IRC Researcher and Associate Director Lee Boot worked with the Spring 2009 IRC Fellows class, in collaboration with UMBC Geography Professor Sandy Parker and his students, to develop media on the subject of wind power. They produced a fictional story of an American family putting a wind turbine in their own backyard as a way to give human scale to the wind power debate and put it in the context of people’s lives.

In five, short “webisodes,” Jim, the Dad in the Mills Family is moved to buy the latest wind turbine kit by TV’s turbine-hawking Big Green Inc. He struggles enthusiastically to get his family “off the grid.” Martha (Mom) upset by the change, the backyard construction and her flowers being squashed, joins a pro-oil demonstration only to quickly learn that the grass is even blacker on that side of the fence. The story leaves us aware that though wind power may now be driven by corporations, and may be an imperfect answer to the energy problem, it may be a reasonable choice—until, that is, the next silver bullet solution hits our TV screens.

The goal of the one-semester project was to find a way to present some of the cultural and emotional aspects of wind power in addition to providing information. The IRC’s education and research mission puts students to work on innovative visualization and real-world problems.

Until 1988, the upper floor of Baltimore’s North Avenue Market held a thriving duckpin bowling alley. This past fall the IRC Fellows, under direction of Professor Lisa Moren, mined the obsolete bowling alley creating an interactive sound, video and animation installation. Found objects from the site were located amongst the lanes and light sensors were placed on them.  Participants were invited to explore the dark space with flashlights.  As light found its way to an object, a horizon of video, animation and sound began to mix and layer where the bowling ball used to collide with the pins. Additionally, the artists rigged a drum kit and trumpet with sensors and invited participants to ‘play’ the bowling scenes by striking the drums.  A documentation of the installation was also exhibited at the Metro Gallery on Charles Street.

The physical interactive device, trackpads and photocells were handmade by the artists.  The Gluion digital Open Sound Control (OSC) converter was produced by Sukandar Kartadinata and co-designed by Lisa Moren. The Isadora interactive mixing software was programmed by Mark Coniglio and interpreted by the artists.

UMBC's Visual Arts Imaging Research Center (IRC) Fellows recently won an animation competition presented by the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra. The Fellows created a video to accompany a five-minute contemporary violin composition, Try to Believe, by Randall Woolf, that was screened during the Orchestra's performances in New York in April 2008.

"The IRC Fellows ran with this project from the start and they poured an enormous amount of smart creativity and enthusiasm into it. They managed to successfully visualize the music of a great contemporary composer while maintaining their own distinct artistic voice. We're proud of them - the public presentation of their video in New York is a well-deserved award." Professor Eric Dyer

The semester culminated in a complex live performance of the work at the Creative Alliance.

The IRC Fellows Class, led by Professor Dan Bailey, initially studied image mapping and panoramic photography. This effort led to the class working with NASA Senior Producer Michael Starobin to experiment with and research methods for mapping 2D images onto Science On A Sphere. The results were showcased at the NASA Visitor's Center. Subsequently, NASA hired two Fellows to be animators on upcoming Science On A Sphere productions.

Science On A Sphere is a mesmerizing visualization system developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that uses computers and video projectors to display animated data on the outside of a suspended, 6-foot diameter, white sphere. Four strategically placed projectors work in unison to coat the sphere with a wide range of data and imagery.

This course will explore ideas in music visualization and the use of zoetrope-like sculptures as a filmmaking tool. Working with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the class will create a synchronous video for screening with live orchestral or ensemble performances. Issues surrounding perception, cognition and synchronization will be investigated through readings, screenings and experimentation. Students will explore animated mark-making, chrominance and luminance keying, time manipulation, compositing and scripting, all within the context of synesthesia. The semester will culminate in a complex group project and public performances.