

43.18 percent of Tech’s runs have been scored in the first three innings of the game. They have scored 27, 23 and 26 runs in the first, second and third innings, respectively. The Jackets are 5-0 when taking a lead at the end of the first inning, 8-1 when leading after the second inning and 11-1 when leading after three innings.

The fact that the Jackets have such a stellar record in these situations and a mediocre one overall  shows that they have faced more than their fair share of early shellings, thanks in part to the quality of opposing batting and thanks in part to the inconsistency of Tech pitching so far.

In a typical game, the starting pitcher will get through all 9 hitters in the lineup sometime in the third inning. When an offense succeeds in the first three innings, it puts additional pressure on the pitcher to adjust. If Tech can continue to come out to fast starts, their winning ways will continue.

The First Five

Despite inconsistency from Tech’s arms, they have been instrumental in earning wins. A majority (11 of 14) of Tech’s wins can be attributed to effective pitching. Particularly in the first five innings of each game, Tech gives up an average of just 3.13 runs in the first five innings. Starting pitchers usually pitch for the first five innings of each game on a good day in college baseball, and Tech’s have put in some quality efforts.

The bullpen is slightly less settled. 68 of opponents’ 145 runs against Tech this season have come in the sixth inning or later. That will need to change in order for the team to pull out more close wins (and avoid blowouts that are a result of poor pitching.)

Jay Shadday (2.50), Ben Schniederjans (2.79), Ben Parr (3.12), Jonathan Hughes (3.32)and Xzavion Curry (4.60) have all started games for Tech this year and have good ERAs.

Datoc Shows Progress

As a freshman and sophomore, Jared Datoc made 19 appearances over 16.4 innings as a relief pitcher. This season he has already appeared in 14 games and has pitched 24.1 innings. Datoc also has 27 strikeouts, second only to Xzavion Curry (31) on the team. Extrapolated to a K/9 ratio, Datoc is recording 5.25 strikeouts for every nine innings he pitches. As Datoc makes longer appearances in relief, he continues to demonstrate his effective nature.

If he continues his solid pitching, it is fair to assume that he may be in competition for an opportunity to start games next season. In the meantime, the righty is a reliable option in the bullpen whom Coach Hall can call during key situations in close contests.

The .300 Club

Twenty-three games into the season, Austin Wilhite (.377), Joey Bart (.374), Trevor Craport (.354), Wade Bailey (.352) and Coleman Poje (.329) are all batting over the coveted .300 mark.  Bart, Craport and Bailey are everyday starters in the lineup, and Wilhite has started 22 of 23 games this season while making an appearance in the one he didn’t start in. Poje entered the season expecting to start every few games, but his consistent hitting has provided him with the opportunity to start 19 out of 23 possible games while making an appearance in all 23.

Batting averages over .300 show more than mere power or placement. They demonstrate patience at the plate, a willingness to wait for the right pitch. Tech will need to continue maximizing the value of its at-bats if it is to go about bettering (and perhaps soon evening) its conference record.

While most Tech students spent last week relaxing at beaches and vacation spots across the country while catching up on sleep, freshman Tyler Strafaci and the rest of Tech’s golf team spent their spring break preparing for the Valspar Collegiate Tournament in Palm City Florida.  Strafaci’s hard work throughout his debut season and spring break paid off. His victory at the Valspar Collegiate earned him his first collegiate tournament title and brought the team to three tournament victories so far this season.

With fellow freshman Luke Schniederjans, who was recently named the ACC’s men’s golfer of the month, Strafaci proved that new talent was going to be instrumental in giving the jackets more upward momentum in the collegiate golf rankings.

It didn’t take long for Strafaci to get into the swing of things at Tech and prove how big of an asset he is. His rigorous high school education was a factor in his smooth transition to Tech.

Strafaci talked about that shift, saying that he “went to a high school that was very demanding academically and I used to miss a lot of school for golf. So it prepared me to go to Tech and once I got here, I adjusted pretty well and felt pretty comfortable.”

With his history of hard work, Strafaci does not shy away from pressure, which makes him an impressive force on the course. Strafaci made his collegiate debut last October where he competed at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate Tournament and the Cyprus Point Classic. Strafaci tied for 43rd place at the Georgia Collegiate Tournament. Paired with Schniederjans, and he earned the jackets another victory defeating Greyson Sigg and Spencer Ralston of UGA at the Cyprus Point Classic.

A memorable fall debut left the team excited to see what Strafaci and other newcomers had to offer the Jackets, earning Strafaci a spot on Tech’s travel team. Since his fall debut, he has helped Tech work their way back up in collegiate rankings after a few months of middling performances.

The Clemson Invitational in April will be the Jackets’ final chance to demonstrate their improvement before the ACC Championships. Consistency is something that Tech golf has struggled with throughout the season. There always seems to be at least one disastrous round in every tournament the Jackets compete in. Strafaci and his teammates started to break out of this slump last weekend. If they can continue to push themselves up and further out of this dismal pattern, their chances of contending for a conference championship increase exponentially.

“We’re just focusing a lot on attitude towards the game and just a very positive outlook and we’re working on our short game.” Strafaci explained, “I mean obviously when we’re training in the weight room and we’re practicing it’s very much a team atmosphere and we’re all pushing each other to get better.

“But when we’re at a tournament, I think for the most part, we are all concerned about just taking care of what we need to individually on the course and in preparation at the tournament. Because if you do everything you can individually to your best degree, it’s only going to help the team. And if you’re worried too much about helping the team score and think, ‘If I make a bogey here … ,’ it’s going to hurt the team.  It’s more about just taking care of the stuff you can take care of and if everyone does that on a five-person team you’re going to have a really good shot at winning a golf tournament.”

The Jackets are comfortable with competition away from home, as nearly all their tournaments this season have been out of state. Traveling to Salem, N.C., for the Clemson Invitational should not be very intimidating for them. It will ultimately come down to the quality effort. If every player internalizes the mantra that Strafaci stresses — particularly, taking care of what is in one’s control and remaining at peace with the rest — a victory at their final in-season tournament is within reach. All that Tech has to do now is show that they can pass this test with flying colors.

It’s difficult to tell if a victory in their final tournament will be enough to carry Tech on to an ACC Championship, but there’s no doubt that Strafaci and his teammates are looking to the future and setting goals and holding themselves to high standards.

Strafaci ended his high school career with two state titles, and ranked in several amateur tournaments throughout the summer. Golfweek magazine named Strafaci one of the top 15 freshmen to watch, and this season, he has justified that honor.  With hopes of four All-American titles throughout his collegiate career, a national championship title for the Jackets, and possibly a professional career on the course, there’s no doubt the Strafaci will continue to be a staple in Tech’s men’s golf lineup. Those goals’ realization starts with wins at tournaments like these, proof that Strafaci is becoming acclimated to the rigor of the collegiate circuit.

With only one sophomore on the team, players like Strafaci and Schniederjans will be expected to take major leadership roles in their junior year. They will have to serve as role models both on and off the course. Results like these offer promise that when the time comes, both, particularly the former, will be ready.

Plenty of high school valedictorians find themselves at Georgia Tech. Few are also student-athletes. One is a Gates Millenium Scholar, a Student Ambassador and a driving force on the future of Tech student-athletes.

Meet Alex Grady, a senior mechanical engineering major whose athletic successes are matched only by his involvement on campus. Grady defies virtually every stereotype that plagues student-athletes. His decision to attend Tech was a largely academic one, but his impact has transcended the classroom.

Grady’s story begins as a high schooler, when he tried track and field for the first time. Immediately, he realized that he had a knack for distance running.

“I’ve always been pretty good at it,” he says, “and that ‘pretty good’ has turned into a passion, and that passion has led me to where I am today.”

Although he was inexperienced, Grady soon found that he was outrunning his classmates at Newton High School, not to mention those at schools around him.

“The breakthrough was around tenth grade or so. The competition in my area just wasn’t really competition, so the track was like my playground, in a sense.”

Tech coach Grover Hinsdale noticed Grady, and he made him an offer. If Grady came to Tech, there was a spot on the team for him. But the opportunity to run collegiately was hardly the strongest factor in Grady’s decision. It had much to do with Tech’s academic reputation.

In high school, Grady’s parents gifted him a Tech sweatshirt for Christmas. Previously set on attending MIT to study aerospace engineering, Grady initially shook the gesture off.

But his interest was piqued. And the more Grady learned about Tech, the more he liked it. When head coach Grover Hinsdale told Grady he had a spot on the track and field team if he chose attend Tech, he was sold.

Also propelling Grady’s decision was his recognition as a Gates Millennium Scholar. The honor connected Grady with a community of scholars across Tech campus and beyond.

His college track career began inauspiciously. In his first practice, he developed plantar fascitis. In layman’s terms, his arch collapsed. He spent the rest of the semester undergoing rehabilitation.

But not all was negative. He thrived in the classroom. He used the performances of team veterans to motivate him in his rehabilitation efforts. And he became involved in the Student-Athlete Advisory Board (SAAB). Per  the Athletic Association’s website, SAAB “meets monthly to discuss issues relating to Georgia Tech student-athletes, to bring forth concerns or suggestions for programming for student-athletes, and to plan community service projects.” Along with such standout athletics as football’s KeShun Freeman and women’s tennis’ Alexa Anton-Ohmeyer, Grady became a key member of the Athletic Association’s fabric, working with decision makers to enhance the student-athlete experience.

For Grady, being part of SAAB was about much more than socializing with fellow student-athletes or enhancing his resume. It was a chance to increase his involvement in community service, for which he has spent hundreds of hours toiling.

“My freshman and sophomore year, I focused on my hometown community of Covington, Ga. I tried to help people the best way I could by reading and critiquing [college applications] to ensure that they were successful and had the same opportunities I did. And then it moved to Student Ambassadors, being able to serve this community. It’s really doing a lot of good … it feels like my family keeps growing.”

Grady’s work has not gone unnoticed. He was the first recipient of the Haier Ultimate Achievement Award in 2015 and was named a Peach of an Athlete a few weeks ago by the Boy Scouts of America’s Atlanta Area Council.

But as much as Grady has taken from his time as a student-athlete at Tech, he refuses to surrender to complacency. Throughout the Student Government Association’s election process, Grady has been vocal regarding the needs of student-athletes. From improved communication with student organizations to increasing chances to overcome scheduling barriers, Grady sees the potential for the student-athlete and non-athlete communities to grow closer at the Institute moving forward.

“Until the opportunity showed itself, I didn’t know how I wanted to get involved on campus,” said Grady of his time at Tech.

That has certainly changed.

Promoting their new album “& I’m Fine Today” that was released in Jan. 2017, alternative band Susto has been touring the U.S. and Canada. Susto opened for The Lumineers at the Infinite Energy Arena in Duluth on March 8. The Technique had the opportunity to speak with the lead vocalist Justin Osborne before their performance.

Technique: First of all, how would you describe the sound of your band?

Osborne: I would say it’s like a mixture of folk music, electronic music, punk rock and 90s bangers. We want to keep it eclectic, keep it interesting and fun, so we try different things.

Technique: How did you get into music, and can you tell me some backstory about how Susto came about?

Osborne: I got into music just from falling in love with listening to music. I really wanted to write my own songs, so I started doing that around when I was 13. Then I started doing it as my job, and I love it.

I was in another band for nine years, and I was tired of touring and trying to make it, so I dropped out of the band and went to school for a few years or so. I went down to Cuba to study Latin American culture as an anthropology major. I made some different demos when I was there, and I showed them to some friends and people thought they were really good, so I came back and some friends joined me along the way. We made the second record recently, and it’s become my career.

Technique: How did you decide the band name?

Osborne: While studying Latin American culture, I found this word called “susto.” It’s a Spanish word which means “when your soul is separated from
your body.”…

Technique: Is there anything you would have done differently so far in your career?

Osborne: There’s one pair of shoes I bought, and I underestimated the size when I should have bought a size bigger. That’s
about it.

Technique: Susto just released their second album on Jan. 13, “Far Out Feeling.” Congrats on the new release. What does this album mean to you? And how does it differ from your first album?

Osborne: Every Susto album, every time you finish an album and put it out, it’s a special moment. You think of it as a long-term project. It feels good now, but we were stressed out in the months leading up to the record. You have it finished, but then you have to wait on it to come out, and you can’t change it. It was a really happy moment getting it out.

Compared to the first record, it was a new, more expansive sound. It feels good to get it out there; it feels different from our first record … different genres to
delve into.

Technique: What song you would most recommend to people who have never heard SUSTO?

Osborne: I think it depends on what you’re into. I think the one most people could appreciate is “Far Out Feeling.” It’s the first song on the album. It’s an interesting song, a bit of a dark song. And yeah, hopefully you like that song and keep going since it’s the first song on the record.

Technique: You guys are about to embark on an arena tour opening for The Lumineers. That’s amazing. How do you feel about it? How did you react to knowing you were booked on this tour?

Osborne: It’s a huge deal! We’re excited about it. We’re nervous but also excited. It’s going to be a big thing for the band: we’ve never played shows this big, and we’re going to be playing a lot of them! I’m really excited for the next month. It’s also really fun playing shows. So many people will be hearing us for the first time. Some people might not like you; some people might really like you. So we have no idea what to expect and that’s really exciting.

It’s a really cool thing for The Lumineers to bring us on the road. It really helps to give us a push, especially with our new album just coming out. So I feel very, very fortunate; we all do and we’re all very excited.

Technique: So what’s the plan after the Lumineers tour?

Osborne: We’re touring for another five weeks after The Lumineers tour, and then we’ll go home for the summer. We’ll go out playing different festivals. Then we’ll tour more in the early fall. I really want to go to Australia this year too, but we’ll see, maybe we’ll wait until next year for that.

The record is still new, so we’re determined to be on the road promoting it for the rest of the year and the first half of next year. Then we’ll chip away at the next record and continue.

Technique: Is there anything else you would like your Atlanta fans to know?

Osborne: We love Atlanta, and we can’t wait to come back. It feels like home every time we play here. We’re so excited to go to the South on this tour, and we can’t wait to come back.

In the first “Made@GT” art and technology project commissioned by the Office of the Arts, artist Katherine Helen Fisher and research scientist Clint Zeagler have collaborated to produce the interactive performance “Characters,” centered around a wearable computing costume called “Le Monstre.”

The project was funded by an engagement grant through the Institute for People and Technology and the GVU Center. According to Zeagler, the focus of the “Creative Collisions” was “looking at how artists can work with technologists together in groups to come up with something creative… not just the artist is saying ‘this is how I want it to be,’ but the technologist is also being creative and part of the process.”

The Technique had the opportunity to speak with Zeagler and Fisher ahead of the performance on Sunday, March 5.

Technique: How did you come up with the idea for this performance?

Fisher: Through mutual creative friends on Facebook… I was introduced to Madison Cario… who is the producer and director here at the Office of the Arts. Madison is amazing and really
is interested in engaging audiences and pushing them in unexpected ways.

I founded a company called Safety Third Productions with my partner [Shimmy Boyle]. It’s a media production company, and we had started a photo series called “Characters,” where we were taking pictures of mostly myself that were kind of Cindy Sherman inspired… she plays with shifting her own identity…

So we were doing this photo series, and Madison kept commenting on it. It grew into us trying to extrapolate that photo series into a full length evening performance that incorporated new media because that’s what my company creates…

We started workshopping, Clint’s team and my team, and we had meetings talking about a lot of different things. One of the things that came up was how do we engage the audience in a way that feels inclusive and gets them to touch and interact and play with the media on their phone, and be creators of the project inside of it without having them feel put upon or forced…

So we try to really make a safe space, in the truest sense of the word, for people to be able to kind of explore themselves… I feel a certain vulnerability in what I’m showing the audience, I take my makeup off in the beginning of the piece, I start with makeup on and then I take it off, so it’s kind of a stripping away of artifice as we go.

Zeagler: At the beginning of the show, people are asked to turn on their cellphones and turn up the volume and turn up the ringer to the loudest possible, which allows people to hold their smartphones the whole show.

I think that smartphones are this generation’s safety blanket: it’s a device that gives you comfort enough to be able to disengage with people on an elevator or say, ‘well I can’t talk to you because I’m actually videoing you.’ It’s a step towards engagement that I think is really nice.

Fisher: And also, the way I use my smartphone is like a constant creative suite. I’m editing on my phone, I’m taking pictures, I’m doing all sorts of things. So I really like it as a way that the audience creates as well…

Technique: What kinds of materials are used in the costume itself , “Le Monstre”?

Zeagler: I just bought the loudest, most sparkly fabrics I could find… the actual touch materials are anything that’s conductive, so there’s conductive thread that’s tied into yarn puffs.

There are some copper fabric stripes that you can touch, there are actually a silver plated chain on one of the shoulders, and then there’s a whole bunch of buttons and snaps on the back that are sewn with conductive thread.

At the end of the piece, there are these pockets on the dress that have tassels that you can pull out across the stage, and they have stretch sensors…

The dress acts as a midi controller, so when you touch parts of the dress, through capacitive sensing it creates a signal, and then that is turned into a midi control or a note like a keyboard.

Then it’s sent over wifi to the show computer, so it actually changes the video content on the screen and also produces sound in the space. So when you touch the dress, the space changes…

Fisher: There are other elements that the dress has capacity to do, but that we haven’t had time in this iteration to develop, like the accelerometer.

Zeagler: The accelerometer is working, but we’re scared to dance too hard in it because we’re worried that a wire might pop and then it stop working…

Fisher: There’s a distance sensor, so you can get closer up, and the light gets brighter and brighter. We just think the garment has a lot of potential, we’ve become close friends through this process, and we’re hoping we get the chance to develop it further.

We could see it at places like music festivals and art fairs because it’s a thing that can go anywhere and be installed anywhere. It brings together all these different media in a way that feels really current.

Technique: How do you envision Georgia Tech and the larger community bridging the gap between arts and technology? What do you think each field has to offer the other?

Zeagler: My background is a little in both, so I tend to on a large number of projects act as that bridge. I think part of the divide is vocabulary and terminology, like people can use design and mean a multitude of different things in their head…

The way a designer works through a problem is sometimes different from the way an engineer is trained to work through a problem… I think that if you give an engineer some design thinking tools about iteration and the way that designers work through a process, sometimes they might come to a different or even a better solution to their engineering problem and the workarounds might be different.

I think that’s important, just working together, especially working together before you get out of school, so when you get into the industry you’re not just talking to a designer for the first time. That’s part of why we have an artist in residence program here and why we bring people like Kate in.

Fisher: I feel like they have a sense of the scientific method in what they’re doing… It seems really strategic and calm, like lead by this logic and hierarchy whereas I think in the arts sometimes it can get really emotional because it’s more subjective.

So when you’re looking for solutions, it’s opinion based then if you don’t agree, there can be some tension there. So I would like to bring in a more strategic, problem solving to working with my own teams and trusting that there is
an answer.

Technique: What inspires you as an artist or digital creator?

Fisher: I love collaboration because it makes your ideas bigger. I think when you find a collaborator who is willing to suspend their disbelief for a second and buy into the magic of the creative process, it’s gold. That’s what you really need in order to come up with something revolutionary idea wise.

When you’re in your sensory place where you’re like ‘I wonder if this is good’ or ‘will they like it,’ it’s harder to innovate, so I really like it when I am able to foster that type of environment with my team so we just trust each other.

Zeagler: For me, this experience was wonderful because a lot of time when you work on a project for a company, there’s a very specific deliverable that they want. Even if it is a design project, it has to fit within their brand scheme. So you’re really designing within narrow parameters.

This was so open-ended: we were able to just say well if you were gonna touch something, what would you want to touch? The things that started coming to my head were like those Nick Cave outfits, where they dance and they’re all furry and textural…

It was an opportunity for me just to go wild and play because I was making a piece that was part of a piece of art rather than part of something that was directed towards a specific industry required deliverable.

Technique: What are some challenges of incorporating technology into a live performance?

Fisher: I think it’s so exciting to be really pioneering new technology, and again I think it’s good that we make ourselves vulnerable in the show. Well it’s live theater, this is not
perfect.

Zeagler: Sometimes you can do everything that you can possible try to do, and something will happen. You just have to pray to Mercury, the god of communication and electronic signals, before the show [laughs]…

Fisher: It’s a lot to track. There are three different cameras going during the show… projectors, ring light has to fly down from the ceiling, balloons get dropped, strip lights on  stage…

It’s all part of the process. Once you get the show up and you get a touring version of it, it’s easier to get consistency in those things. You troubleshoot just through doing it again and again. You have to get okay with letting it hang out and improvising.

Technique: What are your future plans, with this show specifically or broader plans not related to the show?

Fisher: I would love to take this show on the road. I had put together a few different European residencies to build the piece, so I feel like it would be possible that we might be able to do a tour in Europe. We’re applying for the Stars Electronica prize.

Zeagler: We’re gonna apply for some additional arts funding outside of Georgia Tech, and see where we can get and who wants to show the piece. There’s been some interest out west.

Fisher: That would be really fun to tour the piece. It’s been two years since I’ve been talking to Madison and trying to figure out and secure funds to get this going.

It’s been a solid year of me working on the show… I have just invested a year of my life, and it’s kind of a wild thing, and sometimes you’re like what’s it all mean [laughs], but I think as creators we believe in the work…

Zeagler: I think it’s too good to end here.

Fisher: That’s the interesting thing about being an artist, you don’t get to choose. Your only job is to make the work. You can try to show up for interviews on time [laughs] and do things to get the word out.

But if you’re focused on the end outcome, you’re almost always disappointed. It just has to be for the love of actually doing it.