Two exhibitions bound together by the theme of computer technology and its impact on art will be featured in the College of Design’s Gallery 181 this month.

The first exhibition, titled “Alphabets of Globalization,” presents the most recent work of Kansas City artist Chris Burnett. The second exhibition, “Homeostatic Portfolio,” is a collection of 33 prints from artists across the country.

“The theme for both is essentially technology and art,” said C. Arthur Croyle, associate professor in art and design.

The exhibition is one of the first to be moving forward with the available technology, Croyle added. Rather than going to the gallery to just look at a painting, those who attend the exhibition get to see and take part in what artists are doing with computers.

Burnett’s show features two interactive computer works that experiment with type and letters and question virtuality and visualization as a future global language, Croyle said.

The show is an installation piece Burnett created specifically for Gallery 181. Three computer monitors hang from the ceiling, and keyboards are placed on pedestals. The gallery is darkened, so the monitor screens glow as you approach them.

“You approach these computers different than a computer in a lab. You have different expectations,” Croyle said. “That’s what you do in a gallery, draw as much attention as you can to the artwork.”

To accompany the interactive computers, Burnett will also show a selection of prints that highlights key frames from the visual programs he has created.

The thing that is interesting about the show, Croyle said, is that the viewer is involved in making it.

“You’re designing what you’re looking at,” he explained. “You affect it.”

By hitting any letter on the keyboard, the viewer will see three new designs, a background, issues and terms relating to that letter. Burnett creates an alphabet based on technology and how the computer puts forms together, Croyle said.

“He is questioning whether there is a universal alphabet,” he said.

The second exhibition, “Homeostatic Portfolio,” is an exchange portfolio juried and organized by Bradlee Shanks, a Florida printmaking artist. The portfolio was provided to the gallery by Iowa State assistant professor of art and design April Katz, who has a print in the show.

The idea of an exchange portfolio, Katz said, is that each of the 33 artists in the portfolio get a copy of all the other artists’ prints.

“All of the people whose prints you see were juried into the portfolio of prints and I’m just sharing those prints,” Katz said.

Katz located Shanks’ call for entries to the portfolio on the Internet and thought her work would apply to his themes of homeostasis and the combination of new technology with old printing techniques. Artists were expected to create their imagery digitally on the computer, yet print it with traditional hand-pulled print processes, Katz said.

“I think [Shanks] had been doing this in his own work and wanted to see if others were too,” Katz said.

Katz said this design strategy starts to question “how the new forms interact with and inform what’s happening with traditional processes.” Some of the traditional print processes used on pieces in the portfolio are lithography, relief, silk screening, and etching.

Croyle said the prints contain very contemporary and complex images. “They really are good prints,” he explained. “I don’t know how they did some of them.”

Katz’s print, titled “The Results Were Positive,” plays on the assigned theme of the balance of technology and people by balancing the technical aspects of the medical system and herself. The print is based on Katz being diagnosed with breast cancer, and carries a double meaning.

“There is an image of me on the phone in a spiral going backward, picturing the result when I got that news,” Katz said.

The double meaning lies in her test results being positive for breast cancer, but that she is “fine now and feeling good, so the results were positive,” Katz explained.

Croyle said he is happy with the way the show has turned out. Originally, another computer artist from MIT was scheduled to show his work with Burnett, but canceled. When the artist canceled, Katz showed “Homeostatic Portfolio” to Croyle, and he decided the shows would work together.

“It’s accidental that they were put together,” Croyle said. “[The portfolio] is not computer, but it’s a lot of the same subject matter. The show tended to work better than I would have imagined.”

Gallery 181 is located on the first floor of the College of Design atrium. Hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and admission is free.

Burnett will be speaking about his work Saturday, Oct. 14, at 2 p.m. in the gallery.

Croyle said there is definitely something in the gallery for everyone and each person will walk away with a different experience.

“It is half hands-on, and the other is a good variety,” Croyle said. “I invite people to wander in there an find what they like.”