Today’s stories include a New York artist illuminating The Star headquarters in Frisco, a new project bringing attention to the Dallas hip-hop scene, and UTA chemists making pharmaceutical drug testing more efficient.
The Star, the Dallas Cowboys’ new Frisco headquarters, will shine brightly with a new LED-sculpture installment. World-renowned New York artist Leo Villarreal is lighting up the facility with his latest creation containing 19,200 lights. The work, titled Volume (Frisco), will shine 24 hours a day with 225 levels of brightness controlled by a computer program. Villarreal’s work has also been displayed at NorthPark Center and San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which The Dallas Morning News reports caught the attention of the Dallas Cowboys.
The Dallas hip-hop community is not often in the spotlight, and a University of North Texas graduate is trying to change that. Mariah Tyler spent two years, 2012-14, documenting artists and performances in the local hip-hop community. These years mark an important shift when the growth of social media contributed to a diversified music scene in Dallas. Tyler is compiling her photographs and interviews into a photo book, 214: A Photobook of Dallas Hip Hop, expected to be released this fall. D Magazine has more on the project and how to contribute to the Kickstarter campaign.
A new invention from chemists at the University of Texas at Arlington is improving a method used by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration worldwide. Quantifying water content in solid pharmaceutical drugs is a test used in more than 130 million tests each year. The new and improved process saves time and money, as well as making therapeutic drugs safer for patients. Daniel Armstrong, chair of chemistry at UTA and leader of the project, has also been recognized in The Analytical Scientist journal as the eighth most influential person in the world in this field.
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