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EcoMedia Lab
Indiana University Bloomington

Learning in the lab

In addition to interdisciplinary residency opportunities, workshops, and exhibitions, EcoMedia Lab maintains a teaching laboratory that provides IU students hands-on experience with bioart and ecoart.

Students can engage with EcoMedia Lab through hands-on research, creative production, coursework, workshops, exhibitions, screenings, reading groups, and collaborative projects. The lab welcomes students interested in bioart, ecoart, experimental media, environmental humanities, creative technology, biomaterials, performance, sound, video, installation, and speculative futures. Opportunities may include assisting with ongoing faculty-led projects, developing independent creative research, participating in skill-building workshops, contributing to exhibitions or public programs, and collaborating across disciplines with artists, scientists, scholars, and community partners.

EcoMedia Lab supports students as makers, researchers, and critical thinkers exploring ecological relationships, living systems, environmental change, and more-than-human worlds.

Eight students posing in front of an arch structure with art projectd onto it Two students dipping instruments into petri dishes A group of students posing around a conference table

Courses

  • MSCH-G225/ENV225
    Art, Science, and the Environment
    This introductory course investigates the relationship between artistic practice, scientific research, and ecological thinking. Through lectures, readings, field trips, and project-based workshops, we will explore these fields as complex systems of interrelationships between historical, cultural and natural systems.
  • MSCH-G423/ENV423/MSCH-G523
    EcoArt: Site-Specific Art in Nature

    This course focuses on creating environmental artworks through approaches used by ecological artists and scientists including photography, installation, and video. Oriented around the Griffy Field Lab at the IU Research and Teaching Preserve, students will gain an understanding of the history and practice of creating with and within the landscape.

  • MSCH-G422/ENV422/MSCH-G522
    BioArt

    Bioart refers to the intersecting domains of the biological sciences and their incorporation into the arts. Using research-based art practices, hands-on experiments, and cross-disciplinary collaboration, students create biodegradable materials, microscopy videos, and grown biomaterials to transform into artistic works that range from photographic to sculptural to projected video. 

Graduate students

Media School doctoral students support the lab through independent research, teaching, and community programming.

Learn about the Ph.D. in media arts and sciences