EMD Collaboratories
Our collaboratories are informal educational exchange programs that connect UC Irvine students and faculty with peers at other leading institutions, with coursework and other activities centered on specific topics and themes. Participants work in collaborative teams, supported by the Emergent Media DesignLab and other sponsors, exploring ways in which diverse communities can develop and exchange new ideas across disciplinary boundaries.
Tempest (2017-18)
In the Tempest Collaboratory, UCI students from dance, engineering and computer science worked with architecture students from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) to design, implement, demonstrate and evaluate a series of Performative Objects. Inspired by natural phenomena and responding to the theme of The Storm, the Performative Objects were artworks and devices intended to be unpredictable, inhabitable and performable.
YOMO (2018-19)
Performing arts students from UCI and Brown University worked with RISD architecture and industrial design students in the Your Ocean, My Ocean (YOMO) Collaboratory, investigating unintended consequences of technology in ocean environments. Students considered human activities that affect marine ecosystems, devising artistic approaches to make adverse consequences tangible and meaningful. Their work was presented at Brown, RISD and UCI.
Living Systems (2020-21)
Co-produced by EM DesignLab and the Buckminster Fuller Institute, the Living Systems Art + Design Collaboratory sponsors UCI student artists and designers to create pieces that explore living systems. Participants receive financial awards and other support to implement projects focused on helping people perceive biological, social, ecological, philosophical, spiritual, mathematical, political and technological dimensions of life as a unified whole.