Dreaming The Prairie uses a game engine as a platform for storytelling and story-asking. Located in Illinois, Bell Bowl Prairie—an 8000 year old ecosystem—provided critical habitat for a number of rare and endangered species including the federally protected rusty patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis), and a number of rare prairie plants. A recently contested expansion of Chicago Rockford International Airport (‘owners’ of the land) destroyed a large portion of the rare and fragile dry gravel prairie.

Amid hard deadlines for as many as five other college courses, the students featured in this exhibition developed intriguing projects in the feverish context of the late semester crunch. What’s more, these projects stand out in particular for demonstrating genuinely original inspiration from the beginner tutorials they received in creative coding, video game design, and augmented reality. These delightfully weird and unpretentious early works are a testament to experimentation in new media art education.