The center addresses experimentation through the operation of the MAGIC laboratory, which is a lab like no other on campus. The core of the lab design is centered on collaboration: it is designed not for individuals but for teams. Building upon the design of the Game Design & Development lab (which was designed by Director Phelps when he served as the Director of the School of Interactive Games & Media) as well as numerous other academic and industry lab facilities, the MAGIC Laboratory is a flagship facility of the Institute, with a unique design that directly facilitates teamwork, collaboration, and engagement.
The lab does not support any course directly, rather it is a supporting element for a wide array of project courses, thesis, research, and experimental activity – it is jokingly referred to as ‘academic Switzerland’ in reference to this neutrality, but this is actually an important feature of the space: every student, faculty, and project enters the lab as equals, there is no single doctrine of the ‘correct approach’. We question everything, and in doing so seek to learn through the careful construction and examination of our work.