Read the full article in the University Record.

Flames of War

• Principal investigator: Jim Cogswell, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor; and professor of art, Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design
• Goal: In fall 2027, this project will visually interpret three tragedies by Euripides (“Trojan Women,” “Electra” and “Iphigenia in Aulis”) in a large-scale exhibition of vinyl paintings displayed across entire buildings in two sites in Japan. The team will work closely with Japanese scholars and peace activists to understand the relevance these stories have for contemporary Japanese audiences.

Crip/Mad Archive Dances

• Principal investigator: Petra Kuppers, Anita Gonzalez Collegiate Professor of Performance Studies and Disability Culture, professor of English language and literature, and of women’s and gender studies, LSA; professor of art, Stamps School; and professor of theatre and drama, and of dance, School of Music, Theatre & Dance
• Goal: Kuppers will use multidisciplinary methods from dance, creative writing, history and disability studies to create poetry and reflections on the unstable archival presence of “mad people” in dance history. The project will produce publications and a symposium.

Field: Intersecting Narratives of Climate, Migration, and Belonging in the Arctic

• Principal investigator: Endi Poskovic, professor of art and design, Stamps School
• Goal: Through large-scale woodcut prints and print installations, this project will explore how the environmental transformation of the Arctic is shaped by both land and community and invite viewers to reimagine their relationship with the living world. Poskovic will work in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago and collaborate with students at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts to experiment with sustainable printmaking methods, translating Arctic research into collective acts of making.

In Search of Lost Stims (ISOLS)

• Principal investigator: Alexis Riley, assistant professor of theatre and drama, SMTD
• Goal: This project aims to uplift multiple perspectives and highlight the experiences of disabled communities by producing an audiovisual installation that incorporates movement associated with stimming (repetitive performance of certain physical movements or vocalizations) and historical photographs of disabled people dancing. Grounded in archival research and created alongside disabled artists and community members, the completed project will be exhibited at the Center for Mad Culture gallery in Chicago in February 2027.

Give Us A Call: The Chris Gethard Show Story

• Principal investigator: Angela Washko, Catherine B. Heller Collegiate Professor of Art, Stamps School; and professor in digital studies institute, LSA
• Goal: This feature-length documentary film explores the New York City experimental, improvisational comedy, music and DIY performance communities of the early 2000s. This work looks at the legacy of public access television and how artists have used this platform to make experimental television that otherwise would have gone unseen and unsupported.

Wahkohtowin: Reconnecting With Place Through Indigenous Art Practices

• Principal investigator: Selena Smith, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences, associate research scientist, Museum of Paleontology, LSA; and associate professor of Program in the Environment, School for Environment and Sustainability
• Goal: This project will explore how plants and ecosystems are represented in the artwork of the Métis and Anishinaabeg, two Indigenous groups often associated with the Great Lakes region, and host talks and workshops by renowned Indigenous artists and scholars. It will also form the Maamawimazinitoojig (“the ones who make images/representations together”) collective to create new artworks on the themes of place, relationships with plant relatives and interconnectedness, culminating in public exhibits.

Encountering the Alien

Principal Investigator: Osman Khan, Professor of Art and Design, Penny W Stamps School of Art and Design, Professor of the Digital Studies Institute and Director Graduate Studies, Digital Studies Institute, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Don’t Let the Sun: An Oratorio about Sundown Towns

Principal Investigator: Stephen Berrey, Arthur F Thurnau Professor, Associate Professor of American Culture and Associate Professor of History, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Hygroscopic Envelope: Building enclosures for climate adaptation, Nevada

Principal Investigators: Tszyan Ng, Associate Professor of Architecture, A Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Wes McGee, Associate Professor of Architecture, A Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering

Futuridades en el Exilio” trans. “Futurities in Exile.”

Principal Investigators: Emilia Yang, Assistant Professor of Art and Design, Penny W Stamps School of Art and Design and Assistant Professor of Digital Studies Institute, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, Luciana Chamorro, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

SuperConductor: Towards Playful Human-AI Music Co-creation

Principal Investigator: Hao-Wen Dong, Assistant Professor of Music, School of Music, Theatre & Dance

The Heirloom Project

Principal Investigator: Benedicte Boisseron, Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and Chair, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Tropical Precarity: Contemporary Performance in Puerto Rico

Principal Investigator: Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, Professor of American Culture, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

afterlife plunder- a drag, dance, music and storytelling performance project

Principal Investigator: Amy Chavasse, Arthur F Thurnau Professor and Professor of Dance, School of Music, Theatre & Dance

The Arts Research: Incubation & Acceleration grant program has awarded the third round of funding to support innovative projects that center the arts in research and creative practice. Read the full article in the University Record.

Bowerbot
Principal investigator: Sophia Brueckner, associate professor of art and design, Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design; associate professor of information, School of Information; and associate professor in the Digital Studies Institute, LSA.

Goal: Using artificial intelligence trained on photographs of bowerbirds’ elaborate bowers — nestlike structures used for mating — a robotic arm known as Bowerbot will learn how male bowerbirds create “artworks” to attract a mate.

Indelible
Principal investigator: Holly Hughes, professor of art and design, Stamps School; professor of theatre and drama, School of Music, Theatre & Dance; and professor of women’s studies, LSA.

Goal: This project will create a multimedia solo performance that imagines Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford have retained Hughes to take over an investigation into accusations brought against U.S. Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh.

Shadow Play(ground)
Principal investigator: Cynthia Pachikara, associate professor of art and design, Stamps School; and associate professor of architecture and urban planning, A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Goal: This project will create an interactive video installation that uses the spectator’s shadow as a means of interaction. It will implement novel forms of image capture that present landscapes in the form of light phenomena.

Indigenous Theatre and Performance
Principal investigator: Bethany Hughes, assistant professor of American culture, LSA.

Goal: This project brings together the history and development of Indigenous theatre in North America with the performance practices utilized by current playwrights and artists to understand the aesthetic techniques, unique voice and contextual content of theatre and performance.

Fawn: A Transdisciplinary Performance
Principal investigator: Charli Brissey, associate professor of dance, SMTD.

Goal: Fawn is a multidisciplinary solo performance created through experiments in dance, writing, sculpture, video and sound installation, weaving deer mythology and folklore into queer narratives of survival and resilience.

Hispano-Arabic Mirror in the Mediterranean and Glocally; How Art and Culture Keep Crossing Paths
Principal investigators: Jorge Gonzalez del Pozo, professor of Spanish, UM-Dearborn; and Wessam M.H. Elmeligi, associate professor of Arabic and director of the Center for Arab American Studies, UM-Dearborn.

Goal: ​​The project presents the cross-cultural diversity of Arabic-Hispanic heritage through the creation of a co-authored graphic novel illustrating cultural encounters, as examples of coexistence.

Disability Arts and Technoculture
Principal investigators: Robert Adams, director of the U-M Initiative on Disability Studies; associate professor of architecture, Taubman College; associate professor of art and design, Stamps School; and associate professor in the Digital Studies Institute, LSA; and M. Remi Yergeau, professor of communication and media studies, Carleton University.

Goal: This project will develop a collaborative podcast series on disability arts and technoculture featuring interviews with disabled artists, poets, designers and technologists.

The Arts Research: Incubation & Acceleration grant program has awarded their second round of funding to support innovative projects that center the arts in research and creative practice. Seven arts-centered research projects have been funded through ARIA. For more information, read the full article in the University Record.

• Untitled Clifftop Documentary

Principal Investigator: Adam Sekuler, assistant professor of humanities (Dearborn)

Goal: This feature-length film captures the essence of the Appalachian String Band Music Festival, better known as Clifftop, in West Virginia. It spotlights the vibrant community and immersive musical experience of Old Time musicians gathered in camaraderie and intimate, nature-infused jam sessions.

• Talking Pupils

Principal Investigator: Julie Zhu, assistant professor (Ann Arbor)

Goal: This innovative virtual reality opera, designed to be accessible for the visually-impaired, is based on a 17th-century story focusing on blindness and spiritual awakening. The project integrates specialized acoustics, spatial sound design and haptic feedback to create an immersive experience that simulates visual impairment and emphasizes self-awareness.

• Impossible Conversations

Principal Investigator: Y. David Chung, professor of art and design (Ann Arbor)

Goal: In collaboration with British filmmaker, Pratap Rughani, Chung will create two video installations/documentaries exploring restorative justice through the stories of survivors and perpetrators of violence who engage in deep dialogue, aiming to chart a path toward reconciliation. The films showcase the challenging, yet transformative potential of creating connections and understanding in the wake of conflict and atrocity.

• Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online

Principal Investigator: Christiane Gruber, professor of Islamic art (Ann Arbor)

Goal: This open-access digital platform showcases multimedia presentations on Islamic art history, featuring contributions from international scholars. The innovative online exhibitions overcome the limits of physical galleries, connecting artworks, academia and cultural heritage through nuanced and interdisciplinary digital curation.

• Using Arts-Based Storytelling Methods to Build Efficacy and Advance Transgender and Gender Diverse Justice

Principal Investigator: Leonardo Kattari, assistant professor of health and human services (Dearborn); and M. Candace Christensen, associate professor of social work (Ann Arbor)

Goal: This project aims to empower transgender and gender diverse individuals through a virtual workshop that enhances advocacy and civic engagement using storytelling and arts, culminating in a repository of participant stories to promote transgender and gender diverse justice, evaluated through both quantitative and qualitative methods.

• Nyami Nyami-Water Never Lies

Principal Investigators: Michael Gould, professor of music, percussion (Ann Arbor); and Aline Cotel, Arthur F Thurnau Professor, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering (Ann Arbor)

Goal: This art project is a multimedia installation that combines sculpture and technology to explore the ecological and cultural consequences of the Kariba Dam on the Zambezi River, incorporating the river deity Nyami Nyami as a symbol of nature’s resistance against human intervention.

• Inhabiting Light

Principal Investigators: Catie Newell, associate professor of architecture (Ann Arbor); and Upali Nanda, clinical associate professor of architecture (Ann Arbor)

Goal: This project is an art installation at the U-M Nichols Arboretum, designed as a reflective space for those experiencing grief. Constructed from prismatic cast glass, it will offer both privacy and interaction with nature, facilitating introspection and healing.

February 23, 2024

The Arts Research: Incubation & Acceleration grant program and the Creativity Lab research development program awarded their first round of funding in January to support innovative projects that center the arts in research and creative practice. Seven arts-centered research projects have been funded through ARIA and seven projects have been selected for development through C-lab.

For more information, read the full article in the University Record.

Arts Research: Incubation & Acceleration Grant Program

Too Much and Never Enough: Feminist Animations

Principal investigator: Heidi Kumao, professor of art and design, Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design.

Goal: This project examines the political climate around women’s bodies using a series of experimental stop-motion animations and fabric works.

Perpetual Sunshine & The Ghost Girls

Principal investigator: Lynne Shankel, Carole Caplan Lonner Professor of Musical Theatre Composition and clinical assistant professor of music, School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

Goal: This musical theater piece portrays the capitalist exploitation of workers’ rights in the face of a national public health crisis.

THE RISE: Chicano Cinema and the Mythologies of Change

Principal investigators: John Valadez, professor of film, television and media, LSA; and Colin Gunckel, associate professor of American culture, and of film, television and media, LSA.

Goal: This documentary film explores how 1970s and 1980s Chicano cinema advanced our national understanding of race, identity and what it means to be American.

St. John Street Memorial Park

Principal investigator: Benjamin Gaydos, associate professor of art and art history, UM-Flint.

Goal: This project creates an immersive experience engaging visitors with the St. John Street Neighborhood in Flint, illustrating how place-based monuments can be equitably reimagined in the 21st century.

Detroit at Play — Empowering Communities Through Collective Game Co-Creation

Principal investigator: Jose Sanchez, associate professor of architecture, A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Goal: This project will design video games that foster community engagement, specifically targeting high school students in Detroit.

Variations of Sound

Principal investigator: Pedram Baldari, assistant professor of art and design, Stamps School.

Goal: This project presents a platform to facilitate a metamorphosis of violence into hopeful possibilities, using objects such as decommissioned weapons acquired from police to produce performances, sound installations, videos and music albums.

Tethered

Principal investigator: Anne Mondro, associate professor of art and design, Stamps School.

Goal: This project will create a series of intricately woven wire sculptures that reflect on the complex and often conflicting emotions associated with being a caregiver and care recipient simultaneously.

Creativity Lab (C-lab) fellows

Shadows: Puppetry in Performance

Principal investigators: Christianne Myers, Claribel Baird Halstead Collegiate Professor and professor of theater and drama, SMTD, and Jess Fialko, clinical assistant professor of music, SMTD.

How To Have More Fun

Principal investigator: Halena Kays, assistant professor of theater and drama, SMTD.

What was Promised? Speculative History of Landownership in the late 1800s of Formerly Enslaved Black Americans Following Special Field Orders No. 15

Principal investigator: Quinn Hunter, assistant professor of art and design, Stamps School.

Art, Agency and Decarceration

Principal investigator: Paul Draus, professor of sociology and anthropology, UM-Dearborn, and director of the Detroit Center.

Cultural Hybridity through Graphic Novels and Art Exhibits

Principal investigator: Wessam Elmeligi, assistant professor of language, culture, and the arts, UM-Dearborn.

Tension of Opposites: A Musical About Abortion

Principal investigator: Lisa Harris, F. Wallace and Janet Jeffries Collegiate Professor of Reproductive Health, professor of obstetrics and gynecology, Michigan Medicine; and professor of women’s and gender studies, LSA.

Invoking Coyolxauhqui: An Animated Source of Creativity for a Broken World

Principal investigator: William Calvo-Quiros, associate professor of American culture, LSA, and associate professor of art and design, Stamps School.