ARTSLab encourages collaboration between creative arts and science research

Art meets science and technology at ARTSLab at The University of New Mexico. Indeed, the name ARTSLab stands for Art, Research, Technology and Science and it's open for any UNM researcher in any field to explore the possibilities of a collaboration with the arts.

The ARTSLab team is preparing for their move to the forthcoming UNM Center for Collaborative Arts & Technology (CCAT), which will mov the facility into new, updated quarters on the main campus, making it more accessible to more users.

Established in 2005 by Professor Emeritus Ed Angel, the interdisciplinary center sits tucked away in a corner of the UNM Center for Advanced Research Computing. Behind the mid-century modern stone façade of the former Cadillac showroom hums state-of-the-art facilities, along with the staff, faculty, and expertise to help UNM researchers further their research by collaborating to meld it with the arts.

"I think ARTSLab is a diamond in the rough… and a gateway to the creative fine arts community at UNM," said Stewart Copeland, associate director. He, along with Interim Director and Professor Mary Tsiongas and Lab Manager Valery Estabrook, are on hand at the venue to help researchers envision their projects and make them a reality.

"It's a place where collaboration happens across our campus, across disciplines, between students and faculty, and community," Tsiongas said.

"I've always thought of ARTSLab as being this meeting place for people coming together from different spaces to figure out ideas and create things that don't exist yet," Estabrook said.

"Sometimes people feel like 'Well, I'll get in touch with you guys when I have an idea.' But it's OK if they don't have an idea. They can come in and just let us know where they're at. I think the beauty of new media interdisciplinary collaboration is that you're opening up new paradigms for expression… We offer a space to experiment and get weird."

ARTSLab Associate Director Stewart Copeland

ARTSLab has five key goals:

• Foster cross-college research collaborations between the College of Fine Arts and other schools and colleges across UNM.
• Support interdisciplinary faculty research, offering faculty researchers in CFA with access to cutting-edge technology and technical support to help expand their practice.
• Champion inclusivity by encouraging technological equity by eliminating barriers, creating inclusive spaces, and offering training and tutorials for users in accessible and intuitive formats with the belief that diverse perspectives are imperative in creating a more equitable future.
• Provide a public exhibition space with a unique environment for public art exhibitions, multi-media performances, guest speakers, workshops, and presentations for UNM affiliates and the greater Albuquerque community.
• House and maintain research equipment and provide access and training for multiple users over extended time frames.

The list of technology and resources to support the diverse research interests of its users includes: a 1,100 square foot production studio with fully outfitted control room, a 16-foot full dome for immersive projection, and an audio isolation booth for sound recording; a Big-Rep ONE 3D printer (cubic-meter print volume), Artec Leo 3D Scanner, VR headsets, various cameras and lenses, RISO printer, an electronics workstation, and fabrication machinery such as a CNC router, laser cutter, and micro vacuum former.

If that all sounds bewildering and difficult to know where to start, that's where ARTSLab staff comes in.

Copeland, Tsiongas, and Estabrook agreed that researchers often aren't sure if or how they can use ARTSLab and exactly what they want to do.

"Sometimes people feel like 'Well, I'll get in touch with you guys when I have an idea.' But it's OK if they don't have an idea. They can come in and just let us know where they're at," Copeland said. "I think the beauty of new media interdisciplinary collaboration is that you're opening up new paradigms for expression… We offer a space to experiment and get weird."

"People can come in and say I want to do something, but I don't know what. And then, we have great collaborators to work with who can brainstorm with them and make things happen," Tsiongas added.

"I get people in here who are just like, I heard that this technology exists, and I just actually want to learn how to use it without any idea of where it's going to go, but just to see if they can figure it out," Estabrook said. "And I think that even with literally no end goal… no idea for a finished product, it's about figuring out what are the processes that you have access to, that you want to learn, and then ideas for how it might materialize happen later."

In one recent project, Jeanie Finlay, a world-renowned artist and documentary filmmaker, spent a week in New Mexico to further her visual research for her upcoming project that spotlights the marine pollution caused by dredging along the northern English coastline. Copeland, Estabrook, UNM ART and Ecology MFA candidate Nancy Dewhurst, and UNM Film student Tyler Sovelove turned the studio into a "mad science lab." Armed with a camera, fish tanks, lights, and a plethora of common kitchen items, they helped Finlay explore and invent new ways of visualizing and capturing the water pollution.

ARTSLab strives to create a partnership between creative art researchers and scientific data-lab based researchers using the technology in different, sometimes unconventional ways: "Putting these tools into the hands of many different disciplines and seeing what they can create together. Technology acts as a bridge to connect researchers and push research in new directions," Copeland said. For example, ARTSLab recently partnered with ABQ Dance Connect to host the Dance Hack-A-Thon, a four-hour event where 10 technologists and 10 dancers from the Albuquerque community collaborated and explored different methods of spatial visualization and sonification.

Creative art researchers can collaborate with scientific data lab-based researchers to envision using the technology in different, sometimes unconventional ways, "so really kind of putting these tools into the hands of many different disciplines and seeing what they can create together to improve the wider community. Technology acts as a bridge for us to be thinking about ways that we can connect to research and to push research in new directions," Copeland said.

Copeland, Tsiongas, and Estabrook look to the future when ARTSLab transitions to CCAT, which will provide much needed space and equipment upgrades for the interdisciplinary facility.

Copeland suggests that any researcher interested in a potential collaboration with ARTSLab should send an email to [email protected] and make an appointment to drop in to brainstorm and visualize projects to communicate research to a larger audience.

Find out more about what's happening at the UNM ARTSLab on its website, Facebook, Instagram.

Top image: ARTSLab recently partnered with ABQ Dance Connect to host the Dance Hack-A-Thon.