The technology of creativity: UNM's ARTSLab marries art and ingenuity

ARTSLab at the University of New Mexico serves as an umbrella of artistic creativity developed through technology.

The beginning of its name stands for Art, Research, Technology and Science. It is open to UNM students and researchers in any field, to explore the possibility of incorporating the arts into their projects using immersive and interactive technology. Some of its goals is to foster cross-college research collaborations between the College of Fine Arts and other schools throughout UNM; encourage technology equity by eliminating barriers by creating inclusive spaces and offer training and tutorials; and provide a public exhibition for art shows, multimedia performances, workshops and presentations for UNM affiliates and the greater Albuquerque community.

The technology of creativity: UNM's ARTSLab marries art and ingenuity

ARTSLab was established in 2005, by Professor Emeritus Ed Angel, as a center for immersive media and emerging technology.

“The big point of ARTSLab is to figure out how to connect new technology and artists working with technology to other researchers across campus,” said Stewart Copeland, associate director of ARTSLab. “If there’s someone working in engineering and has exciting ideas that overlaps into art, how do we connect them to faculty members in the College of Fine Arts so they can work on projects together? How do we look at new technologies and figure out how it connects to the arts? And so that’s what ARTSLab does. And that also is a pretty big umbrella of potential there.”

ARTSLab offers unique technology that students would not otherwise have readily available or access to.

“There’s all kinds of weird toys and gizmos and technology that we can use to make cool things,” Copeland said.

In the heart of the lab is a production studio space that was recently used by a documentary filmmaker who teaches film for video installation work.

“She covers up this entire wall with these projections that she’s been filming in the jungles in Puerto Rico,” Copeland said. “She’s working on a film there. Our floor peels up for green screen too, if we need to do any kind of green screen things. Then we hang projectors all the time, do projection maps, new projects. On top of that, there’s a screen here which we do presentations and film screenings and artist talks and dance performances and music performances on. So all kinds of stuff happens in this space.”

ARTSLab recently acquired a new 3D printer. Copeland said a lot of grant writing has been taken place with a big focus on digital fabrication.

“So looking at new ways to make three-dimensional objects and figuring out how that overlaps with different disciplines,” Copeland explained. “Our new 3D printer can print up to a cubic meter in size. (It) has dual head extrusions, so it can do two different materials at once, and it could print really big. It’s pretty exciting.”

He added the 3D printer came from one of the main grants supported by a UNM faculty member in landscape architecture and art.

“She was working on this project with the National Science Foundation and some researchers who were studying soil microbiomes that were affected by shade being cast from creosote bushes,” Copeland said. “She was scanning creosote bushes and then printing creosote bushes, and then putting them out there to study how the shade affects soil microbiomes. So then from that, where we support that kind of science heavy project, and the next thing we know, we get a 3D printer here that students (and) faculty members use.”

ARTSLab also features a risograph printer that also was purchased with a recent grant.

“The cool thing about it is that it prints more like a silk screen,” Copeland explained. “It has these single color drums. But this is a really special machine because you can do two colors at once. And so you send it through almost as if you’re doing silk-screening, like one color at a time. There’s a lot of interesting people in the printmaking community. So where a lot of our other technology could feel really high-tech, this is a bit more kind of approachable.”

He added when people are in ARTSLab and see the innovative technology, it encourages them to broaden their horizons.

“When they see some other stuff, they want to experiment with other kinds of technologies,” Copeland said. “And it’s been a little bit of a gateway drug to get people interested in thinking about new media art.”

Another tool at ARTSLab is a computer numerical control (CNC) machine that automates the control, movement and precision of machine tools through preprogrammed computer software, which is embedded inside the tools. ARTSLab guests also can utilize a digital Jacquard loom that the center acquired from Norway through a large grant.

“(It is) great to have a lot of researchers, including the art department,” said Mary Tsiongas, director of ARTSLab. “Artists use it to create work because weaving is an old (art form). That’s what’s interesting about UNM and ARTSLab is we try to look at the old practices and art practices and how they can be brought into emerging and high-tech creations.”

Tsiongas said there are different levels of students and faculty that ARTSLab serves.

“If they come with a faculty member in their class and we’re showing them how to use certain equipment, because even if they’re not directly using it, although some have used them directly for their projects in their class, they know what the next level is,” she explained.

“And then, there’s graduate students, who are much more independent. They could come and propose a craft project and if it’s feasible for us to be able to support that, we would do it. And then, there’s the faculty, and I’m leaving out the community, because obviously community members could come and say, ‘I want to rent this space on the weekend’ and shoot a promo video or something. We’re trying to serve and be a catalyst for all those levels of students and faculty.”

ARTSLab also hosts events such as artist talks, music performances and film showings. A schedule of events and more information about ARTSLab is available at artslab.unm.edu.

“We think of this place like a node for the larger Albuquerque community to connect to the College of Fine Arts,” Copeland said. “We try to make almost all of our events public-facing, so that anyone can come to it. And if you’re a recent graduate and you still want to come back and shoot a project in the studio because you’ve used it before, we can rent it out. So we’ve been trying to make it a lot more accessible.”