from FSU Art BFA ’21 Zachary Dobbins:
The ExCinLab is an artist space that promotes the practice and experimentation of New Media Film. With its wide scope, the ExCinLab aims to include a diverse collection of work that deals with any and all moving images to be defined as film and experimental cinema. Through the early stages of founding the lab we have made it a goal to reach out and grow relationships with other new media organizations, as well as faculty at Florida State University, Tallahassee Community College and Florida A&M University who are interested in New Media and future collaborations.
As an Intern at the ExCinLab I am involved with both ends of productions, from creating the physical space to the background data collection involved in creating the space, festival, and artist application database associated with the ExCinLab. Working in collaboration with the digital media librarian at Florida State University and fellow Intern Eli Goldstone, we are in the process of creating a database of applications, for grants, open calls, and residencies to aid artist by collecting the data into a single platform. In continued Collaboration with my internship partner Eli, the process of creating space for work to be shown and worked on by artist is near complete, with a fresh coat of paint on most of the walls and a location for virtual and augmented reality to be showcased and experimented with. Getting the workspaces operational has allowed us to combine the efforts of background work and artistic experimentation as these spaces. The virtual reality space has become a space for experimentation and idea generation for how the ExCinLab and its collaborators can operate during a pandemic.
Looking forward at the ExCinLab draws us towards implementations of viewer and performer integrations digitally. Working with FSU faculty specializing in virtual reality and augmented reality we have begun the process of using the lab so that performers separate from their ardencies physically can interact in a way that alters the virtual world around them. This project will continue throughout this semester in collaboration with virtual and physical spaces.