Computer graphics and related technology are the wave of the future.

Students and faculty interested in this type of technology are invited to attend the new exhibit opening at the NIU Art Museum, on the second floor of Altgeld Hall.

The exhibit is called “Brave New Pixels 5: Digital Dreams” and will run from Oct. 23 until Dec. 3.

Sandra Rainey, director of the museum, said, “We encourage students to attend, especially since computer technology is more widespread and students deal with computers on a day to day basis.”

“Brave New Pixels” is an annual Midwest Regional Juried Art and Design Show of computer generated imagery and related technology. The exhibit will highlight the contemporary work of Midwest artists.

The show will open Oct. 27 but the reception for all the artists will be from 4 to 6 p.m. in the main gallery Oct. 28.

According to Christine Oster, Chair of SIGGRAPH Chicago, the co-sponsor of the show, the exhibit will include fine art and graphic design in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional works, interactive media and installations and other exhibits.

“A pixel is short for a picture element, it is actually a small rectangular ‘dot’ that makes up the image on a video monitor screen,” she said

“A number of pixels give a fine, realistic quality to an image, while few and large pixels give the blocky effect that some people still mistakenly think is the only image a computer can give them,” she said.

Included with “Brave New Pixels 5” is Postcards from the Fifth Dimension, an electronic collaboration of transmitted images by computer artist and NIU associate art professor Byron Grush.

He also will have a live transmittal event titled “Digital Phonebooth,” which is a live phone hook-up between Grush in DeKalb, Tom Baggs in Cincinnati and Wynne Ragland in Atlanta. The “Digital Phonebooth” encourages audience participation and is the first of several free installation and transmission art events to be presented in the Main Gallery through November.

Also being presented in conjunction with “Brave New Pixels” is “Hamburger Dreams.” “Hamburger Dreams” is a multi-media installation by visiting artist Paul Rutkovsky. The exhibit includes images from AMIGA and Macintosh computers as well as motor-operated plastic hamburgers and bologna.