Art and Technology

The Institute for Applied Creativity supports artistic exploration with advanced technology including AI, AR/VR and interactive technology to cultivate artistic innovations and create new pathways for creating aesthetic experiences. 

Projects

‘Connected: Birth-Death-Rebirth’

By Jinsil Hwaryoung Seo, John Alberse, Wesley Taylor

“Connected: Birth-Death-Rebirth” is an art installation that extends the physical environment with physical, virtual and networked environments. It creates networked aesthetics through a virtual world consisting of various new creatures, by captured hands of the audience. “Connected” is an extract of our body and generates virtual lives (birds, trees and snakes). In the project, the new organisms created by audience members build their society and interact with each other in the virtual world. Their behaviors and interactions mimic the relationships of nature. Some are active, vibrant and fast, but others are quiet, passive and slow. In addition, a small group of them is neutral and indifferent. They are integrated bodily, consciously and preconsciously and intertwined with the virtual world. 

The installation consists of a white box, a projection screen and a VR headset. They can create new organisms by putting their hands or objects into the white box in front of the projection screen. Their input becomes a flock of birds, a group of trees or snakes in the projected virtual environment. Participants can get immersed in the virtual environment through a projection or a VR headset.

In the virtual environment with a VR headset, they can navigate the world of “Connected: Birth-Death-Rebirth” by walking or teleporting using the Oculus controllers. They see the dynamism of the trees, birds and snakes in the environment. They are born, they grow and interact, and they die and are reborn in the environment. The world in the VR headset provides a dynamic immersion where the mind, body and environment interweave and communicate with each other inside of technically mediated, spatially enclosed and sensuously interactive computational environments.

‘The Color of Connection’ Interactive Dance Performance

“The Color of Connection” represents a dynamic collaboration between the Visualization and Dance programs within the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts. This innovative performance leverages a Kinect-based camera capturing system to track the dancers’ silhouettes, translating their movements into captivating interactive visualizations on a 360-degree projection screen. Audiences are immersed in a unique circular space, allowing them to fully engage with and enjoy the performance from all angles.

Core Faculty/Students 

Jinsil Hwaryoung Seo, associate professor, School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts

Christine Bergeron, associate dean for academic affairs and clinical professor, School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts

Merli Guerra, assistant professor, School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts

Michael Bruner, visiting lecturer, School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts

John Alberse, graduate researcher, School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts

Contact

If you want to work with us, please contact us: creativity@tamu.edu.