Interactive Media Lab offers new and creative ways of learning

Industrial Design professor of practice Jason Tilk ’03 paints a vivid picture of one of the highlights of the Cleveland Institute of Art’s new Interactive Media Lab (IML). The facility’s virtual production stage uses extended reality (XR) technology to record real-world objects and people against digital backgrounds with sophistication far beyond the green screen.

“Imagine a movie studio, and you can bring in props or vehicles or whatever is in the content you want to create, but the studio has a digital backdrop and a digital floor,” Tilk says. “We will be able to create virtual environments that link up to the camera and interact as if the camera is looking into it. It could be the salt flats, and there could be a concept vehicle there, or it could be a completely imagined space for something that the Sculpture + Expanded Media department and video students put together.”

In the XR Studio, students, alumni, industry and community members will be able to record scenes using the kind of leading-edge technology some feature film artists now use. “It’s a way to basically digitally create any environment right in MidTown,” says Tilk, referring to the district within Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood that’s home to the IML.

The XR Studio is a key feature of the IML, a technology-forward learning and presentation space that a host of CIA alumni have helped bring to fruition. Animator and entertainment producer Kevin Geiger ’89 helped conceptualize the IML in 2019. Dan Cuffaro ’91, associate professor of Industrial Design, worked with game designer Jared Bendis ’04 to draft the IML’s original business plans. Cuffaro remains instrumental in its planning and implementation.

The $13 million project is located in a 14,300-square-foot space at East 66th Street and Euclid Avenue in the Cleveland Foundation’s MidTown Collaboration Center—a shared facility for cross-pollination by those in sectors including art, software, business and health care.

While the IML is an important new asset for Animation, Game Design and Life Sciences Illustration students, it has applicability for every major, including the fine arts. And it is expected to provide a career-building advantage in an ever more digital world, says Rachel Yurkovich ’14, the IML’s associate director of technology.

“It’s such a great opportunity for up-and-coming students to keep up with all of the new technology that is rapidly coming out and new tools to accomplish whatever vision they have,” Yurkovich says.

Spaces and features

The XR Studio represents the biggest investment and the largest physical space at the IML, Yurkovich says. Its 36-foot LED wall and 26-foot inlaid LED floor are connected to create seamless virtual environments.

“Settings that are made to look real in a game engine can be used as backgrounds in your video,” she says. “It knows the location of the camera in that game room setting, so it gives you the right perspective.”

Grip gear, cameras, tripods—equipment that would be needed on a film set—can be borrowed by CIA students or rented by non-students. In the Digital Capture Studio, photogrammetry allows physical objects to be made into digital images by 3D scanners. Motion-capture suits can be worn to allow movements to be recorded and digitized.

In the Rapid Prototype Lab, rapid 3D printers, laser cutters, a computer numerical control (CNC) mill and soldering equipment will be available so users can quickly make physical models from their designs before they move to final production.

The IML’s Arcade contains two solo playrooms for single-person virtual reality (VR) experiences or game playing “so you don’t have to worry about bumping into anything,” Yurkovich says. “One of these rooms has a high-end VR headset called Varjo. It’s so crisp that it looks like you’re looking at the real world. People use it for interior design and other kinds of design.”

A multipurpose screening room designed for showing and editing 3D videos has tiered seating and haptic chairs that create tactile feedback for use with VR. “There’s an editing station with surround sound where you can edit and color-correct the video you captured, probably in the XR studio,” Yurkovich says. “We have all the monitors and keyboards and things to make that workflow fast.

“And this space is set up so you can do shared VR experiences, with multiple headsets,” she adds. “For a class or a group, everyone can try the same thing and give a critique or do whatever is needed to test it out.”

In the Interactive Media Gallery, a wall of glass can be switched from clear to frosted to display a projected image.

“The gallery is also a multi-use space,” Yurkovich says. “You can have it empty for AR/VR experiences or have a full exhibit set-up with a focus on that new technology.”

Overall, the facility holds potential not just for artists working in traditional time-based media, but also for those working in fine-arts realms. Yurkovich—who earned her BFA in Painting and Sculpture + Expanded Media—emphasizes that CIA students in every major have freedom to explore a variety of media, and they do.

“Painting majors can create videos or performance art, and SEM majors can create drawings or digital art,” she says.

That freedom allows for extending traditional boundaries. Painting or Drawing majors, for example, might use the IML to animate parts of an artwork in AR. “This has been done in other exhibits,” Yurkovich says.

They can create digital installations—pieces that can be seen only through a headset or phone with AR. They can make drawings or drafts in 3D space with VR headsets. They can 3D-scan a painting to allow it to be seen by someone who can’t see it in person. And the XR studio can be used for making an experimental film or for performance art.

“It isn’t predictable what our creative students will come up with,” Yurkovich says. “But with access to these additional tools, I’m excited to see the interpretations that a variety of majors will take.”

Unlimited potential

CIA alumnus Brandon Miller ’10 has a feel for the potential of the IML. His company, Third Reality Media, offers digital interactive services including 3D and XR content creation and audiovisual installation. Like Yurkovich, Miller worked in AV at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Cleveland Metroparks. He has seen AV technology change rapidly and open up pathways for better visitor experiences.

Today, his business’s target audience is nonprofits, museums and nature centers. For a new exhibit at the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum in Canton, Ohio, he recently designed, programmed and installed an interactive projection, called Fluid in Motion, which lets visitors explore fluid dynamics.

It’s the type of project that smaller cultural institutions can’t typically do in-house, but art students armed with high-tech equipment and know-how could help bridge the gap.

“One thing I really hope that comes out of the IML is students working more with local organizations to heighten their digital interactive footprint and to raise the bar on what’s expected,” Miller says.

He also hopes CIA students will take full advantage of the opportunity they have to explore and experiment with equipment and software typically available only in a high-end studio.

“If you had to pay for time in a studio like that, you wouldn’t have time to play,” Miller says. “You would say, ‘OK, this is what the client wants—we’ve got to get it done.’ So I hope this is an environment that’s more conducive to play.”

Tilk foresees the IML as the beginning of a new era for his students.

“I’m looking forward to when our young transportation designers present completely in the XR studio,” he says. “It’s going to be a game changer. And really fun to work in.”

###

Photo caption: From left, Rachel Yurkovich ’14, Steven Mastroianni ’88 and Chey Sprinkle ’21 enjoy a digital sunset in front of the XR Studio screen in CIA’s Interactive Media Lab. Yurkovich is the IML’s Associate Director of Technology, and Sprinkle is the IML’s Operations Manager. Mastroianni is CIA’s Media Services Manager.