For Stamps School of Art & Design rising junior Ava Muntner, one of her most special memories of water begins at a sleepaway camp by a lake. At this camp, Ava participated in sailing and water skiing and she was particularly wowed by water during early morning water skiing sessions.
“There’s something so tranquil about looking at water and the calmness of it”, Ava said. “We’d go on the lake at seven in the morning, and it was crystal clear and so still. I remember being on the boat, and I was literally carving water with my skis. It was absolutely exhilarating, and it really opened my eyes into how Earth is this really fascinating place, and it’s beautiful.”
This memory is one of numerous experiences that inspired Ava’s sophomore year project at Stamps titled “Fluid Frequencies”. Using the MIDEN (Michigan Immersive Digital Experience Nexus), Ava created a virtual reality journey shaped by water, providing an interactive experience through sight, sound, and touch. The viewer navigates through four different spheres of “water” that seemingly float in the space of the MIDEN with the ability to change the placement of the spheres. As the viewer steps into a sphere, a different musical tone envelops them and gives people a unique experience.
“Whenever there’s a rainstorm, I surprisingly find myself being at ease, and that trickle and musicality of rain was something that I wanted to capitalize on”, Ava said. “I was actually taking a history of art class that focused on African art, and some of their culture uses water as a form of music. I thought that was really exciting and really beautiful. So I fused those ideas together with my personal experiences and how I see water as this calming element.”
Stamps professor Roland Graf, who mentored Ava for “Fluid Frequencies”, inspired Ava to take her vision to the next level and introduced her to the many resources available at the Duderstadt Center including Ted Hall, MIDEN advanced visualization specialist. Encouraged by Roland, Ava took the initiative to learn more about the Duderstadt Center and Digital Media Commons’ resources and discovered the MIDEN.
In order to use the MIDEN, Ava had to learn how to use Rhino, a 3-D visualization software, and Jugular, the MIDEN’s in-house software which helped translate her work in Rhino into something usable in the MIDEN space. Despite having little previous coding experience, Ava dove head first into mastering coding to execute her creative ideas.
“Being uncomfortable is an exciting challenge and one of the best motivators towards achieving my visions”, Ava said. “I have found that immersing myself in unfamiliarity can lead to really rewarding outcomes.”
Ava calls this feeling “creative adrenaline”, which drives her creative processes from start to finish.
“Creative adrenaline is an exhilarating rush and a feeling of euphoria that can be built upon in bursts or arise spontaneously”, Ava said. “This sensation energizes and enhances the quality of my creative process, and it’s something I constantly strive to experience. Once I feel that rush, my creative possibilities seem boundless, and I feel unstoppable.”
Ava credited Ted for crucially helping her master the technical aspects of “Fluid Frequencies”. After their first communication in February 2025, Ted and Ava worked closely together on “Fluid Frequencies” until her presentation in April. Ted remarked that with the timing of her project in her education journey, Ava now has more time to think about other ways to use the MIDEN for future projects.
“I met with Ava and demonstrated a few different projects in the MIDEN, and that introduced her to different possibilities and approaches for her studio project”, Ted said. “I gave her a quick tutorial for 3D model export-import from Rhino to the software that drives the MIDEN, and on April 7 she presented her second-year studio project there. So it all came together, from new concept to realization, in about one month. And now she has two more years to think of other ways to take advantage of the technology.”
The MIDEN is typically used for projects by upperclassmen and graduate students. Ava is among very few underclassmen to use it. Ted said the MIDEN can be used by people from any U-M department, and he hopes more underclassmen learn about the MIDEN to use for amazing projects in the future.
“It’s always a little sad when seniors see the MIDEN for the first time in their final year or final semester at U-M, and express regret that they didn’t know about it three years earlier”, Ted said.
“We can load quite a few different model file formats from different disciplines, and we pride ourselves on being equally available to all departments, not restricted to any particular discipline or project. So, I don’t want to pre-judge or predict what might come through the door. I would like to see more underclassmen just try it out, with whatever kind of model data they have. Their first attempt might not produce awesome results, but they’ll learn something about what the MIDEN is, how it works, and the possibilities it offers. And by the time they graduate, maybe they will do something awesome with it.”
To learn more about the MIDEN, contact Ted Hall (twhall@umich.edu) and check out the website here: https://xr.engin.umich.edu/miden/.
Written by Eilene Koo
A 3rd-person point-of-view of a camera looking into the MIDEN with “Fluid Frequencies” projected onto the walls and floor.
