Supported by the ITP/IMA Department, alumni of the Interactive Media Arts Low Residency Program (MA ‘23)—Ai Xia, Nicole Padilla, Jaye Cho—and NYU instructor Tony Patrick collaboratively hosted the “Renewal Room”, a restorative pop-up space and week of wellness events and programming at 370 Jay Street Brooklyn for the NYU Community. 

The Renewal Room project emerged as the output from the Share Lab Studio course led by Tony Patrick in IMA Low Res, which cultivates collaborative and world-building frameworks in a remote setting. The Renewal Room project is a traveling wellness room, a pop-up experience that embodies well-being and makes it accessible to different people and places. The goal of the project is to provide a transformative and calming experience with resources to support various wellness needs, along with bringing existing communities together through a series of programming related to ecotherapy, biophilic design, movement, and mindfulness. As a project originated from IMA Low Res, the Renewal Room is also experimenting with finding the balance between technology and wellness, which includes exploring interactivity with technology and using technology to enhance an environment to become more calming and meditative. 

For the NYU 370 Jay Street edition of the Renewal Room project, the programming brought in people from both the NYU community and the greater New York City. From Yoga session led by NYU ITP’s Professor John Henry Thompson, to Biofeedback Soundbeth with NYU Tisch instructor Jason Snell, who’s also an IMA Low Res alumnus (MA ‘23), to Qigong Drawing Workshop led by Cyra Levenson, the Deputy Director of Education and Public Engagement at the Guggenheim Museum, and a Yoga, Intention Setting and Sound bath session led by Johanne Sterling from House of Flow; the pop-up experience brought NYU students, staff and faculty together to experience the possibility of various approach to wellness.