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Mixing Art and Tech

The new TAPROOT Interactive Media Lab invites all students to creatively experiment with the latest technology, including podcast studios, 3D printers and scanners, powerful computers, and more.

The campus community celebrated the opening of the new Interactive Media Lab in the Library, where art and technology integrate.

The Interactive Media Lab is Open…In More Ways Than One

TAPROOT means “Technology in the Arts Project: Reinvent, Originate, Open, Transform,” and that’s exactly what the campus community is invited to do in the new Interactive Media Lab (IML).

Located in the Library, the expansive creative space is divided into two areas, the Computer Lab and the Creation Lab, and offers emerging technologies that integrate across the arts, strategically and intentionally.

Check out the opening on Instagram.

What’s Inside

The Lab currently features two fully equipped podcast studios, high-powered computers, and 3D printing labs with more tech options to come. It’s free and open to anyone on campus to experiment with their creative ideas at the intersection of art and tech.

At its recent opening, the faculty introduced the IML’s possibilities, such as Associate Professor of New Media Joe McKay and Associate Professor of New Media and Computer Science Lee Tusman, who presented Goblin Mode: Facial Recognition, showing how to use P5.JS and the camera to make participants’ heads into living Picassos.

The campus community celebrated the opening of the new Interactive Media Lab in the Library, where art and technology integrate.

TAPROOT Project

The Interactive Media Lab serves as a key collaborative space supporting the broader TAPROOT Project, which aims to inspire students to extend their personal artistic practice via:

  • Immersive performance
  • Artificial intelligence (AI)
  • Coding
  • Application programming interfaces
  • Geospatial information systems (GIS)
  • Machine learning
  • Transmedia practice
  • Virtual reality (VR)
  • Augmented reality (AR)
  • Mixed realities

Leading the Way

Selected faculty members serve one-year terms as TAPROOT Fellows, focused on collaborating, building emerging technologies into their courses, and teaching students how to use those technologies as tools in the creative process.

The 2025–2026 Individual Fellows are Joshua Lutz, Associate Professor of Photography and Rachel Owens, Associate Professor of Sculpture, while the Collaborations Fellows are Shaka McGlotten, Professor of Media Studies, and Hakan Topal, Associate Professor of New Media.

Made Possible By

The Interactive Media Lab was made possible by a $500,000 grant from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation to fund The TAPROOT Project through academic year 2028.

The campus community celebrated the opening of the new Interactive Media Lab in the Library, where art and technology integrate. The campus community celebrated the opening of the new Interactive Media Lab in the Library, where art and technology integrate. The campus community celebrated the opening of the new Interactive Media Lab in the Library, where art and technology integrate. The campus community celebrated the opening of the new Interactive Media Lab in the Library, where art and technology integrate.