SJ26: Where Art and Sport Collide
By Julia Halprin Jackson Photography by Robert C. Bain
Spartan faculty members, artists and their students are showcasing their skills in SJ26 to welcome visitors and residents alike.
“San José State represents 80 countries from around the world, so our student community of over 400 students in digital media art represents the future, as well as the amazing diaspora of people who have come here around technology and culture.”
— G. Craig Hobbs
In basketball, a free throw is an unobstructed, one-point shot offered to a player after a member of the opposing team commits a personal or technical foul. For G. Craig Hobbs, professor of digital media art at the CADRE Laboratory for New Media, a free throw is a unique invitation to play for artists and athletes alike. On March 26, 27 and 28, visitors in town to watch the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament will have the chance to pantomime their own free throws in front of an installation outside the SAP Center, designed and programmed by Hobbs and his students to replicate the participant’s movements via a 100-foot light projection.
“The free throw shot is a moment in the game where there’s a pause in play, a moment of suspense and drama that provides an opportunity for recompense or reconciliation for a harm committed during the game,” Hobbs says. “The work is a celebration of art and sport in celebration of human potential and as an allegory for community healing.”
In summer 2025, Hobbs and fellow CADRE faculty member Esteban Garcia Bravo, assistant professor of digital media art, were commissioned by the City of San José's Office of Cultural Affairs to propose a project as part of SJ26. While Garcia Bravo’s projects led him to City Hall and other sites across the city, Hobbs gravitated toward the SAP Center’s exterior facade, which provides the space and infrastructure necessary for a large-scale projection. Like Art and Art History Department Chair Rhonda Holberton, Hobbs and Garcia Bravo created classes connected to their SJ26 projects to facilitate service learning opportunities for their students.
“It’s really special that our roles at San José State University as faculty members and our roles as public artists who have exhibited all over the world are being embraced,” Hobbs says. “It is a celebration of the public, of creativity, collaboration and culture in a city that I’ve had the opportunity to work in for almost 20 years.”
This year also marks the 40th anniversary of CADRE, founded as CADRE (Computers, Art, Design, Research and Education Laboratory) to offer fine arts undergraduate and graduate programs at the intersection of design, technology and art. Hobbs sees the opportunities presented by SJ26 as an exciting launchpad for artists, faculty and the community at large. Though he and Garcia Bravo are leading different projects, they share a vision for embedding and involving student artists as much as possible.
For Free Throw, players from the public are given three free throw shots at an LED-illuminated free-standing basketball hoop using internally lit, glowing basketballs. The work creates a stunning interactive digital artwork projected onto the east facade of SAP Center along Barack Obama Boulevard.
“We’re very focused on bringing students into the process, not just as laborers or workers to fulfill our vision, but to invite them to become true collaborators in the creation of artwork and public experiences,” says Hobbs. “San José State represents 80 countries from around the world, so our student community of over 400 students in digital media art represents the future, as well as the amazing diaspora of people who have come here around technology and culture.”
Free Throw images courtesy of G. Craig Hobbs.
Basketball fans try their hands at "Free Throw" outside the SAP Center on March 26, 2026.
G. Craig Hobbs (center, in hat) with the digital media art students who helped make "Free Throw" a reality.
Creating temporary landmarks
When Garcia Bravo was approached by the City of San José to create art for SJ26, his first impulse was to subvert the expectations of a standard public mural. A visual artist specializing in using video mapping, LED control and digital fabrication to create light-based interactive installations, Garcia Bravo proposed projecting video maps over “cool shapes.”
As part of his “Digital Materials” class, Garcia Bravo partnered with the Foundry, SJSU’s 6,000-square-foot facility and 12,000 outdoor fabrication yard, to set up a service learning course where his students could support public art projects.
“I do public art myself, and one of the things I did not learn in school was how to project manage or how to cut 4-by-4 pieces of polycarbonate into strange shapes,” Garcia Bravo says. “So teaching this course is teaching problem solving. I’m in a dual area in the Art Department: one is digital media art and the other is spatial art, because we work at the intersection of digital media and sculpture.”
Together with his students, Garcia Bravo has dedicated the past several months to designing two sculptures that are lit up from the inside. He and his students installed the two 6-foot tall pieces, which weigh over 300 pounds each, at City Hall Plaza in San José on Feb. 5 and 6, right before the Super Bowl.
His work doesn’t stop there. Also in 2026, Garcia Bravo and his students are completing a “Bucky Ball” sculpture in honor of the FIFA World Cup. Inspired by the architect Buckminster Fuller, who popularized geometric, 3D geodesic domes whose structure appeared almost cellular in nature, the Bucky Ball is a human-size sculpture in the shape of a soccer ball that visitors can enter and engage with from the inside out.
“Part of your art practice is to problem solve."
— Esteban Garcia Bravo
Esteban Garcia Bravo (second from left) and his students stand with one of their sculptures outside the SAP Center on March 26. .
Over the past year, Garcia Bravo and his students have set up a digital fabrication lab at the Foundry, where they established workflows for combining metal and 3D printing. In fall 2025, he invited his students to pitch various sculpture designs, and they voted on a quarterback figure and an installation shaped as a championship ring, both of which are made of tubular metal. His students are also learning to consider accessibility and structural integrity.
“The sculpture has an added layer of complication because it’s interactive,” Garcia Bravo adds. “It has animated lights, so there’s a circuit that goes inside it. This means that the students are animating the lights inside, so the circuit design also has to be vetted by the city’s electrical department. This is a great experience for them because it is what you have to do as a professional artist. Part of your art practice is to problem solve."
"Free Throw" was commissioned by the San Jose Sports Authority, in partnership with the Office of Cultural Affairs and San José State University — bringing together art, tech and sports in a really cool way. Video by News Up Now.
Esteban Garcia Bravo's digital media art students with San José Mayor Matt Mahan (center) outside City Hall in Feb. 2026.
“The San José Office of Cultural Affairs is thrilled to partner with acclaimed SJSU Professors G. Craig Hobbs and Esteban Garcia Bravo and their talented students. They are creating exciting new art work that will amplify San José’s unique cultural identity during 2026 major sporting events. The works are a great nexus of art, technology and public life.”
— Kerry Adams Hapner
Next steps
Football, soccer and basketball are more than sports. They are connectors of culture, conduits through which entire regions can generate revenue, enjoy entertainment and learn from one another. Regardless of any game’s outcome, it’s clear that when it comes to San José State, art, innovation and originality are here to stay.
“We are one of the largest cities in the country,” says Hobbs. “I think more importantly, the culture of San José represents the fabric of this country and the challenges we face for the next hundred years. So whether our visitors are people coming from agricultural communities in the Central Valley or folks who grew up here on the East Side, they are all here in a public space. The university is a place for the public — a place where we can meet, learn about each other and envision our future together. It’s a real honor to work here, at this university, in this city, as an artist.”
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