Welcome to the IRC.
We are an interdisciplinary research center built on a core philosophy that true excellence emerges from the convergence of diverse generations, ethnicities, religions, cultures, and technologies. We’re excited to collaborate with scholars and creatives from across the UMBC R1 campus. These researchers drive the human capacity that inspires innovative ideas and solutions, especially in the arts, sciences and humanities.
We live in a challenging moment, unlike any we have recently experienced. Today, believing in the betterment of our minds and lives requires courage and a bit of stubborn optimism. We at the IRC have the creativity, skills and determination to bring bold ideas to life. I am honored to work alongside dedicated faculty, staff, and students at the IRC who are passionate about advancing knowledge and committed to tackling social and technological challenges that extend beyond our individual selves. We’re ready to roll up our sleeves and meet these challenges.
Background
Professor Lisa Moren is part of a generation of artists who built the first B.F.A. and M.F.A. programs in digital art, intermedia, and technology within a studio art practice. In addition to being the Director of the IRC, she is a Professor of Intermedia in the Department of Visual Arts at UMBC. She acquired national and international prominence for integrating emerging media technology, data-driven narratives, organic pigments on paper, bio-matter, and public space in her creative works. She is credited with producing a pioneering virtual reality project, Practically Tender (1991). A recent practitioner in the field of bio-art, her creative works have resulted in collaborative partnerships with scholars at other institutions including Johns Hopkins University, where she was a Fellow in Film and Media funded through the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund (2016 and 2020). As the inaugural artist-in-residence (2019) at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET), she collaborated with marine biologist researcher, Dr. Tsvetan Bachvaroff and colleagues to produce a major work, What is the Shape of Water? (2019-2024) and Under the Bay (2022-2024) an AR/XR work available on IOS and Google Play.
A multi-year recipient of Maryland State Arts Council grants, a National Endowment for the Arts recipient (2004) and a Fulbright Scholar (2006), Professor Moren has exhibited her work in over a hundred solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally in North America, Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia, at venues including the Chelsea Art Museum, Cranbrook Art Museum (USA), Ars Electronica (Austria), Akademie der Kunste (Germany), the Artists Research Network (Australia), and uShaka Marine Museum (South Africa). Her three monographs include Command Z: Artists Working with Phenomena and Technology. As well, she has published an edited book, three book chapters, four journal articles including Algorithmic Pollution: Artists working with Dataveillance and Societies of Control, and numerous catalogs, conference proceedings, and media works. She also serves as an Advisory Board Member of ISEA, the International Symposium on Electronic Art.
