Experience projects developed during the 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 UMD campus. 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 showcased at The Clarice:

Arti Dhareshwar, Malaya Heflin and Fiza Mulla: SuperstAR

SuperstAR is an immersive, musical-themed experience that features augmented reality games and projection mapping experiences. There are 3 sections, each themed around different musical genres: EDM/rap, jazz, and pop. Players have to travel through each section, solving clues along the way with the help of both a tablet and their physical environments. Can you collect each instrument to become the ultimate superstar?

Truc Vo: Virtual Blooming

Virtual Blooming is an immersive and interactive projection that showcases the splendor of human interplay within digital domains. This is depicted through the imagery of blossoming flowers within individuals, and the resilient roots that bind them within cyber matrices. The internet has consistently served as a significant platform for facilitating remote human connections, a role that gained even greater prominence during the pandemic due to the limitations on traditional face-to-face interactions. However, within the virtual space, authentic human sentiments and their interpersonal exchanges retained their innate quality. The project's aspiration is to convey the significance of interactions in nurturing a present-moment consciousness and cherishing the profound beauty of human relationships, even in virtual spaces.

Rae Wu: YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE

The average American dedicates 7 hours daily to screens, and exposure to a constant stream of news, posts, and information is now commonplace. Conversations online and offline starring the latest Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, Facebook posts, Fox news, CBS, or whatever as a focal point can be all too familiar--and for us, consumption of this media stream can become a habit. Without thinking, screen time goes up. Yet, in the end, what do we retain? How conscious are we about what we absorb? YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE is an immersive Virtual Reality experience that delves into our relationship with information by digitally submerging users in the currents of media that shape our daily lives.

More projects from the New Works Incubator are available to view at the Iribe Center on Thu, Sep 7, 4-7PM and Fri, Sep 8, 4-6PM.

Immersive Media Design at the University of Maryland is a four-year, cross-disciplinary undergraduate program that prepares students to excel in digital creativity and innovation using the latest immersive media tools and technologies.

About NextNOW Fest

Started in 2014, The Clarice’s annual NextNOW Fest is an inspiring arts experience that celebrates imagination, creativity and community. By amplifying the voices of intriguing, inventive artists from around campus and our community, NextNOW Fest creates a forward-looking microcosm where art transforms our future and connects us all.

NextNOW Fest is a signature event in University of Maryland's Arts for All initiative, which leverages the combined power of the arts, technology and social justice to address the grand challenges of our time.

VIEW FULL 2023 FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

Funding

NextNOW Fest is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council and The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. Additional support is provided by Terps After Dark and the University of Maryland's Arts for All initiative. NextNOW Fest's Silent Disc-Glo event is supported by UMD's Student Entertainment Events; and the Vital Signs Mini-Grants Showcase is supported by the Venable Foundation and Pepsi.