Current research projects and related events:
AHT/STEM Collaboration Grant
The experimenta.l. lab is proud to collaborate with Dr. Chandramallika Basak (BBS), director of the LiNC laboratory, and Dr. Ravi Prakash (ECS), professor of Computer Science, on the internal funding grant for AHT/STEM collaborations. In this project, we will develop solutions for creating virtual reality-based animations for the early detection of mild cognitive impairment in older adults, which typically precedes Alzheimer’s disease. Our lab will have the opportunity to create hands-on animations and settings for this project, combining artistic skills with innovative digital technologies for health research.
Kinderdoll stop-motion animation
This stop-motion animation project is being developed with the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies. Due to the success of our previous collaboration, we are now working on a larger project about Kindertransport—a historical event that helped to evacuate Jewish children from Nazi-occupied areas to the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1940. Other disciplines were also involved in the pre-production phases of this project, including SV Randall’s sculpture class that helped to build the sets, puppets, and props for the animation, as well as Monika Salter’s stop-motion animation class that helped to train animators for the project. The script for the animation was created by Paula Goldberg, who teaches screenwriting as part of her Creative Writing course, and the storyboard was created by Philip Martin, our school’s multi-talented staff member. We plan to start production in the Spring 2025.
Center for Visual Music – Screenings
The experimenta.l. lab is proud to partner with the Center for Visual Music to bring to our students the exclusive restored screening of Oskar Fischinger animations. As a special research event supported by the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies, we will be screening “Optical Poetry: Oskar Fischinger Retrospective” on September 9, 2024. More information here.
Past collaborative research projects:
Exhibition “Animation as Art: A Multi-Sensory Experience” (2024)
The experimenta.l. research group is currently producing animated machines and exhibits for a collaborative show with faculty and students from UTD and Texas Tech University (TTU). The exhibition will take place in Spring 2024 at the Museum of Texas Tech University in Lubbock. From automatons to philosophical toys, kinetic sculptures to gadgets, and perhaps even digital simulations, this exhibition aims to explore the potential of animation as an art form. This hands-on research approach is inspired by Andreas Fickers and Annie van de Oever’s work on experimental media archeology. The recreation, testing, and observation of historical devices proposed by these scholars help introduce the early apparatuses to a new generation who will suggest new ways of seeing, interpreting, and playing with them.
In investigating the possibilities of animations created using machines, we hope to shed light on how the past and present connect through playful experimentation.
We are happy to collaborate with TTU Faculty, Doctors Jorgelina Orfila and Francisco Ortega, also known as The Animation Duo, and the Jewelry Design and Metalsmithing Professors Rob Glover and Nancy Slagle and their students.
Read more about this research here.
Wintry Mix (2023)
In collaboration with jazz musician and professor Davy Mooney from UNT College of Music, we created an animation of the Wintry Mix track for his new album. The project is now completed. You can learn more about this collaboration here.
Arthur Rimbaud Project “Voyelles” (2022)
The Arthur Rimbaud Project “Voyelles” was a multidisciplinary collaboration with the Center for Translation Studies and extends my research into a sensorial collaboration using poetry, sound, dance, and animation. The project welcomes creative investigation as visual and sensory translations by exploring these bridges between technology, performance, and materiality. This project is currently in its post-production phase, and it is envisioned and led by Professor Rainer Schulte. More information is available here.
“A Lasting Image“ (2022)
In collaboration with Professor and Dean Nils Roemer and inspired by the research developed at the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies, three AHT students created the animation “A Lasting Image” around the theme “Expanded Perspectives of the Holocaust” under the supervision of Assistant Professor Christine Veras at the Experimental Animation Lab.
The project was presented at the March 2022 Annual Scholars’ Conference and is now completed and running through festivals. It recently got selected by three international animation festivals. Students were actively engaged in the historical and creative research to adapt part of Dr. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth’s experience into animation.
The undergraduate students who worked on the project are:
Scott Huddleston, Kirstin Stevens-Schmidt, and Ana Villarreal.
You can check more information about the project here: https://labs.utdallas.edu/experimental/a-lasting-image/
In collaboration with Dr. Paul Fishwick and the Creative Automata Lab, we have been engaged in a series of discussions about the use and applications of A.I. in art.
This collaboration was one of the projects in which Research Assistant Gizem Oktay was actively engaged. In studying A.I. art, our goal was to develop ways to actively engage groups of collaborators in the thinking and production of such works.
The result of these semester-long conversations between both labs was presented and organized into an event called “Conversations About the Use of A.I. in Art Practice” when Undergraduate and Graduate students presented their most recent explorations and creations using A.I. You can read their reports and access the recording of that event here.