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Stamps Faculty Projects Selected for ARIA Research Grants

January 30, 2025

Stamps faculty members Sophia Brueckner, Holly Hughes, and Cynthia Pachikara are recipients of 2025 grants from the Arts Research: Incubation & Acceleration (ARIA) grant program. This initiative was created by the Office of the Vice President of Research and the Arts Initiative to support innovative projects that center the arts in research and creative practice.

Photograph of Sophia Brueckner

Bowerbot

Principal investigator: Sophia Brueckner, associate professor of art and design, Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design; associate professor of information, School of Information; and associate professor in the Digital Studies Institute, LSA.

Goal: Using artificial intelligence trained on photographs of bowerbirds’ elaborate bowers — nestlike structures used for mating — a robotic arm known as Bowerbot will learn how male bowerbirds create “artworks” to attract a mate.

Photograph of Holly Hughes

Indelible

Principal investigator: Holly Hughes, professor of art and design, Stamps School; professor of theatre and drama, School of Music, Theatre & Dance; and professor of women’s studies, LSA.

Goal: This project will create a multimedia solo performance that imagines Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford have retained Hughes to take over an investigation into accusations brought against U.S. Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh.

Photograph of Cynthia Pachikara

Shadow Play(ground)

Principal investigator: Cynthia Pachikara, associate professor of art and design, Stamps School; and associate professor of architecture and urban planning, A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Goal: This project will create an interactive video installation that uses the spectator’s shadow as a means of interaction. It will implement novel forms of image capture that present landscapes in the form of light phenomena.

Launched in 2023, ARIA has now awarded more than $815,000 to elevate and expand arts research and creative practice across the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses.

Learn more: Arts Initiative grants awarded to seven research teams | The University Record