UMBC's IRC Fellows Program, a partnership between UMBC's Department of
Visual
Arts and the Imaging Research Center (IRC),
has quickly built upon the existing
successes of the IRC Internship
Program and the Visual Arts
Undergraduate Program
to create a national model for the recruiting, retention, education and support
of talented digital artists. "Students are transferring to UMBC with the hope
that they will get into the IRC Fellows Program," said IRC Director Dan Bailey.
Designed to recognize, reward and encourage UMBC juniors and seniors who have
displayed exceptional artistic talent and technical proficiency over the course
of their first two years as undergraduate art students, the IRC Fellows Program
supports these student artists as they pursue careers in either academic or
professional art settings. Through a series of specially designed seminar-style
courses, IRC Fellows are exposed to new technologies and artistic practices.
IRC Fellows have access to the Center's labs, visiting researchers, and to mentoring
by visual arts faculty and IRC staff.
The IRC Fellows Program also fuses the research initiatives of UMBC's visual
arts faculty with the national significance of the IRC,
which is dedicated to investigating new technologies and using them for interpreting and presenting
content. Since its inception in 1987, artists and researchers across disciplines
have collaborated in the IRC's creative environment to
develop new strategies and techniques in digital media. State-of-the-art facilities enable research
in 3D visualization, immersive technologies, interactivity, installation,
animation, high definition video and sound.
On February 4 and 5, Baltimore audiences can see the product of a collaboration
between the IRC Fellows and Associate Professor of Visual Arts
Timothy Nohe, who
directed the program during the fall '04 semester, and modern dance company
movement/addiction, directed by UMBC alumni
Renée Brozic and
Sarah D. Seely.
The evening length concert, *blink*, will be held at the Creative Alliance and
includes body.txt, in which sweeping live video is projected onto canvasses made
of latex sheets. The dancers press their bodies against the sheets, creating a
stunning visceral background, and time delay video techniques allow the dancers
to duet with images of themselves. The words of New York City-based slam poet Noel
Jones glide across the screens and the dancers.
*blink* takes place at 8 p.m. February 4-5 at the Creative Alliance at The
Patterson, 3134 Eastern Avenue in Baltimore City. Tickets ($15) can be ordered
in advance through MissionTix, or call 410-752-8950.
Watch a video clip from body.txt.
Watch a feature on the IRC from MPT "Artworks."
