New Experiences in Light, Movement, and Sound at Digital Media Demo Day
Ever wonder what light and shade sounds like? Or what would it be like to dance with artificial intelligence? The sounds, sights, and sensory experiences of digital media provide a way for us to interact and explore the world and our experiences in new ways.
Digital Media Demo Day 2026 explored new experiences in light, movement, and sound. Video: Pearl Kaplan/Tech Square ATL
Celebrating a semester of creativity, exploration, and interdisciplinary research, graduate students and professors from Georgia Tech’s Digital Media Program shared their latest explorations at the intersections of art, technology, and creative innovation at the annual Digital Media Demo Day on Thursday, April 23, 2026, at the Tech Square Research Building (TSRB).
Researchers presented demos of their work, highlighting the program’s focus on “making with meaning,” emphasizing the cultural framing of digital media projects at Georgia Tech and the layering of the arts and humanities with civic engagement and human experience.
The Digital Media Program at Georgia Tech is part of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, which explores “how technology and society shape one another.” The program is part of the School of Literature, Media, and Communication.
Digital Media Inspiring Movement
Upon entering the Digital Media Demo Day, there were various opportunities to engage with digital media experiences through movement, dance, and games.
Whether through high-energy or reflective movements, there were many ways that attendees could engage with researchers' digital media projects.
Attendees exploring demos had a chance to interact with technology in new ways, such as seeing their dance moves mirrored on a screen when improvising dance movements with LuminAIx, an artificial intelligence dance partner, created by the Expressive Machinery Lab.
In a darkened hallway of TSRB, a projector shone a digital image onto the wall of lichen, slowly moving and morphing. But that wasn’t all. In Lichen Meditations: Materializing Queer Entanglements in Sonic Environments Allie Teixeira Riggs and Shelly Boehm created an experience responsive to who was watching and where they were watching from.
When people were spread far apart, watching the projection from various locations, the lichen images remained scattered and distant. When people watching moved together into a group, the projections' swirls of lichen responded by showing greater connection and cohesion, prompting smiles, conversation, and connection among attendees.
Video games inspiring digital movements and interaction included Silis by Sargylana Cherepanova, Space Stragglers by Audrey Chung, and TokenVerse by Huijia (Freya) Huang.
Digital Media Capturing Light and Sound
In one room, attendees entered Shade Synthesis, where plants filtered warm sunlight through their leaves, their branches draped around various sculptures. By moving their hands, branches of the plant, or lights, attendees explored the effects and sounds of shade and light. Harmonic tones changed in intensity and expression as light sources were made more direct or filtered.
Shade Synthesis, a project led by Heidi Biggs, PhD, explores the tree canopy and shade in Atlanta. Attendees added stickers to maps to indicate where they encounter shade in Atlanta and on Georgia Tech’s campus, and where they would like to have a Shade Synthesis sound sensor to be placed.
Additional demos that explored light or sound were the early project concept for Everything Sings by Chelsi Alise Cocking, which is part of an Independent Study Georgia Tech Arts Microgrant; Earsketch, by the Expressive Machinery Lab, which aims to teach coding principles through music; and The Guiding Tracks by Kimberly Velez.
Reflections
With arms crossed over shoulders in an extended hug provided a way to get grounded, breathe, and reflect. It took around 30 seconds for the “Silent Observer Anxiety Monster” character to disappear from the display screen. Shamim Shoomali’s project, Anxiety Monsters: From Co-Design Workshops to Art Installation: The Collective Externalization of GT Students’ Anxiety Triggers, provides a powerful example of how digital media can help us better understand our emotions and experiences.
Through movement, interaction, and reflection, digital media brings the unseen to light, expands our perspectives on the boundaries of media, and inspires curiosity about the world. In 2026, Digital Media Demo Day was an opportunity for Georgia Tech alumni, current students, and prospective students to explore reactions and responses to their recent innovations and share ideas with attendees, artists, and researchers.