Photos: ICAT Creativity and Innovation Day celebrates creative collaboration
Research, technology, design, and the arts collided at the most recent ICAT Creativity and Innovation Day on May 5.
Hosted by the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) and commonly called ICAT Day, this year’s event featured 11 projects led by investigators from across Virginia Tech's colleges and units and spanning 13 departments. At the Moss Arts Center and ICAT studios, faculty, students, and researchers presented their work in an interactive, expo-style format that encouraged hands-on exploration and dialogue with attendees.
Now in its 13th iteration, this year’s projects ranged from architectural tools that capture the movement of sunlight to immersive virtual reality experiences.
Coinciding with ICAT Day was the opening of “Open at the Source,” a gallery-style exhibition in the lower gallery of the Moss Arts Center. The exhibition remains on view until May 16, offering additional opportunities to engage with creative research from across the university.
The Stories of Migration
Born from shared stories of migration, this performance weaves harp, dance, and projected visuals into an intimate, atmospheric experience.
Drosera Obscura: A Multi-Sensory XR Installation and Performance
In Drosera Obscura, visitors enter a vibrant ecosystem where scent, sound, movement, and virtual reality intertwine. Blurring the line between physical and digital, the installation invites guests to smell, feel, see, and hear as they interact with servo-powered robotic arms, animated in real time by human performers. Photo by Rodney Kimbangu for Virginia Tech.
Light and Shadow Instruments
The Light and Shadow Instruments project blends architecture and performance in a transdisciplinary exploration of daylight as music. The sculptural instruments designed to track solar angles during solstices and equinoxes were used to produce cyanotypes, revealing patterns of light through time. Photo by Rodney Kimbangu for Virginia Tech.
Immersive Haptic VR Experience of Building Performance in Sheikh Isa’s House
Imagine standing inside a historic building in virtual reality, and not just seeing it, but feeling shifts in wind, warmth, and atmosphere. This next phase of an ICAT-funded project adds haptic feedback (a technology that simulates the sense of touch) to help users, especially students, better understand how buildings perform. By turning complex data into immersive, sensory experiences, the project blends design, engineering, and environmental science to make sustainability education something you can truly feel. Photo by Rodney Kimbangu for Virginia Tech.
Studio Playdate
Studio Playdate was a weekend-long Design Sprint workshop that brought artists into fast-paced, team-based challenges to tackle complex design problems. Blending peer learning with playful experimentation, the project pushes participants to consider deeper questions of aesthetics, ethics, and social context, preparing them to lead and thrive on transdisciplinary teams. Photo by Rodney Kimbangu for Virginia Tech.
AI Accessibility
The AI-Accessibility project brings together students and faculty from architecture, computer science, human sciences, and marketing to design inclusive building technologies powered by artificial intelligence. From tactile garden enhancements and 3D-printed QR codes at the Burkeville Lodge for the Blind to national workshops and app testing, the team works alongside vision-impaired communities to co-create more navigable, inclusive environments. Photo by Rodney Kimbangu for Virginia Tech.
Carving Out Creativity
In this iteration of Carving out Creativity, visitors at a single location engaged with a stone sculpture and its virtual counterpart—experiencing touch, sound, and brainwave-driven visuals. While the full installation connected audiences across Virginia for the opening of Academic Building One in Alexandria, this version offers a glimpse into how art and technology can merge to foster human connection through shared sensory experience. Photo by Rodney Kimbangu for Virginia Tech.
Open the Gates Gaming
Open the Gates Gaming is a cross-disciplinary initiative creating cognitive access tools for Dungeons & Dragons, originally developed in response to local disability community needs. Funded through library and ICAT Mini SEAD grants, the project now supports broader audiences, those with cognitive disabilities, limited time, or competing demands. With large-scale playtesting, an opera-inspired adventure book, and a national advisory board underway, the team aims to make tabletop role-playing more inclusive, empowering storytellers of all kinds. Photo by Rodney Kimbangu for Virginia Tech.
