Did you miss out on the latest UBC Theatre performance because you forgot to buy tickets online? You didn’t hear about that modern art installation in the AHVA Gallery until after it was already over? You’ve seen vague posters about an upcoming concert, but can’t quite remember the date, venue or who was even supposed to be playing?
Fear not! The latest UBC Arts & Culture project is here to help you! At least with the first step — namely, providing information and selling tickets. What they have introduced is a mobile ticket booth, or more precisely, a ticket-trolley-tricycle hybrid which will roll around campus bringing the tickets to you. The goal of the Ticket Trike is to raise awareness about the latest events and cultural activities available on campus while also selling tickets right there and then.
The ticket booth on wheels was designed and built by UBC mechanical engineering alumnus Jonathan Tippett. In 2007, he co-founded eatART (Energy Awareness Through ART), which focuses on combining engineering and artistic creation in order to draw attention to the role that energy plays in daily life, as well as its social and environmental impacts.
The connection between art and engineering has long been a central interest for Tippett. “I consider engineering to be another medium for creative expression,” he said. “I’ve always been a great studier of form and how it relates to function, and a fan of beautiful things.”
It is fitting then that he was selected to build the Ticket Trike, which is all kinds of fancy. In the most basic terms, it is a ticket booth placed on the back of a custom-built tricycle. But it also has a whole bunch of embellishments.
“It’s got music so it kind of attracts attention and creates a buzz, and we’ve put a kind of elaborate lighting scheme in there, so you can change the lights around the top,” said Tippett. Most importantly for the upcoming rainy months, the entire booth is waterproof with an aluminum frame, sealed seams and impermeable paint. It also has a protractible awning to protect the culture-hungry and ticket-purchasing masses from the damp Vancouver elements.
According to Tippet, the goal of the Ticket Trike is simple — “The idea is to create greater access to all of the amazing venues on campus.” Zooming from one end of campus to the other, the trike will be able to bridge the gap between the engineering and arts corners on campus, covering everything else in-between on its way.
“One of my favourite things about the project was to be able to bring my engineering skills back to benefit my old campus,” said Tippet. “It’s nice to know that something I created outside of my schoolwork is cruising around, bringing joy and helping spread arts and culture around campus. I’m kind of proud of that.”
The one thing that the Ticket Trike is still missing is any kind of exterior art or decoration. So Arts & Culture teamed up with the SEEDS Sustainability Program to launch a design competition in order to change that, with the submission period officially ending on Monday, October 24. The hope was that the artistic designs would be as wild, creative, interactive and innovative as possible.
Tippett will be a judge on the panel, and will help decide which design submission will be implemented and turned into a reality. “I always like art that demonstrates technical skill and ability,” he said. “The artwork will have to be visually engaging and creative, and contractive and functional.”
So now there are no more excuses for missing out on all the arts and culture UBC has to offer. Just keep an eye out for the new Ticket Trike moving around campus — soon to be decked out in the artistic glory befitting the artsy-engineering hybrid that it is.