Arts and technology highlight new academic, industry, and government partnership
Virginia Tech, Amazon, and the City of Alexandria are working together to host monthly workshops designed to exchange knowledge.
Emily Fielder recently began seeing fruit in a whole new light as the result of a new collaboration of academics, professionals, and policymakers in the greater Washington, D.C., metro area.
“At home, I was eating blueberries and kept thinking about its pigment in a completely different way,” said Fielder, who is currently a learning experience designer at Amazon.
Fielder was one of numerous Amazon employees who have taken part in one of the monthly workshops created through a partnership between the company, Virginia Tech’s Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) and the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria.
Aimed at creating a knowledge exchange between academia and the workforce, each event includes a presentation of an art-related technique or technology from Virginia Tech faculty member, followed by experimentation.
Fielder attended the Transforming Food Waste into Vibrant Watercolors workshop, which she found both nostalgic and eye-opening.
“Having scholars and researchers from different disciplines connect things I may have never connected on my own and hearing about new research done at a university is a great way to spark creativity within my work,” she said.
The topics for the sessions range from the use of artificial intelligence for writing to exploring the dynamics of projection mapping and prioritize both the presenter and attendees contributing to both the experimentation and conversation.
“Innovation happens when creativity and technology collide,” said Ben Knapp, executive director of ICAT. “Built upon ICAT-supported creative scholarship, this workshop is an opportunity for these collisions to happen within Amazon — a new paradigm for university-industry collaboration.”
The workshop held at Expressions Lab at Amazon’s HQ2, brings together Amazon employees for a day of creativity. The following day, the same session is held for the public at Alexandria’s Torpedo Factory Art Center.
“Amazon is proud to support programs like Expressions at HQ2 and ICAT which highlight the intersection of innovation, education, and the arts. This partnership is more than just an academic-industry collaboration. It’s a strategic investment in the future,” according to a statement from Amazon.
Hosting at two locations extends an opportunity to participate to artists and lifelong learners throughout the community and bolsters efforts to strengthen local talent pipelines and innovation hubs in the D.C. area.
“Our goal is to inspire people to think more creatively, embrace technology and see art as a tool for problem-solving, not just as an aesthetic practice,” said Brett Johnson, curator of artistic advancement of Alexandria’s Office of the Arts. “It’s about opening up the playing field and giving people hands-on experiences that change how they think, operate, and innovate.”
A partnership forms
In 2022, Johnson and David Baker, assistant vice president and chief of staff for the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus, explored ways to integrate art into Virginia Tech’s new building in Alexandria. They saw an opportunity to collaborate with industry partners.
Baker connected Johnson with Knapp, which led to a collaboration between ICAT and the City of Alexandria for exhibitions and performances. Simultaneously, Amazon launched Amazon Expressions at HQ2, which was led by Alexander Rudd, the program’s delivery manager.
“Early on, it became clear that people at Amazon were interested in technology-driven artistic practices,” Rudd said.
Originally a weekly artistic exploration series, Amazon Expressions expanded in August 2024 to include Virginia Tech and Alexandria’s Office of the Arts.
Two women projection-map onto suspended geometric forms in the Expressions Lab at Amazon HQ2 during the workshop “Projection Mapping.” Photo by David Franusich for Virginia Tech.
Next steps
Keeping true to its mission of creating a two-way knowledge exchange, Amazon Expressions isn’t just inspiring attendees, but is also fostering curiosity among the workshops’ leaders.
For Eric Lyon, professor of music who led the Spatial Audio workshop, the real value of this collaboration lies in its experimental nature. He believes it could redefine the knowledge stream between academia, industry, and society on a much larger scale.
“I love being able to connect with different groups of learners than we get inside of academia,” Lyon said. “In a place like Amazon, there is a diverse pool of very smart people, with a particular way of thinking. That range of people engaging is a great challenge for me to see what I have to offer.”
Four workshops led by Virginia Tech faculty have taken place since the program’s launch, with topics including:
- Artificial Intelligence and Writing, led by Matthew Vollmer, professor of creative writing
- Projection Mapping, led by David Franusich, multimedia designer
- Spatial Audio, led by Lyon
- Transforming Food Waste into Vibrant Watercolors, led by Yoon Choi, professor of design
This week, the fifth installment of this ongoing collaboration will focus on the science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics inherent in hip-hop culture. Craig Arthur, associate professor of transdisciplinary studies, will lead the workshop.