CFI funding to create networked visualization lab at Banff/Emily Carr

A new interactive media and design lab receiving over $1.5 million in federal funding could be the beginning of a network of such facilities spanning the country. The Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) in early March gave the funding jointly to the Banff Institute of the Arts and the Emily Carr School of Design so they can build an interdisciplinary digital studio at Emily Carr. The digital studio will be networked with Banff’s Art, Research and Technology (ART) Visualization Lab. The two labs will now be able to offer advanced visualization tools, technology for research in mixed media and design, and facilities for research in interactive virtual spaces. Some of the funding will also be used to provide access for researchers to Banff’s new media summits, ongoing research evaluation workshops, and presentation opportunities through the Banff New Media Institute and Banff International Curatorial Institute. Emily Carr president Ron Burnett tells Canadian NEW MEDIA that the federal government funding will be topped up by his school to the tune of another $1 million, and the organization is hoping the British Columbia government will chip in money to match the CFI grant. He says the cash for this project is not officially tied to a bigger initiative, but that he has been trying for several years to create a national association of art and design institutes that includes the Ontario, Alberta and Nova Scotia colleges of art and design, and that this funding will help in those efforts. CFI grants are used to provide researchers with equipment needed in their studies, and this money will be used to create a studio made up of moveable walls, ceilings, projectors, displays and sound equipment at Emily Carr, all virtually linked with the Banff Institute. The goal, says Burnett, is to create new forms of digital expression and new media through cross-discipline collaboration. The CFI grants are also perceived by many as supporting the hard sciences, and both Burnett and Banff chief Sara Diamond see the funding win as an endorsement of the kinds of research the two schools are conducting. Art, says Burnett, offers serious research opportunities. "Art and design have developed into rapidly evolving research domains that include sound, image, video, digital media, interactive games, multimedia art, multimodal environments and many other areas," Burnett says. "In addition, the more traditional disciplines have been profoundly affected by these new technologies to the extent that areas such as painting, film, photography, drawing, sculpture and printmaking now all intersect with and often depend on digital tools to create works of art. All of these areas have also had a profound impact on industry, commerce and research in the sciences. The design area has evolved to the point where most of the major technologies devoted to interactive, product and experience design are now essential features of modern economies." Diamond says that applications developed through art and design research can help focus technology companies on useful products and applications, and that the two institutes can now afford the most important equipment to study the field. "I think one of the pressures is always to keep up with the technology base that allows for next-generation research, and to give you the access to the day-to-day technology that people are using now. This gives us a really nice mix…It’s an acknowledgement, I think, that Emily Carr and Banff were successful, that researchers who are out there, who are evaluating these projects, agree that we have been doing this, and that we need to go to the next stage," Diamond says. She adds that the grant money may also be bolstered by funds from private companies interested in partnering with the two schools, though it’s too early to divulge who those partners might be.

CFI funding to create networked visualization lab at Banff/Emily Carr

News | 04/02/2004 5:00 am EST

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