Local Professor Heading to Estonia for World Competition

David Hartz, associate professor in Electronic Media Communications at the University of Cincinnati's Raymond Walters College, will represent the United States in the World Fire Championships in Tallinn, Estonia. Hartz will be joined by two Seattle fire sculptors, Chuck Nafziger and Jonathon Zucker, to form the U.S. team.

Hartz and the U.S. team will compete Jan.16-22 against teams from Finland, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, South Korea and Estonia.

The competition will take place as part of the Tallin Light Festival. Participants in the World Fire Sculpture Championship were chosen based on the candidate teams' sculpture designs and proposals. The semi-final round of competition will be help Jan.16 and six teams will advance to the finals on Jan. 22. The first-place team will be awarded 2,500 Euros, the second-place team 1,500 Euros and the third-place team 1,000 Euros.

Hartz, who teaches animation, photography and media design courses at Raymond Walters College, describes fire sculpture saying, "I find it an all-encompassing medium using the senses of sight, hearing, smell and motion."

He adds, "Fire sculpture is much more complicated than an ordinary bonfire. My experience has taught me to respect fire like a creature I've brought to life, choreographed to perform in specific ways and then allowed to die out."

Hartz also speaks of a correlation between animation and fire sculpture, "There is a direct relationship between the two. Fire incorporates light, sound, space and change over time in a real-world environment much the way animation works in a 2-D or virtual space."

The sculpture competition and the festivities in Tallinn will be documented on video by Hartz for a program to be broadcast on UCTV, the Univeristy of Cincinnati television station operated by Electronic Media Communication at RWC. He also plans to share this experience with his students and the college community. Those interested may also view the team's progress in the competition at the Cincinnati Illustrators blog: http://cincyillustrators.blogspot.com