ames urber, a 20
th
century writer/
cartoonist from Columbus, Ohio,
was known for his short stories, car-
toons, and essays focused on people and ani-
mals. He is especially known for his amus-
ing dogma: e humorist identified human
traits in dogs, and brought them to light in
many of his drawings and musings. Known
as urber's Dogs, they, along with their
master, became a national comic institution.
Recently, a team of graduate students at
Ohio State University's Advanced Com-
puting Center for the Arts and Design
(ACCAD) re-created these old dogs, origi-
nally crafted through simple line drawings,
by using new tricks: computer graphics
technology. First, the nine students mod-
eled the dogs using 3D software, and then
brought them to animated life during an
orchestra performance. But this was no or-
dinary musical selection: It was an encore
performance of composer Peter Schickele's
urber's Dogs–Suite for Orchestra, which
had been commissioned a few years ear-
lier by the Columbus ProMusica Cham-
ber Orchestra in partnership with urber
April 2009 42
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Education
