Big Box Reuse: Grace Gospel Church, Pinellas Park, FL Courtesy of Julia Christensen Christensen's work is on display this month at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

Julia Christensen's ongoing project, Big Box Reuse, tows the line between art and the study of urbanism. By visiting reinvented retail stores and interviewing residents, she takes an artistic approach to looking critically at suburbia.

Christensen brings her art and research to Oberlin as the Luce junior visiting professor of the emerging arts. Appointed in January, she teaches multidisciplinary courses in the studio arts and the Technology in Music and the Related Arts (TIMARA) departments. Funding for the Luce junior professorship in the emerging arts is provided by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation of New York.

"My goal is to create courses that bridge the gap between various departments across campus," says Christensen, who has a background in new media and electronic music. She received MFAs in electronic music and recording media from Mills College in Oakland, Calif., and integrated electronic arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.

This month, her work is on display at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. The exhibition, Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes , explores the art, architecture and culture of contemporary American suburbia.

"The curators were interested in exploring suburbia and the outdated concept that the suburb is one-dimensional," Christensen says. "We find that it's a misconception, and that there is a rich fabric of humanity among the suburbs."

The exhibit is accompanied by a book, Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes , for which Christensen contributed an essay titled The Afterlife of Big Box Stores: A Conversation with Julia Christensen.

Christensen found inspiration for big box reuse in her hometown. She watched the local Wal-Mart change locations twice in Bardstown, Ky., and both times the community had to find a new way to use the old building. In 2003, while she was a graduate student in electronic arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, she decided to do more research on the reuse of abandoned superstores and big box buildings - named so because of their square, box-like structure.

While her research in big box reuse is an ongoing project, she says her courses next year will begin to tie into that subject.

"The big box project will be coming more into play next year, because I'll be teaching a course about contemporary land art and the way artists are thinking about land use, and the social fabric as it manifests itself in the built environment," Christensen says.

Stories and images of reinvented superstores are catalogued on her web site, bigboxreuse.com.

Christensen will be the first to tell you that her interests are highly varied and experimental. This semester, she's instructing a course called "Digital Art and Public Space: Transmission Art," in which the class will consider the differences between analog and digital transmission. The first class project involved building FM radio transmitters; the class will also create individual podcasts for visitors touring the Allen Memorial Art Museum.

In the TIMARA program, Christensen has teamed up with Peter Swendsen, assistant professor of computer music and digital arts, for a course called Experimental Collaborations in Art, Music, and Performance (ECAMP), in which upperclassmen are collaborating with the Conservatory.

She has also invited a handful of artists and groups to Oberlin as part of lecture series this semester.

Christensen's teachings do more than to bridge a gap between studio art and the Conservatory, says Nanette Yannuzzi-Macias, associate professor of art.

"What she sees and what she embraces is a rich field of interconnectivity between varied but related media," Yannuzzi-Macias says. "Because of Julia's intellectual and visceral understanding of the 'standards' of a studio art practice, and her extensive knowledge of music and digital art practices, she joins others in our long-standing interests in expanding and articulating the intersections between all forms of art – from music and theater to web art, performance, and painting."

She says Christensens's courses offer Oberlin students an expanded framework for thinking about "a limitless 21 st -century palette." Teaching students how to build their own FM radio transmitters, for instance, is not just a lesson in basic electronics, but an experience in sculptural practices that will provoke more discussion, Yanuzzi-Macias says.

"What separates her teachings from more traditional arts curricula is her understanding and creative use of the most expansive art form of the last century," she says, challenging any notion that Christensen's practice is merely playing with computers in interesting ways.

"The digital age has radically changed all of our lives," Yannuzzi-Macias says. "Teachers like Julia Christensen are moving closer to real-time collaborations with artists and interested communities globally, moving beyond the somewhat limited parameters of art galleries and museums. This is what is meant by 'emerging arts.' An understanding of digital practices is fundamentally crucial for young artists.

Yannuzzi-Macias says Christensen's practices reflect the vision and philosophy of the art department.

"[Christensen] is committed to art practices that enable one to reach across the so-called digital divide, embracing and empowering us to expand our idea of what art is, what civic engagement is, and what collaboration means – and she shows us how to get there."