An Experimental Stage For students like Morgan Embry, M.F.A. ’19, emergent media leads to 21st century dream careers By Christine Byrd
Photo: Jordan Tani
In the few short months since
graduating, Morgan Embry, M.F.A. ’19, has criss-crossed the country as a lighting designer for live music concerts. When she has time to spend in one place, it’s usually Los Angeles, where she’s busy showcasing her immersive art installations and — alongside a team that included other UCI graduates — winning the grand prize at the first Los Angeles Immersive Invitational. Embry discovered and honed her talent as a lighting designer while earning her master’s degree at UCI, where she worked almost constantly in the state-of-the-art Experimental Media Performance Lab (xMPL) in the Contemporary Arts Center. 16
“UCI gave me confidence to pursue what I wanted to do,” Embry says. “It was the nature and design of xMPL, and the sheer amount of technology available, that allowed me to create live immersive experiences, which I realized I really had a knack for.” Built in the style of a black box theater, with very flexible seating and performance areas, the xMPL offers high bandwidth internet connections, a dozen video projectors, nontraditional projection surfaces, and an overhead wire-tension grid that enables Image: “Oceans of Influence” production design in the Experimental Media Performance Lab (xMPL).
