The High Museum of Art has been an Atlanta art staple since it opened its doors in 1905. Located on Peachtree Street, the museum is just a short walk, drive or MARTA ride from the Institute’s campus. Accordingly, it is a popular weekend spot for students to hang out with their friends and see hundreds of years worth of art from around the world.

Like many art venues in Atlanta, the museum had to close its doors to the public in March when the COVID-19 pandemic struck the United States, but enthusiastically reopened to the public on July 18 with social distancing and sanitizing guidelines to keep visitors safe.

In addition to the High’s expansive collection, there are also two traveling exhibitions on display now at the museum: “Picture the Dream: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Children’s Books” and “Murmuration,” an outdoor mesh canopy inspired by Atlanta’s “city in a forest” energy.

“‘Picture the Dream’ is the first exhibition of its kind to delve into the events, people, and themes of the civil rights movement through the children’s picture book,” the High’s website reads. “Picture books are one of the most compelling forms of visual expression, and this exhibition showcases them as an effective bridge between art and storytelling, championing aspects of the movement that are both celebrated and forgotten.”

During the second Sunday of each month, the High offers free admission to the museum to members of the public, including Tech students.

Abby Durgin, first-year MSE, took advantage of this opportunity last week to see the High. Durgin moved to Atlanta from Maine this past August, and last Sunday was her very first visit to the High.

“I’ve been to art museums back home, and that was a piece appreciating the arts in my home, so it was really nice to experience Atlanta’s version of that, and I think it made it feel a little home,” Durgin said. “I feel like I’m more of an Atlantan now.”

The exhibit that stood out the most to Durgin was “Picture the Dream.”

“There was a ton of different kinds of art; there were actually some excerpts from the graphic novel “March” by John Lewis, which I actually read in high school,” Durgin said. “It was super moving, and I thought it was really well done, and I thought it was a nice broad representation of a lot of different aspects of the civil rights movement.”

Matthew Morano, first-year BIO, was also deeply affected by “Picture the Dream” and found it to be extremely relevant with the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement across the country.

“What’s happening today is our version of [the civil rights movement],” Morano said. “The fight is still going on. It’s just changed, and the exhibit really highlights how we’re still fighting, but it’s new, and we’re dealing with it. We’re changing the world.”

Durgin and Morano also took time to view the other traveling exhibition, “Murmuration,” on display directly outside of the front entrance to the High.

The piece was Durgin’s first sighting at the museum, and it informed her that she was in the right place. She was impressed by the functionality of the exhibit, and the mesh material of the sculpture gave her the urge to climb.

Morano, however, was less influenced by the piece.

“My first impression was that it did not elevate my mind to new perspectives on art, as other pieces have done so before,” he said.

Despite their differences, both students enjoyed their time at the museum, even with an altered experience due to the pandemic. The High has been limiting the amount of visitors allowed into the museum at one time and taking the time to sanitize the space in order to keep their guests safe.

“There wasn’t much in the way of social distancing circles or people regulating [social distancing],” Durgin said. “There wasn’t really any enforced or clearly organized social distancing. [However,] I felt comfortable, because everyone was keeping their distance and because there were few enough people, most of the time it was manageable.”

Amidst changing academic and social experiences, students have been clinging to glimpses of normalcy, such as trips outside of campus and visits to the museum.

The High is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday through Saturday and from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Every guest is required to reserve timed tickets and wear a mask. The next second Sunday will occur on Oct. 11.

“Picture the Dream” runs through Nov. 8; “Murmation” runs through Nov. 29. Tickets can be reserved or purchased through the High Museum’s website.

Before COVID-19 became a widespread phenomena, forcing theatres around the country to turn off their lights and close their doors, Atlanta actor Charlie T. Thomas had an itch.

“I was at a point where I was working consistently, but I felt like I was in this grind of ‘do well in this part, so I can keep being in the room for the next part,’” Thomas said. “Nothing felt community-driven. It felt so selfish and self-serving. I felt like I wasn’t really connecting with people like I wanted to do, which is why I went into art in the first place.”

Thomas decided to try an idea: he and a group of friends and colleagues put on a production of Twelfth Night to raise money for the Mental Health Association of Georgia.

“Through that process, I realized ‘I can just keep doing this,’” he said. “I created Remedy [Theatre Project] as a group that created art solely for the need to connect with people and to really try to do some good in the world.”

Months later, the pandemic struck, forcing Thomas and his fellow actors out of work and into isolation.

“I went from being in the third month of a nine month long contract to nothing, having no jobs and not knowing when my industry was coming back,” Atlanta actor and teaching artist O’Neil Delapenha said. “I was on Broadway when Broadway shut down, so I was right in the thick of it. …That was a very surreal awakening. It made me realize just how fragile art and the human experience really is and how it should be valued even more.”

Thomas, who at the time was performing in Synchronicity Theatre’s “Wayfinding,” was upset to have found himself so abruptly off of the stage. As the pandemic lengthened, Thomas was left feeling hopeless.

“I remember thinking it’s really sad that all my friends can’t do art, and then sitting there, I was like ‘But y’all, Shakespeare is free,’” Thomas said.

“No one has to pay anything to do Shakespeare. I guess we just get into our minds that Shakespeare has to look a certain way. I started encouraging people one-on-one just to do their own stuff and to just practice at home, but I was like ‘Maybe I can do that with people as well.’”

From there, Thomas created Remedy Theatre Project’s next order of business: 6ftShakes.

The basis of 6ftShakes is in the name; actors perform scenes from Shakespeare’s canon from six feet apart, creating art while still adhering to the CDC’s social distancing guidelines.

“One of my mentors once told me that as artists we always need to have permission to do stuff; everything requires asking and [people in charge] saying yes,” Thomas said. “But what I realized during the quarantine was that art doesn’t have to have permission — you can just do art wherever, however. I think, because we spent so much time doing art in a specific way, we forget that we can do this on our own. … Art, especially Shakespeare, can be done anywhere at any time, so why not just do it?”

Throughout the 6ftShakes process, actors pick a Shakespearean scene or soliloquy, rehearse it over Zoom, and then meet together with Thomas to film. The film is shot on Thomas’s iPhone and posted on Remedy Theatre Project’s Facebook page.

Once the first round of videos was posted, volunteers came pouring in to work with Thomas on the project.

Local actors were thrilled by the opportunity to not only flex their creative muscles once again, but to also be in the company of other creators.

“It kind of proved to be a bit of a balm, which is pretty much what I think Charlie’s personal and professional mission with Remedy Theatre is,” Andrew Houchins, Atlanta-based actor and teaching artist, said. “He believes in the healing power of live theatre, and getting to do my scene certainly healed me for a time.”

Houchins worked with Thomas and fellow actor Mary Saville on creating a scene from Much Ado About Nothing, featuring Houchins as Benedick and Saville as Beatrice.

“[Beatrice] was a dream role,” Saville said. “It was only ten minutes of a dream role, but I still got to do it. The timing of the project that I worked on came at such a perfect time when I really needed some connection and some joy, and that’s the thing that it brought to me.”

No one can say for sure when theaters will reopen their doors, but most are in consensus that the theatre process will look different from now on.

Saville expressed concern about the cleanliness of theatres following a pandemic as well as shifting the accessibility of the stage towards people of color. Delapenha agreed that he would like to see more BIPOC artists in shows, and Bray wants to see theatre jobs become more available to those with day jobs or children. There is so much more work to be done in making theatre more readily available to all, regardless of background.

In the meantime, Thomas encourages his artists to think outside of the box, creating what they want with the resources that they have.

“My biggest thing that I really want to get across with this project is to let people understand that they don’t have to wait to create,” he said. “I just want people to understand that they don’t even need me. I just want people to keep on creating. I want them to feel inspired to just be themselves and just do something. People are beautiful. They should feel the need to express that however they need to do it.”

Remedy Theatre Project’s 6ftShakes videos are available to view on their Facebook page. Those with more questions can reach out to Thomas at rtpatl@outlook.com.

After almost four months away from campus, students are missing even the most mundane elements of Tech, from the food at North Avenue to the long walks up Freshman Hill.

One student in particular took this yearning to the next level. Ripken Walker, second-year MT, used samples of noises heard around Tech to create electronic dance music tracks, known as GT Beats.

“It’s just interesting to have that connection to campus and just being able to utilize stuff that we [hear] on campus every day,” said Walker. “I’ve made two [songs] so far, with plans to make more in the future, if I have time. It’s just having that connection with Georgia Tech and being able to put that in the form of music where other people can listen to it and get enjoyment or laugh at it.”

Walker’s first track was derived from the voice of the Ferst Drive walk sign, a voice of comfort and familiarity to many students who use this particular crosswalk on a regular basis. 

“The origin of the track was mainly for my friends, because I had a friend send me that audio clip [of the Ferst Drive walk sign],” said Walker. “I just did it, because I knew that a lot of people [walked by the Ferst Drive walk sign a lot], and I figured if I made something about it, that would make them reminisce about being there.”

After the Ferst Drive track spread through the Tech Reddit, Walker began receiving requests for more music. His second track was created after someone sent him an audio recording of a test of the Emergency Notification System at Bobby Dodd Stadium. 

This particular piece took an unexpectedly long amount of time to make, due to many tedious steps in creating the music.

“[My music-making process for] these Georgia Tech [tracks] have been pretty different, because I’m starting with a sample and building stuff around that, so I’ve had to do a lot of very small time edits to the samples to make them line up on an actual beat,” said Walker. “With the Emergency Notification System one, it probably took me an hour just to chop up the vocals so it perfectly lined up on each beat of the song.”

As a Music Technology major, Walker has experience with making other music, but the specific starting point for GT Beats differs from his other work. 

“With other music that I make, I can mess around on the piano until I find something I like,” said Walker. “I’m primarily a drummer, and if I think of a drum beat that I like, it’ll start from there. I don’t really have a starting point of what I’ll do every single time to start something.” 

Walker regards his own music in a casual context, but for many in his audience, these tracks have taken on a largely important meaning. 

“The Ferst Drive beats were really touching to me in particular, because that soundtrack was really the soundtrack to my life during my second year at Georgia Tech, which was one of the most tumultuous years in the university’s existence during the pandemic and whatnot,” said Stephen Nash, third-year IAML. 

Not only are these tracks reminders of simpler, easier times for students, they are also a comfort to students separated from their Georgia Tech homes.

“The first thing that popped into my head was the crosswalk. I just imagined walking there [and hearing] the sound,” said Harsh Patel, second-year CMPE. “It reminded me of GT when I can’t be there.”

Walker, Nash and Patel all gave the same answer when asked what they missed most about Tech: the people. 

“I mainly miss the people, because the diversity is nothing like what I have at home and having friends now scattered across the country during a pandemic makes it really hard to keep those connections afloat,” said Nash. 

Four months of quarantine has shown students that despite their constant academic stress, Tech is a remarkable institution to attend and a hard place from which to be separated, and GT Beats is strongly representative of such.

“GT Beats is really something that I wouldn’t see coming out of basically any other college,” said Nash. “It takes a really special place to have not only talking crosswalks, but also a student who’s willing to take time out of their schedule to produce sampled audio tracks of campus sounds. It’s a really special place, and GT Beats reflects that.”

GT Beats, as well as Ripken Walker’s other music can be found on his YouTube channel. Walker is also open for requests with an accompanying sample audio recording via the Georgia Tech Discord server. 

Over the past three months, the public has been quarantining, hiding indoors as the world outside seemingly crumbles to bits. Meanwhile, in Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s dystopian play “boom,” two characters huddle in a dark lab unable to leave while the world slowly comes to an end. 

The parallels are coincidence; Nachtrieb published the play 11 years before COVID-19 first arose, and Georgia Tech’s DramaTech theatre company chose this play for this past school year long ahead of the world shutting down. 

“We chose it almost a year and a half ago before we had any idea about anything that was going to happen, so it’s pretty funny that we ended up with a show that’s about life-altering events that change the world forever,” said Melissa Foulger, the director of this show and the artistic director of DramaTech. “We decided to go forward with it because of present circumstances and thought it would be interesting to take some of those themes and bring them forward and be able to share them with an audience and find some humor and some levity in a time that isn’t very humorous.”

The play features two college students, Jo (Autumn Siebold, fourth-year LMC) and Jules (Austin Hughes, fourth-year ENVE), stuck in Jules’s lab after he puts out an ad to go on a date with Jo. Jules had promised her sex that would “stop the end of the world,” but what Jo did not know was that he had meant that statement quite literally.

“I think anyone can probably relate to Jo and Jules, who are the main characters of the show, probably a bit more than people would generally be able to, because the whole premise is that they are trapped in this place together,” Hughes told the Technique. “That feeling of being trapped, sometimes with people you don’t want to be trapped with in the case of the show, is something a lot of people can relate to nowadays.”

While Jo and Jules navigate a rocky relationship throughout their time in confinement, an outside figure is quietly calling the shots on what happens to Earth.

“I think [the students selecting this play] really liked the idea of the third character and the plot twist that character decides for the show from a theatrical standpoint, and that was one of the pieces that made it very interesting in terms of selecting it,” Foulger said.

Barbara (Abigail Russ, second-year PHYS) is not what people would expect from a character with God-like powers; she is goofy and enthusiastic, even as the world she controls comes to an end. 

What makes “boom” unique compared to any prior DramaTech production is the use of the video call application Zoom rather than a physical performance. Because actors and audiences are unable to gather in one space, DramaTech made the decision to move the planned summer show to an online platform. 

“When it came time to consider this show, we really looked at [if we could] do the show, but also [if we needed] to do the show, and we all felt like ‘yes’ to both of those,” Foulger said. “We can do it, but we also need to do it, because it’s a sense of community and it’s providing that same outlet for us in socialization and connection with other people that gives us  hope, gives us the feeling that we are going to get through this.”

As one might anticipate, Zoom does not always work at the same capacity as a live, in-person performance. Several problems arose, even beyond what the cast and crew predicted.

“The unexpected challenges came from how we tried to integrate tech into the process earlier than we normally would,” explained Gracelyn Nguyen, fourth-year NEUR. “When running the show, I have to be mindful of watching the live actor feeds, and not the delayed composited view of what the audience is seeing, calling cues even earlier than I’d be comfortable with, in case there’s a communication lag, and not being in the same space as my operators or actors, in case I need to help with something.”

Nguyen is the show’s stage manager and the president of DramaTech and has encountered several obstacles throughout the rehearsal process.

As audiences may already be aware of, Zoom lag can cause frustration for users, which may be amplified in the theatrical setting. This has caused a lack of synchronicity for some rehearsals, but the acting and technical team have adjusted to the online setting. 

But with many theatrical processes, online shenanigans tend to take place, and “boom” is no exception to that. Participants have laughed over their ability to change their names and backgrounds over Zoom and still managed to have a laugh despite being miles apart. 

Amidst a seemingly new world apocalypse in COVID-19, the “boom” team has managed to put together a show to provide themselves and their audiences with a little bit of comfort during the stressful days of social isolation. 

“It’s really impressive to me how our tech and everyone in the whole production [has been] resourceful and really committed to what they do,” Siebold admired. “It’s really cool to be a part of it and watch people come together — even though we have everything against us — to make theatre just because we love doing it.”

“boom” is being performed over Zoom from June 19-21 and again from June 25-27 at 8:00 p.m. Audiences can reserve tickets on DramaTech’s website for $10.