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All Lit Up

A night for the arts

By Bates College

January 26^th, 2024

One for the Books

It was an arts night to remember.

Coram Library was lit up to mark the open house for the new Immersive Media Studio. Known as the IMStudio, the windowless room on the ground floor is equipped with museum-quality projection and sound equipment. The first installation, “Beyond Midnight,” up through January, features the work of faculty members, Michel Droge, Carolina González Valencia, and Asha Tamirisa, and on Dec. 7, all were welcome.

A Visual and Auditory Experience

Using footage from an undersea expedition off Costa Rica that Droge participated in as a visiting artist, the installation takes the viewer deep under the sea, for a captivating dream-like 30-minute experience. The bean bag chairs proved a very popular vantage point to sink in and enjoy the visual and auditory experience.

This semester, Tamirisa is using the IMStudio to teach two sections of a course called Immersive Media Installation, in which students are learning how to combine sound, video, and live performance to make and install their own multimedia design exhibitions.

Over at Olin

On the same evening, over at Olin it was Open Studio night, with the work of the fall semester studio art students on display in the hallways (and even spilling out one doorway).

Students, faculty, and staff enjoyed chai and cookies, and the senior thesis candidates in studio art opened their studio doors wide for visitors. After the visual art came the music, with a full performance by the Bates Brass Ensemble and Steel Pan Orchestra.