Art project making history come alive

With the click of a mouse button, schoolchildren can trace on a computer screen map Hernando deSoto's exploration of the Southeast and the Mississippi River.

With another click, they can listen to the voices of Mississippians as they relate their life experiences.

And, with still another, they find themselves navigating the Father of Waters in a canoe with a chance to rewrite history-"virtually" speaking, of course.

Wishful thinking? No, most of these scenarios are just a click away thanks to art students at Mississippi State and their work with computers and multimedia.

Led by graduate student Nathan Williams of Starkville, the team is working with the U.S. Department of the Interior's National Park Service under a $68,000 cooperative agreement. The project calls for the students to produce multimedia resource education software focusing on archaeology of the Lower Mississippi River Delta Region.

The region consists of the states of Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and numerous counties on either side of the Mississippi River, extending farther upstream into Southern Illinois.

Williams and four others are designing a CD-ROM (compact disk-read only memory) which will let viewers experience the history of the region as closely as possible without actually visiting it. Other team members include Court Batson of Starkville; Eric Horton of Ruskin, Fla.; Laurie Livingston of Hollywood, Calif.; and Vince Sidwell of Dallas, Texas.

The first phase of the project, tentatively titled "Delta: The Father of Waters," is scheduled for completion by mid-December and is targeted for sixth through eighth graders. The project was developed by the National Park Service in response to the Lower Mississippi River Delta Initiatives established by Congress in 1994.

Through this project, the park service seeks to enhance understanding and preservation of human and natural history in the region through a series of five compact disks, which will be available at parks and historical sites throughout the seven-state region.

"With cooperation of Mississippi State's Engineering Research Center, the College of Arts and Sciences, the University Television Center, and the School of Architecture, our art students have the capability to actually design, record and produce our own CD-ROMs," explained Brent Funderburk, art department head.

At present, this cooperation goes on in a small, cramped room in Briscoe Hall, the main art building. However, the efforts will be consolidated in the Center for Electronic Visualization when renovation of a nearby building is complete. It will provide classrooms and equipment for a new master of fine arts degree in electronic visualization.

"Art is the fastest growing department in the College of Arts and Sciences," said Funderburk. "And, this new electronic visualization degree will allow our students to experience all facets of art, from basic drawing to computer animation."

The cooperative agreement with the park service is one example of the diversity and will culminate in the preparation of an interactive resource education CD-ROM consisting of three components.

The first element, which included designing the disk cover, deals with Native Americans and the early settlement of the region. It features an explorers' timeline.

A second element of the Delta project will include the voices of people relating traditional stories, myths and their life experiences in the region's parks, as interviewed by the students.

Funderburk said the third element, also begun this year, will be "very interactive. This is the 'Wanderers' phase and viewers can actually be in the virtual environment and 'rewrite' historical events."

Once the work of Williams and other members of his team is complete, schoolchildren and adults alike may be able to do more than just read about history-they may actually "live" a part of it through electronic technology.