Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) announces MoMI LAB, the people’s lab for emerging technology and culture, opening June 13, 2026. Located in the Museum’s lower level, MoMI LAB is a free, artist-led cocreation space where the public can engage directly with emerging technologies—not only to use them, but to understand, question, and shape how they are transforming everyday life. Concurrent with the LAB’s opening, the Museum will launch its first ever artist residency program.

MoMI, located in Queens County, the most diverse region in the nation, invites the public to discover, create, and reflect in this space where people from varied backgrounds can interact with new technologies and each other, helping to bridge the digital divide.

MoMI LAB is made possible by more than $5 million in New York State funding to enhance the Museum’s educational lab programs, provided by Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris, Senator Kristen Gonzalez, and then-State Assembly Member Zohran K. Mamdani. MoMI LAB Classroom programs are made possible with the generous support of the Amazin’ Mets Foundation, led by New York Mets owner and philanthropist Alex Cohen.

“The Museum of the Moving Image is a remarkable space to experience the history and future of film, television, and digital media. It has appropriately made its home in Astoria, Queens—the core of New York’s film and television industry—for years,” says Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris. “I am honored that the funding I obtained alongside Mayor Mamdani and Senator Gonzalez will advance their educational mission, support artists, and make this space more accessible for all to enjoy for generations to come.”

“The Museum of the Moving Image’s brand new emerging technology lab will bring free educational programming to Queens, increase accessibility to new technologies, and help bridge the digital divide,” says Senator Kristen Gonzalez. “I am so proud to have contributed to the lab’s funding with Senator Gianaris and Mayor Mamdani during his time in the State Assembly. I look forward to the opening of the lab and the new Artist Residency Program.”

Visitors to MoMI LAB can:

Learn about the phenomenon of stereoscopic vision at the Lenticular printing station; and make your own 3D postcard to take home.
See through the eyes of a robot canine.
Discover NeRFs and splats, two ways of turning real-world images into a navigable 3D scene.
Explore how computers render procedurally generated environments in virtual reality.
Find out how Artificial Intelligence uses machine learning to turn prompts into text, images, and video.
See how machines turn data in a digital file into a real-world dimensional model at the 3D Printing Station.
Play with sensors and servos to see how robots navigate physical space.
See how the practice of projection mapping can transform any shape surface.

Artist Residency Program

MoMI LAB will launch its new artist residency program with inaugural Artist-in-Residence Rachel Rossin, selected by Arora and Regina Harsanyi, Associate Curator of Media Arts, and made possible by funding from Agog: The Immersive Media Institute. Rossin identifies time, which is the essence of the moving image, as a key focus of her practice spanning painting, virtual reality, and immersive installation. Her work at the residency focuses on spatial computing, examining the slippage between virtual and physical space to build hybrid sites for escape and reflection. In her own words, Rossin explains: “I’m thinking about perception, embodiment, and how spatial computing can create experiences that engage people on neurological, conceptual, and emotional levels. There’s so much potential there to move beyond spectacle and create work that’s genuinely rigorous and meaningful.”

Axonometric illustration of MoMI LAB (RAA / MoMI)