About.Renaissance Box is a city-wide interdisciplinary residency program that brings professionals in the arts and sciences together with high school students for an immersive STEAM experience.
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Established in 2024What if Cleveland's artistic spirit and scientific prowess weren't just coexisting, but collaborating? The Renaissance Box program was our answer – a space where bold ideas find their form, and disciplines collide to fuel discovery.
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Our GoalWe're not just about projects, we're about people. Our goal is to ignite the power of STEAM collaborations - artists, STEM professionals, and the next generation of innovators all learning, creating, and pushing boundaries together. And where better to do that than Cleveland, a city with the perfect blend of imagination and ingenuity?
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CURRENT PARTICIPANTS
SUMMER 2025
The STEM Professional
Nicolas Romano is a Cleveland-based media artist focused on interactive design and critical studies of emerging technology. Starting his career as an electrical engineer in the automation and manufacturing industry, Nicolas seeks out alternative approaches to writing code by treating it as an artistic medium. Currently pursuing his MA in Media Studies at The New School, he explores how personal devices equipped with image recognition software can alter individual embodiments and collective experiences of space. |
The Artist
Jamie Richey is a Cleveland-based fine art photographer, curator, and creative generalist. Originally from Northeast Ohio, she earned a BA in Film and Photography from Elon University and an MA in Art History with a focus on photography from SCAD. Her career spans freelance film, studio photography, museum education, and curatorial work in Georgia and Alabama. Jamie continues to exhibit her work and build her portfolio, focusing on black and white photography across street, nature, travel, and mixed media genres. |
THE PROJECT PROPOSAL
Collage-Bop: A Community-Driven Digital Art Experience
Collage-Bop is a 12-week interdisciplinary public art initiative that merges digital media, community engagement, and cognitive science to activate the creative potential of everyday public spaces. This mobile system transforms familiar environments, such as libraries, storefronts, and community centers, into interactive art studios where participants use their smartphones and a custom-built interface to construct digital collages in real time.
Designed by a multidisciplinary team of artists, engineers, and designers, Collage-Bop encourages individuals to repurpose their personal devices, often used passively, to engage in spontaneous and intentional image-making. Participants create digital collages using cellphones or a touch screen paired with a MIDI keyboard, and bespoke software. The creation process is captured as a video time-lapse, serving as both a cultural artifact and a moment of self-reflection.
Grounded in theories of human-computer symbiosis and mental imagery, this project responds to growing concerns around how screen-based media may be diminishing cognitive faculties related to imagination and visualization. Collage-Bop hypothesizes that interactive, user-driven visual experiences, designed to prioritize intention, transformation, and reflection, can help re-engage these faculties and foster deeper, more meaningful creative experiences.
In addition to its artistic and cognitive goals, Collage-Bop emphasizes accessibility, community empowerment, and collaborative learning. Team members will engage in iterative design, user testing, and outreach, while participants gain hands-on exposure to a unique digital art practice. By situating the work outside traditional art venues, Collage-Bop expands access to contemporary media art and brings innovative, participatory experiences directly to the public.
The anticipated outcomes include:
Through Collage-Bop, we aim to reimagine how technology can foster creativity, strengthen community, and inspire reflection in the digital age.
Collage-Bop is a 12-week interdisciplinary public art initiative that merges digital media, community engagement, and cognitive science to activate the creative potential of everyday public spaces. This mobile system transforms familiar environments, such as libraries, storefronts, and community centers, into interactive art studios where participants use their smartphones and a custom-built interface to construct digital collages in real time.
Designed by a multidisciplinary team of artists, engineers, and designers, Collage-Bop encourages individuals to repurpose their personal devices, often used passively, to engage in spontaneous and intentional image-making. Participants create digital collages using cellphones or a touch screen paired with a MIDI keyboard, and bespoke software. The creation process is captured as a video time-lapse, serving as both a cultural artifact and a moment of self-reflection.
Grounded in theories of human-computer symbiosis and mental imagery, this project responds to growing concerns around how screen-based media may be diminishing cognitive faculties related to imagination and visualization. Collage-Bop hypothesizes that interactive, user-driven visual experiences, designed to prioritize intention, transformation, and reflection, can help re-engage these faculties and foster deeper, more meaningful creative experiences.
In addition to its artistic and cognitive goals, Collage-Bop emphasizes accessibility, community empowerment, and collaborative learning. Team members will engage in iterative design, user testing, and outreach, while participants gain hands-on exposure to a unique digital art practice. By situating the work outside traditional art venues, Collage-Bop expands access to contemporary media art and brings innovative, participatory experiences directly to the public.
The anticipated outcomes include:
- A fully operational and transportable interactive collage-making system
- Activation of multiple public sites throughout the Cleveland area
- Time-lapse media artifacts documenting community engagement
- Data and feedback supporting further exploration of digital media’s role in mental imaging and public art.
Through Collage-Bop, we aim to reimagine how technology can foster creativity, strengthen community, and inspire reflection in the digital age.
Ready to collaborate? Become a project sponsor or partner and help us bring innovative art experiences to life. Reach out today at [email protected] to start the conversation!