Events
Immersive Media Design New Works Incubator Showcase (The Clarice)
Event Start Date: Thursday, September 11, 2025 - 6:00 pm
Event End Date: Friday, September 12, 2025 - 10:00 pm
Location: The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
Experience projects developed during the UMD Immersive Media Design Program’s New Works Incubator, a six-week summer development program designed to support the creation of immersive media projects by students from across the University of Maryland.
About the Event
Presented in partnership with Immersive Media Design.
Experience projects developed during the UMD Immersive Media Design Program’s New Works Incubator, a six-week summer development program designed to support the creation of immersive media projects by students from across the University of Maryland. The Incubator enables individual student creators and teams to explore new areas of immersive media and to create works based on their own interests and initiative.
The following projects will be featured:
Fidgets by Mateo Rodriguez
In moments of heightened anxiety, I would often find myself subconsciously fidgeting with the ends of my clothing and hair. Only by calling attention to this subconscious action would I be able to begin the process of addressing my emotions and calming down.
Fidgets is an interactive projection installation that invites you to explore your subconscious by pressing against the large spandex screen. To some, fidgeting is used as a way to sooth themselves. To others, it is a symptom of heightened stress. See and feel how the foreground and background are calmed or agitated by your actions while you contemplate what fidgeting means for you.
Maryland Anthropocene by Katie Kunesh
Within the last few centuries, humans have dominated and influenced our planet in an era known as the Anthropocene. While we establish networks of infrastructure and global trade, we carry along organisms to new places and create ideal conditions for them to thrive.
Maryland Anthropocene is an augmented reality installation that studies the impacts of how we move through our environment. By exploring four invasive species that affect Maryland, discover how we shape the world around us while it simultaneously shapes us.
Pigeon Room by Donovan Lee
Pigeon Room is a playful augmented-reality experience that allows users to enjoy a whimsical encounter with our favorite urban avians, without ever having to risk exposure to the outdoors. Befriend these silly companions in a tastefully gamified fashion, all from the comfort of your human habitat.
Power Cut by Urvi Ashturkar and Sohaya Kaur
Armed with a blade, lightning reflexes and the power to uncover the invisible energy behind your everyday screen time. In this game you’ll be slicing through the apps that run your digital world. Every flying logo you slice reveals how much CO2 is emitted through its usage. See what it takes to keep you connected.
WHY IT MATTERS: Every message you send, video you stream and AI you prompt uses energy, not just on your device, but across a vast network of data centers, servers and cooling systems that consume power and water at an enormous scale. The internet feels invisible, but it leaves a carbon trail. Your clicks power machines thousands of miles away and it adds up.
SoundStates by Olivia DiJulio
SoundStates is an interactive, audiovisual experience that uses hand tracking to transform anyone into a DJ (disc jockey) and VJ (visual jockey). By sliding and twisting your hands on top of the instructional “DJ mat,” users can control the tempo, EQ, song selection, and visuals like a real DJ controller. Combined with dynamic on-screen text, SoundStates engages users into understanding and experimenting with the gesture controls.
Drawing from rave culture aesthetics and peripheral rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero and Just Dance, SoundStates combines energetic visuals and tactility to immerse anyone in creating their own concert sets.
Walking With Forrest by Kelsey Meis
Let your light guide you. Walking with Forrest is a gothic hiking simulator blending poetic metaphor and interactive technology. Carrying a lantern becomes a reflection of our choices in moments of connection. As participants explore the forest, their movements transform footage of the outdoors, captured and collaged by the artist. Powered by a TouchDesigner video processing network, each gesture shapes the dance of clarity and shadow—mirroring how we navigate and influence conversations and relationships through the decisions we make.
MPG by Jake Farr and Sydney Grant (in the Applause Cafe Seating Area)
MPG is a quirky, fast-paced party game that requires players to compete against their friends through a series of random minigames. Minigames have simple yet playful rules that keep you on the edge of your seat and ask you to use your phone in unusual ways. By making you tilt, shake, throw (just kidding) and more to battle in-person against others, MPG will show you that phones aren’t just tools but also toys, toys which can bring us together instead of isolating us.
More projects from the New Works Incubator are available to view at the Iribe Center on Wednesday, September 10, 1-5PM and Thursday, September 11, 1-5PM.
Date & Time
Experience projects developed during the UMD Immersive Media Design Program’s New Works Incubator, a six-week summer development program designed to support the creation of immersive media projects by students from across the University of Maryland.
About the Event
Presented in partnership with Immersive Media Design.
Experience projects developed during the UMD Immersive Media Design Program’s New Works Incubator, a six-week summer development program designed to support the creation of immersive media projects by students from across the University of Maryland. The Incubator enables individual student creators and teams to explore new areas of immersive media and to create works based on their own interests and initiative.
The following projects will be featured:
Fidgets by Mateo Rodriguez
In moments of heightened anxiety, I would often find myself subconsciously fidgeting with the ends of my clothing and hair. Only by calling attention to this subconscious action would I be able to begin the process of addressing my emotions and calming down.
Fidgets is an interactive projection installation that invites you to explore your subconscious by pressing against the large spandex screen. To some, fidgeting is used as a way to sooth themselves. To others, it is a symptom of heightened stress. See and feel how the foreground and background are calmed or agitated by your actions while you contemplate what fidgeting means for you.
Maryland Anthropocene by Katie Kunesh
Within the last few centuries, humans have dominated and influenced our planet in an era known as the Anthropocene. While we establish networks of infrastructure and global trade, we carry along organisms to new places and create ideal conditions for them to thrive.
Maryland Anthropocene is an augmented reality installation that studies the impacts of how we move through our environment. By exploring four invasive species that affect Maryland, discover how we shape the world around us while it simultaneously shapes us.
Pigeon Room by Donovan Lee
Pigeon Room is a playful augmented-reality experience that allows users to enjoy a whimsical encounter with our favorite urban avians, without ever having to risk exposure to the outdoors. Befriend these silly companions in a tastefully gamified fashion, all from the comfort of your human habitat.
Power Cut by Urvi Ashturkar and Sohaya Kaur
Armed with a blade, lightning reflexes and the power to uncover the invisible energy behind your everyday screen time. In this game you’ll be slicing through the apps that run your digital world. Every flying logo you slice reveals how much CO2 is emitted through its usage. See what it takes to keep you connected.
WHY IT MATTERS: Every message you send, video you stream and AI you prompt uses energy, not just on your device, but across a vast network of data centers, servers and cooling systems that consume power and water at an enormous scale. The internet feels invisible, but it leaves a carbon trail. Your clicks power machines thousands of miles away and it adds up.
SoundStates by Olivia DiJulio
SoundStates is an interactive, audiovisual experience that uses hand tracking to transform anyone into a DJ (disc jockey) and VJ (visual jockey). By sliding and twisting your hands on top of the instructional “DJ mat,” users can control the tempo, EQ, song selection, and visuals like a real DJ controller. Combined with dynamic on-screen text, SoundStates engages users into understanding and experimenting with the gesture controls.
Drawing from rave culture aesthetics and peripheral rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero and Just Dance, SoundStates combines energetic visuals and tactility to immerse anyone in creating their own concert sets.
Walking With Forrest by Kelsey Meis
Let your light guide you. Walking with Forrest is a gothic hiking simulator blending poetic metaphor and interactive technology. Carrying a lantern becomes a reflection of our choices in moments of connection. As participants explore the forest, their movements transform footage of the outdoors, captured and collaged by the artist. Powered by a TouchDesigner video processing network, each gesture shapes the dance of clarity and shadow—mirroring how we navigate and influence conversations and relationships through the decisions we make.
MPG by Jake Farr and Sydney Grant (in the Applause Cafe Seating Area)
MPG is a quirky, fast-paced party game that requires players to compete against their friends through a series of random minigames. Minigames have simple yet playful rules that keep you on the edge of your seat and ask you to use your phone in unusual ways. By making you tilt, shake, throw (just kidding) and more to battle in-person against others, MPG will show you that phones aren’t just tools but also toys, toys which can bring us together instead of isolating us.
More projects from the New Works Incubator are available to view at the Iribe Center on Wednesday, September 10, 1-5PM and Thursday, September 11, 1-5PM.