The Artists’ Laboratory
xMPL
In the Experimental Media Performance Lab, technology blends with art to offer immersive, boundary-pushing experiences for audiences
By Christine Byrd
In William Fastenow’s, Ph.D. ’25 capstone recital, Art of the Unheard, audiences walked on elevated paths with pairs of speakers above and below them, streaming instrumental sounds, with no two guests hearing the same thing.
“The project embraced the fact that every listener would have their own unique perspective based on the neuromechanics of how we hear sounds, and they could move around so their perspective was constantly changing,” said Fastenow. “We were trying to maximize that effect, while everyone was part of the same ecosystem, or piece of music.”
As a graduate student in the Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology program (ICIT) at UC Irvine Claire Trevor School of the Arts, he combined music performance with insights gained from a UC Irvine neurobiology course about the science of human hearing. But to put theory into practice, Fastenow needed a space completely unlike a traditional theater with a stage and seated audience.
So he turned to the Experimental Media Performance Lab (xMPL), a 4,000-square-foot, hi-tech, black box-style theater housed in the Contemporary Arts Center at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Since opening in 2013, the xMPL has become the go-to venue for exploratory art, featuring projects by faculty and students across UCI Arts and other departments on campus. While each show is unique, they tend to share a common thread of incorporating technology in creative ways and pushing both artists and audiences in new directions.
“The Experimental Media Performance Lab is one of our most vital and future-facing spaces because it makes collaboration visible and innovation possible," said Tiffany López, Claire Trevor Dean of the Arts. "Designed for flexibility and cross-disciplinary exchange, xMPL empowers artists to explore emerging technologies and storytelling practices while redefining what performance can be.”
Fastenow, who works professionally as a sound designer and serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School, is no stranger to black box theaters. What makes the xMPL exceptional, he said, is the robust technology the space offers. The space offers flexible seating, a projection screen, an overhead grid that supports movable lighting and speakers that enable high-quality, spatialized sound. Live or recorded performances from other facilities in the building — including the Meyer Sound Design Studio and a motion capture studio — can also be piped directly into the xMPL.
“William Fastenow’s capstone recital was quintessentially suited to the xMPL,” said John Crawford, professor of dance and intermedia arts who serves as chair of the venue’s programming committee. “It felt like going into a loft in New York City and seeing an amazing piece of work that you can tell is going to change the world.”
Image: (below) Performance of La Belle et la Bête, directed by Annie Loui, in the xMPL. Photo by Jeanine Hill.
Artistic Research
Since graduating, Fastenow has used insights from his capstone recital in the xMPL for a similar immersive sound project using pairs of speakers at an outdoor event in Helsinki, Finland. It’s just one of many examples in which the xMPL is used as an artistic laboratory to test and refine works before launching them into the world beyond campus.
“We see the mandate of the xMPL as a technology-centric performing arts environment, to maintain UC Irvine as the premier performing arts research and development campus in the UC system,” said Crawford.
For some faculty, the venue has become an important part of their artistic practice. Over the years, director and choreographer Annie Loui, professor of drama, has premiered a number of artistic works in the xMPL. Most recently, she directed two new stage adaptations in the xMPL: La Belle et la Bête, a reimagining of the life of Beauty and the Beast author Gabrielle Suzanne Villeneuve, as well as The Green Knight, based on a 14th-century poem about a chivalrous quest started in King Arthur’s court. The performances made use of multiple projectors on strips of textile that served as backdrops that actors could walk through.
“Annie Loui is an example of a faculty member who makes great use of the xMPL,” said Crawford. “Her practice is inherently hybrid, crossing boundaries between theater and dance, and she often explores ways of integrating media into performance, with text or video.”
Image: (above) 2013 xMPL performance of Visions of the Rite of Spring: The Sacre Project. Principal researchers include Chad Michael Hall and Lisa Naugle, dance. Choreography by John Crawford, dance; music accompaniment by Lorna Griffitt and Nina Scolnik, music.
“We see the mandate of the xMPL as a technology-centric performing arts environment...”
Student choreographers also make frequent use of the xMPL’s flexible seating, which allows dancers to be closer to audience members, moving between rows of seats, or even overhead in the catwalk — where they may be guiding a spotlight or releasing fabric over performers on cue. The xMPL hosts the annual dance M.F.A. and B.F.A. thesis performances, which can serve as a launchpad for pieces that will later be performed in off-campus venues or by professional companies.
“Many of our M.F.A. dance students are interested in making pieces that involve digital media, visual arts or theatrical elements or that explore the relationship between performers and audiences,” Crawford said. “The xMPL is a great venue for them to do that.”
The space also provides a venue for faculty to teach about experimental performance — and to hone their own pedagogy. The annual Art of Performance, co-produced and co-curated by Deborah Oliver, associate professor of teaching in the Department of Art, is hosted in the xMPL. The highly anticipated event includes workshops, classes, performances and Q&A sessions that give students opportunities to learn about and practice experimental live art.
Image: Zebulon Zang’s Low Poly Disaster (2026), installed in the xMPL, reexamines early life simulation games and the ethics of player “misplay.” Photo by Jaime DeJong.
Spring Programming
The spirit of artistic exploration shapes the xMPL’s programming each year. Faculty and students from the departments of dance, drama, music and art apply for the opportunity to stage shows in the xMPL. The programming committee, composed of faculty from all four departments, aims to select projects that are not well suited toward more traditional proscenium stages or art galleries available in the school.
“The intention with the programming in the xMPL has always been to prioritize research and investigative projects, as opposed to only finished productions,” Crawford said.
This year, 22 shows have been scheduled in the xMPL, featuring the work of faculty, students and guest artists.
Once selected for the xMPL, artists work with Micah Sechler, associate production manager for the venue, to bring their artistic vision to life. Sechler offers expertise in lighting and sound design to support the students, helping them match their ingenuity to their show’s budget.
“Usually when a student has a project selected for the xMPL, it’s their first shot at being the producer of their very own show,” Sechler said. “So I recommend that they assemble a team of people to collaborate with and execute their vision — it’s going to be more successful than trying to do it alone.”
Students and faculty receive grants from across campus to support their cross-disciplinary productions in the xMPL, including from the Center for Medical Humanities, UCI Arts and UCI Illuminations.
“The xMPL is more than a venue — it’s a creative engine for the school," said Crawford. “The technology-rich environment gives our students and faculty a place to take creative risks and to imagine work that couldn’t exist anywhere else. It doesn’t just shape individual projects; it shapes artists.”
This spring’s lineup reflects an ethos of experimentation and boundary crossing. In early March, the xMPL hosted the acclaimed performance artist Meredith Monk’s Rotation Shrine, 2021, a 10-minute video running on a loop. Monk, a pioneering figure in interdisciplinary performance, will receive the Claire Trevor Lifetime Achievement Award during the residency.
Then, from April 9-11, an immersive multimedia experience called In_Flux will combine an interactive art gallery with live dance performances to explore the evolving relationship between coastal ecology and humans. Like so many shows in the xMPL, In_Flux weaves together art and technology while engaging the audience in non-traditional ways.
As Crawford said: “Audiences should expect the unexpected in the xMPL.”
Image: Interior shot of the xMPL. Photo by Nick Merrick.
To learn more about the Claire Trevor School of the Arts campus, visit arts.uci.edu. To learn more about the Department of Music, visit music.arts.uci.edu.
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CONNECT - Spring 2026