About Us

Expanded Cinema artist, known for his computer-generated art at MIT and Bell Labs for projects such as Poemfields, Stan VanDerBeek , envisioned “the Image Laboratory” at UMBC in 1984. Just before he died, he said, “It seems that we’ve established our part of the future with the advent of the Image Lab.” This seed project, originally funded by Jim Henson of the Muppets and IBM’s Fulcrum grant project, evolved into the Imaging Research Center (IRC) by the early 1990s to develop a research facility, led by David Yager, to pioneer the future of art and technology. 40 years since VanDerBeeks vision, the IRC has grown into a major hub for interdisciplinary collaboration across all fields at the University.

By 1987, the Image Lab was housed in an unused large closet on the 2nd floor of the Fine Arts Building. The IRC envisioned high-end computers and emerging imaging technologies that were developed and available to scientists in Silicone Valley to be in the hands of artists. President Freeman Hrawbowski and Professor Yager visited CEO’s in Silicone to implement this vision. With support from IBM, Apple, Hewlett Packard, Polaroid and other corporations, the IRC eventually moved into a large area of the basement of the Engineering Building with offices and labs. With high-end input/output, the latest 3D Silicone graphics, time-based video and audio (including MIDI) and digital film recording onto 16mm and 36mm, the Image Lab was beginning to build projects creating experimental computer generated that met industry standards for films, images and animation. Throughout the 1990s the IRC produced 3D simulations, immersive caves such as recreating high-end archeological projects of lost sites for Museums, galleries and television such as the Discovery Channel. By the late 1990s, the renamed “Imaging Research Center” created the Cone Sisters’ Apartment Virtual Tour on permanent display since 2001 at the Baltimore Museum of Art. In 2003, the IRC moved into it’s current 7,000 sf retrofitted labs and offices on the ground floor of the Information and Technology Building next to the IMDA, MFA program in Visual Arts. This architectural plan allows a fluid collaboration where graduate students and the IRC mutually benefited from the creative art and science research collaborations.

While moving from the College of Arts & Sciences to the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the center maintained its national reputation as a rare public research center where artists, programmers, scientists, and engineers collaborated. The IRC developed one of the earliest university-based centers devoted to digital imaging, visualization, animation, and experimental interactive media.

From the early 2000’s on, external projects and partners included Baltimore Museum of Art, the National Science Foundation; NASA collaborations; Smithsonian,  National Academy of Sciences, NASA visualization work; Discovery Channel; and other museum visualization projects. The IRC solidified itself as leading a national dialogue where technologies coming out of Silicone Valley could take new shapes including addressing unique social challenges. Projects emerged in the arts, poetry, early scientific animation, biomedical animation, archeology, documentary and feature film productions, mobile and web applications.

The Image Lab seed project, originally funded by the Muppets and IBM, evolved into the Imaging Research Center (IRC) a public research facility that continuously pioneered media into the future. 40 years since Stan VanDerBeeks vision, the IRC has grown into a major hub for interdisciplinary collaboration across all scholary and creative fields at UMBC with students, faculty, researchers, creatives and professionals working together to fulfill a vision that addresses social needs, and continues to reflect our contemporary moment.