Fall and Winter 2024-2025 arts incubator program coming to a close
As winter winds down, we’ve been reflecting on everything we’ve learned and accomplished these past few months—and wow, what a season it’s been! Thanks to the generous support of the Manitoba Arts Council and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), we dove deep into the intersections of digital arts and artificial intelligence, climate entrepreneurship, creative leadership, and technology innovation—and came out with some pretty exciting skills and projects under our belt.
One of the highlights was exploring how digital creativity, coding, and multimedia design can come together in fresh, innovative ways through something called vibe coding. It’s all about blending interactive media, storytelling, and digital expression—and let’s just say, we had a blast experimenting with it!
We also stepped into the world of virtual galleries and immersive environments, not just learning how they work but actually building our own. We leveled it up by integrating AI chatbots as NPCs (non-player characters) in an open world format, giving visitors a unique and engaging way to explore digital art and interactive narratives.
Of course, no digital arts program would be complete without diving into game development, pixel art, retro gaming history, and the concept of gamification. We designed a few simple games and explored how games were crafted back in the “old days” of the 8-bit and 16-bit era—the 1980s and early ‘90s. (Spoiler: we have mad respect for those early game developers and their low-code, high-creativity approach!)
On top of that, we picked up valuable knowledge in arts administration, project management, digital marketing, and the nuts and bolts of running creative initiatives—understanding how innovative projects actually get off the ground, secure funding, and stay sustainable.
Naturally, we made a whole lot of music, audio tracks, and soundscapes along the way!
One of our favorite projects this year? Building audio visualizers and generative art pieces using three.js, a powerful WebGL and JavaScript library. Watching our music come to life visually, in real-time, was one of the coolest, most fun parts of the entire season—and taught us tons about creative coding, shaders, and real-time rendering.
It’s been an incredible winter full of learning, creating, and collaborating—fusing together arts, technology, AI, and entrepreneurship. We can’t wait to see how these skills and ideas spark new projects in the seasons ahead!