The sculptures of Shih Chieh Huang’s “Reusable Universe” — built from recycled Tupperware, plastic bags, fans and light bulbs — appeared to float just below the darkened ceiling of the Worcester Art Museum. They had been wired to detect motion, and on a Sunday afternoon in October, as a group of 15 Holy Cross students entered, the exhibit activated: Engines whirred, drones circled and spun, lights flickered, limbs flailed.
With necks craned, themselves seeming to float, the students spread out to observe. Some jotted notes or snapped photos. First-year student Elizabeth Keleher ’21 flopped into a beanbag chair that had been laid beneath a particularly squid-like sculpture: a series of conical plastic sheaths that swayed like tentacles in a current.
That afternoon, Keleher and the others had been instructed to look for some reflection of themselves in the art. The students were there with Neal Lipsitz, lecturer in the psychology department and associate dean for student development, who is teaching The Science of Happiness, a seminar offered as part of the Self cluster of Montserrat, Holy Cross’ first-year program. This fall, Montserrat marked its 10th anniversary; since 2007, the program has pushed boundaries, built community, and worked to cultivate intellectual curiosity in all first-year students, including those at the museum that afternoon.
As the group paused to make notes, the sculptures, detecting their inaction, deflated, drooped and darkened. Keleher and the others continued into the rest of the museum.