Peter Colley is spending the fall 2015 semester on sabbatical. While away, he has two focuses: technology and clay.

Colley is researching the exponential explosion of technology and its effects on humanity in preparation for his spring 2016 humanities class. Specifically, he is examining ways to structure our conversation about the future and what the impending technological explosion might do to humanity.

Colley is seeking to explore how to teach forward rather than focus on the past.

Professor Colley, who also teaches art, is also spending his sabbatical on developing a new body of artwork grounded in the history and simplicity of clay with a holistic focus on how to live in the present.

The work, some functional but mostly sculptural, will be abstract, non-literal and expand on themes of balance, motion and a freeflow of thought.