UCI Wolf Project

Here are some photos from the 511 field trip to UCI's "Interactive Wolf" Project:

C-Level: MAX/MSP Workshop

The following is an e-mail sent out to the C-level e-mail list. C-level's a cool group of creative people, that includes Eddo Stern. Click the link for a description:

"Hey everyone, Clay Chaplin is going to start a three week Max workshop this
Sunday at C-level. The workshop will begin at 4pm sharp and run for about
two hours. There will be two more sessions on the following Sundays (Nov
9th and 16th).

Please note that unlike most things at C-level, this will actually start on
time. Clay will be covering both using MAX and using it to interface with
electronics. Those of you who came to the last meeting and signed up, we've
reserved a spot for you. Everyone else please email him directly to reserve
a spot. Seats are limited and you must reserve a space to participate. His
email is > cchaplin@shoko.calarts.edu

Shockingly, this is a free workshop. Directions to C-level (in case you've
forgotten) can be found here >

http://www.c-level.cc/map.html

find below more info on what will be covered during the first meeting....

DAY1 - The Basics of Max/MSP

- What is Max/MSP? Where do I get it? How can I do something interesting
with it without learning an entire programming language? What can I do with
it?

We'll be starting the first of three Max/MSP workshops this Sunday at
4:00pm. Bring along your laptop and if possible download a copy of the
software before hand. Here's the link to the company that supports it:
www.cycling74.com. The software will work without limits for 30 days.
Max/MSP runs on OSX, OS9, and Windows (not sure which flavor). I'll be
using version 4.2.1 on OS X during the workshops.

We'll get started talking about Max and what you can do with it for your
art. If you would like to begin early there are a nice set of tutorials
included when you download the software."

IM Calendar

It came up in conversation in the 511 Seminar that it'd be good to have a calendar for everyone to post meetings, events, etc. so that people can keep track of scheduling and not miss events. Though we have an events/exhibit page, I think people agreed it'd be better to have a calendar to organize it all. Is anyone willing to work on implementing one?

Agn�s Varda Screening and Q&A

Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2 to 6 p.m.

Film Screening: "The Gleaners and I" (2001), directed by renowned French filmmaker Agn�s Varda. The screening will be followed by a Q &A session with the filmmaker. Varda, the grandmother of the French New Wave, will also be honored with the first USC Sergei M.Eisenstein Award. Reception to follow. Sponsored by the USC School ofCinema-Television and Unifrance.

Lucas Hall, Rm. 108.

"UnNaturally" Art Show at USC Gallery

Traveling show 'UnNaturally' to open at USC Fisher Gallery

'Virtual reality' takes on new meaning in 'UnNaturally'.
Featuring sculpture, photography and mixed-media installations by 15 artists who make replicas of nature, the show blurs the distinctions between natural and artificial, created and constructed.

It opens at USC Fisher Gallery Nov. 19th.

The artists included are Chris Astley, Gregory Crewdson, Jacci DenHartog, Allan deSouza, Keith Edmier, I�igo Manglano-Ovalle, JasonMiddlebrook, Nicoletta Munroe, Roxy Paine, Michael Pierzynski, MarcQuinn, Michelle Segre, Alyson Shotz, Frances Whitehead and ClaraWilliams.

Lombino � curator of exhibitions at the University Art Museum at CalState Long Beach and a graduate of USC's Museum Studies Program � saidthe inspiration for the show came from sculptor George Stone's public art project for the Vermont/Beverly Metro Rail station in Los Angeles.

Stone replicated the rocks that were there before the city took over,and he incorporated them into the station design, Lombino said. Driving past these giant fakes every day got me thinking about ourcomplicated attitudes toward nature.

We have an ambivalent relationship with nature, Lombino said. We want to control it and live in a technologically advanced society. Yetwe also want to preserve it.

'UnNaturally' runs at USC Fisher Gallery through Jan. 17.
USC Fisher Gallery is located in Harris Hall, 823 Exposition Blvd., on USC's University Park campus. Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m.

Programming Study Group

Some of the IM and Animation students have started a Study Group for Beginning Programmers. The group meets weekly on Wednesdays 9 - 11 AM (yeap, a pretty rotten time slot) at the "Penthouse" (that's the room full of Pentiums in the Lucas basement, next to the room with the Pencil Tester and the Lightboxes). So far, Todd and Tatsu have taught the rest of us some Unix OS, Mel Scripting (Maya) and Processing. It is an open environment designed to introduce beginners to a range of languages/environments and where "no one is to be left behind". Come by if you're interested in learning, instructing or in helping out in any other way!

Datamining TV audience activities

AOL news release blogged by Henry Jenkins/MIT:

... I received notice about a new project involving the intersection of television, Tivo and the internet. AOL has announced a plan to offer twenty-second clips of the five most talked about moments from television the previous night. The selection will be based on their monitoring of chatrooms and message boards and based on data from Tivo usage. It's scary how much the media industry now knows about audience response and how quickly it can act on that information!

Fire photoblog

LINK

nice images. More personal than those seen on the news. It's amazing how much this stuff seems to be catching on...at least for certain major events (ok, this, and the Strike moblog. Both are run by textforamerica, although I thought I saw a link to one on buzznet site. No specific link for that one, though.

via Smart Mobs

meet the directors

Virgin Megastore on Sunset
10/28/03 - 7:30pm
Meet the Directors!
Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham will be in the store all at the same time to celebrate the release of the DVD series Work of .... This will include a 45-minute screening, followed by a Q & A session and DVD signing.

(Note, you must have pre-ordered the DVDs from the Virgin Megastore in order to attend the event. [And they are doing the same thing with the Tenacious D DVD on Nov 4th.])

this or class, this or class.....

IMSC Industry Day

The IMSC Student Council is hosting an Industry Day next Thursday, 30 October from 10:00am-2:00pm in the Gerontology Auditorium. While the people coming will probably be more along the engineering-side of things, they are aware that some artists and non-technical people are interested in coming. Companies like Rhythm & Hues will be there.

The Industry Day is free, but you need to sign up in OHE 106 (Engineering Student Affairs, my old stomping grounds) and leave a $10 deposit that will be returned at the event.

Motion Capture Speaker

Dave Blackburn, a pioneer in virtual reality and real-time graphics and president of Virtual Ventures is coming to speak on motion capture techniques next Tuesday, 2:00pm-5:00pm, down in the IML.

Dave is coming to Vibeke Sorenson's class (I'm assuming it's her Interactive Animation class this semester, ironically), so all of the IM students are invited.

the future of blogs

saw this interesting little list about predictions of where blogs might go and how they might evolve in the next few years. some interesting ideas (some we are already doing).

my favorite?
blogrolls and buddlylists converging somehow.

linky

mobile recording device

finally, someone made a recording device that encodes mp3 from a line in so I can (if I had more $$$) record stuff from a mobile device. The telephone conversation convertor is probably the best feature, so look for lots of new albums to include phone conversations sampled over some sick beats. No info about the adc on the device, which isn't reassuring. And it supports WMA? what's up with that? Apple needs to jump on this bandwagon. They will, and will do it much better. But check it out anyway:

http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/009607.php#009607

Link via gizmodo

Immersive News

"On October 25th, join the Associated Press Television/Radio Association (APTRA) members at the University of Southern California for APTRA's first ever workshop on Virtual Reality Journalism.

"USC's Integrated Media Systems Center, in collaboration with the Annenberg School for Journalism, will describe its research using 360-degree video cameras and virtual reality headsets to put the viewer in the actual news scene. The video results are stunning as you look around the scene and watch the reporter tell the story and conduct interviews.

"USC Professors Skip Rizzo, Larry Pryor, and Alexander Sawchuk will discuss the future implications for this form of news media capture and presentation, show an actual news story shot in Southern California and demonstrate how this potential "News of the Future" is done. The equipment will also be available for a hands-on recorded and live demonstration!

"The event will take place on Saturday, October 25, 2003, from 9:30am to 12:30pm at USC's Gerontology Auditorium in the Gerontology Building on the Main USC Campus.

"The cost: $10 for students and $15 for others
Limited number of Free Student Tickets-Call 213-740-9819"

Alright, now that all the info's out there for you, my couple of comments:
1. Once again, ironic that dual research goes on in multiple departments at USC, and we don't know abou it.
2. I have an issue with using the term "Virtual Reality" in this context. This is immersive, but I feel that they're taking the term a bit too far.

I'm still going to try to go, though . . .

[Added Thursday, 23 October] Well, I got 7 free tickets, so if you want to go, let me know.

OpenGL Tutorials

(Repost of an email I sent out)

For anyone who wants to get a head start on C, C++, and OpenGL, there are some great tutorials at the following sites:
www.gametutorials.com
http://nehe.gamedev.net

If you have specific questions about OpenGL, DirectX, or general game design, try:
www.gamedev.org
(I frequent it as SDGamer--thinking about changing it to SCGamer)

The Invention of Morel

The Invention of Morel, long unavailable (in English, anyway) is back in print!

Written by Adolfo Bioy Casares (most famous for his collaborations with J L Borges), it's without doubt the best novel from 1940 (or any other year, probably) about a totally (and I mean totally) immersive environment.

Borges wrote in his introduction that "to classify it as perfect is neither an imprecision nor a hyperbole."

He's not exaggerating.

Highly recommended, and very relevant.

Panoramic Camera Workshop

Susana Ruiz is going to present a workshop on the Sony FourthVIEW panoramic camera system this Friday (October 24) @ 3PM in the ZML. Both first- and second-year IM students are invited to attend.

If you have any interest in working with this technology, please try to be there.

Immersive/Pervasive Gaming

Useful overview of some new developments in collective mobile entertainment including analysis of "The Beast" interactive narrative (not a game) designed to support/hype Speilberg's movie AI and written by Sean Stewart

This Is Not A Game: Immersive Aesthetics and Collective Play

Jane McGonigal, Department of Theater, Dance & Performance Studies, University of California at Berkeley. E-mail: janemcg@uclink4.berkeley.edu.

Abstract
The increasing convergence and mobility of digital network technologies have given rise to new, massively-scaled modes of social interaction where the physical and virtual worlds meet. This paper explores one product of these extreme networks, the emergent genre of immersive entertainment, as a potential tool for harnessing collective action. Through an analysis of the structure and rhetoric of immersive games, I explore how immersive aesthetics can generate a new sence of social agency in game players, and how collaborative play techniques can instruct real-world problem-solving.

Keywords
Massively-multiplayer gaming, virtual reality, collective intelligence, extreme networks.

Full Text
Full text 172KB PDF. Adobe Reader or PDF viewing software required.

MTV Gives Magazine a Remix
By DAVID CARR

Major magazines are generally introduced with a great deal of fanfare: news
releases, lavish parties and bold statements about the paradigm shift the new
publication represents. The much awaited MTV magazine will land a bit more
quietly this week. There will be on-air and on-Web promotion, but for the
most part, MTV is letting the first issue speak for itself.

But it will speak in a language that will leave many in publishing baffled.
SN, as the first issue is called (part of MTV's Spankin' New franchise),
represents a huge curveball in retail presentation and editorial execution.
It arrives in a plastic bag containing one large magazine that covers coming
releases in film, video games and toys, a smaller magazine that looks at new
music, and a multimedia compact disc with movie and game trailers and samples of music, games and movies. Graphically, the package is inhabited by "urban vinyl toys," photographs of little characters built out of motifs from punk
to hip-hop to horror movies.

MTV ignored offers from major publishers, most notably Hearst Magazines, and
hired Smoke, a New York-based firm that has created a variety of programming for various media clients. The issue it created is one of a kind; the next issue, due in January, will have another name and take a different approach. MTV is distributing 500,000 copies of the initial issue and promises
advertisers a rate base of 300,000.

"The essence of our brand is the unusual, the innovative and the unexpected,"
said Daniel P. Sullivan, group publisher at MTV. "We wanted something that
enabled us to be flexible and fluid in bringing MTV to our audience."

The large magazine's cover has a tiny logo, two vinyl characters seemingly
shrink-wrapped, and 10 words. In an age of busy, exclamation-ridden covers
that shout for attention, the approach relies on the MTV logo and the
idiosyncrasy of the visuals to entice readers. Bagging different media
elements into a single package for $5.95 is not without precedent, but the
publications inside are clearly aimed at the 21-year-old reader. The voice is
collegiate and friendly, the articles are very short, and topics are sampled
as opposed to thoroughly explored.

Mr. Sullivan said the size and the business plan for the publication would be
shaped by the response, but he and others at MTV were convinced an audience
raised on quick-cut videos was ready for a print product that reflected the
network's sensibility. "This could be a very good business for MTV," he
said. "It is a big brand and this is one more way for us to reinvent
ourselves."

broadcast flag

if people get a chance, try and stop this -

from EFF:

If the motion picture studios have their way, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will force all future televisions to include Hollywood-approved "content protection" technologies

- by sending a letter to the FCC here: LINK

thanks.

WiFi Shopping Carts

As seen on Slashdot:

agentk writes "The Boston Globe reports today that area supermarket Stop & Shop is adding computers with Bluetooth barcode scanners, 802.11 networking and infrared positional sensors to shopping carts in one of its stores. 'The Shopping Buddy automatically displays which aisle you're in, what's on sale there, and what you bought the last time you strolled through.' Most Stop & Shop stores already have automated self-checkout lanes. Is this the future of shopping? What will the impact be on privacy, the cash economy, and the experience of shopping in general?"

Connected LA

I don�t normally read the LA Times, due to the few remains of East Coast snobbery circulating in my blood. However, October 16ths Calendar sections featured an article that caught my attention. �Desperately Seeking Connection� addressed the success of LA based e-communities in a city filled with transplants.

Unfortunately the online version of the article is fee based. If you�re interested in joining, you should go to Latimes.com and have at it. For the rest of you, I�ve listed the links mentioned in the article for your browsing pleasure (see extended entry). If you have an extra few hours to kill, lord knows how, check them out.

What is the best news about the article? Ah, the fact that �interactive media� is now mainstream media in the �City of Angels".

www.craigslist.org
www.upcoming.org
www.lapeopleconneciton.com
www.lablogs.com
www.friendster.com
www.searchforsanity.com
www.tonypierce.com
www.talkingpointsmemo.com
www.dailycandy.com
www.poynter.org/medianews
www.kausfiles.com
www.volokh.com
www.match.com
www.laobserved.com
www.calendarlive.com/connected

!Alerting Infrastructure! - 2003

Website Hit Counter that Destroys a Building.
Project by Jonah Brucker-Cohen

Link: Visit CityArtsCentre.ie to register a hit and contribute to the building's destruction.

Description
Alerting Infrastructure is a physical hit counter that translates hits to the website of the City Arts Centre in Dublin, Ireland into interior damage of the physical building. The focus of the piece is to amplify the concern that physical spaces are slowly losing ground to their virtual counterparts. The amount of structural damage to the building directly correlates to the amount of exposure and attention the website gets, thus exposing the physical structure's temporal existence.

Strike Moblog

pretty interesting:

http://ufcw.textamerica.com

Moblog for Vons, Albertsons, and Ralph's striking workers. From the site:

Workers of Albertsons, Vons & Ralphs go on strike due to unfair labor practices. Post your images of the strike direct to this site by emailing them to ufcw.ufcw@tamw.com

via Smart Mobs.

LA SIGGRAPH Meeting

The Los Angeles chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH is having its October meeting on "Games: Raising the Bar" - and is co-hosted by Discreet. The meeting is this Wednesday, 22 October.

"This year video games are pushing the envelope in graphics and game play, producing a cinematic or near cinematic interactive experience. The bar of game quality is being raised to cinematic levels. What will this mean for those in computer graphics, especially those in the entertainment industry? With cinematic quality within grasping distance and game revenue now greater than theater box office, what will the future bring? Come and see because the bar has been raised much further than you think."

There is a social hour from 6:30pm-7:30pm, and then the program usually runs from 7:30pm-9:30pm. This month it's at the Covel Commons at UCLA (everybody say, "Eeeewwwwww . . .").

I'll be going after our seminar (I'm one of the staffing volunteers), so if anyone wants a ride, let me know.

Donald Norman

BBC News interviews design and interface guru Donald Norman:

"You see, that's what I'm all about now: none of this website stuff, none of this digital stuff," explains the man who has published extensively on design and how people use objects in their everyday lives.

"I want to make products like this fountain pen that creates such joy when you see it, and you say 'oh wow' and the first thing you want to do is try it."

Read the article and read The Design of Everyday Things.

The new book, Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things, comes out January 2004.

"The revolution we are in right now is not so much about the digital revolution, the computer revolution, the internet or the telecoms revolution.

"The revolution is the social interaction revolution and it is all of these things put together in one," he says.

K

Casey Reas Presentation

Casey Reas will be giving a presentation on his programming environment Processing this Thursday October 16th at 6:30pm during Perry Hoberman's Experiments in Interactivity class in the ZML. First year IMD students are invited (and encouraged) to attend.

In Pioneering Duke Study, Monkey Think, Robot Do

From the New York Times, Oct 13th ,2003. However, I could only find a link for which you needed a membership to www.nytimes.com. Here's the run down:

"Monkeys that can move a robot arm with thought alone have brought the merger of mind and machine one step closer.

In experiments at Duke University, implants in the monkeys' brains picked up brain signals and sent them to a robotic arm, which carried out reaching and grasping movements on a computer screen driven only by the monkeys' thoughts.

...The new research, however, involves thought-controlled robotic action that does not depend on physical movement by the monkey and that involves the complex muscular activities of reaching and grasping."

Brief bio on Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, neurobiology professor and co-director of the Center for Neuroengineering at Duke.
http://www.neuro.duke.edu/Faculty/Nicolelis.htm

new banner

eh?

maybe reformat columns a bit...

Girls and Gaming Series

For anyone interested:

The Center for Feminist Research
Girls and Gaming Series
presents

Marsha Kinder
usc school of cinema

Mark Harris
usc school of cinema

Kristy Kang
usc annenberg center for communication

Runaways: Girls & Video Gaming

Wednesday, October 15
Doheny Memorial Library Intellectual Commons
12:00-1:30

For a light lunch, please RSVP to 213-740-1739 or cfr@usc.edu.

The Importance of IMSC / Protecting Your Intellectual Property Rights

The IMSC Student Council presents Isaac Maya speaking on:
"The Importance of IMSC / Protecting Your Intellectual Property Rights"

While Maya will be mostly speaking onthe relevancy and importance of the IMSC (which could also be interesting), he is going to discuss how to protect your intellectual property (ideas) so you can profit from your ideas without restricting your ability to publish your work.

Friday, Oct. 17th, NOON-1:00 in OHE 122.
Pizza and soda will be provided at the event.
(For more information on IMSC: http://imsc.usc.edu/scouncil/)

ZML update

Some interactive media happening at the ZML for Parent's Weekend:

and the screens finally arrive (@300 lbs.):

New Disney space ride so real it's sickening

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) -- Walt Disney World's newest attraction cost $100 million to build and delivers a remarkable simulation of a rocket launch and spacecraft landing, right down to the nausea and brief moment of weightlessness.

linky

Personal Digital Pal

Nice mobile authoring tool described in Wired News:

A new Times Square art project lets people map their insider knowledge, memories and ideas about city landmarks with their PDAs and share those anecdotes online. Just don't confuse the project with the Zagat Survey -- you might get lost in a thicket of strangers' nostalgia.

Through Dec. 12, people wandering Times Square can wirelessly download a program called Personal Digital Pal, or PDPal, at a kiosk "beaming station" on 42nd Street. Once the program is loaded, users can record their wanderings by sketching the paths they took and writing commentary about the places they visited. When they get to a laptop or desktop computer, they pour all of this into a central website so others can appreciate myriad overlapping perspectives about the same sites.

Designer Julian Bleecker:
"We want people to use their PDAs to harvest experiences and create another communal sense of the city," Bleecker said. "The initial program download is available through the kiosks, rather than online, because it forces people to go to this physical space to get started and have these experiences. Times Square may be the most tactile, vibrating and resonant place in the world."

UPDATE: Pix of a happy user at the NYC opening here.
and more project info here
and here.

Amusement Park Trade Show

IAAPA, the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, is having their annual trade show next month in Florida:

The IAAPA Orlando 2003 Convention and Trade Show is the largest show world wide for the Amusement and Entertainment Industry. Last year's show attracted over 28,000 attendees from a variety of facilities such as Amusement Parks, Aquariums, Attractions and Leisure, Family Entertainment Centers and much more. It is the ultimate opportunity for facility owners and managers to discover new products, advances in technology, and ways to increase customer satisfaction and enhance their business for 2004 and beyond.

You can join (and get a subscription to Funworld magazine) here.

Phone pedometer

Recent press release from Docomo:

DoCoMo�s handset to have built-in �walk distance measurement� function
DoCoMo introduced the first handset with an embedded measurement tool that counts walking steps. A user inputs his or her own weight and foot width. The counter, equipped with a special sensor chipset developed by Omron, records walking steps even when the mobile phone is kept in a bag or jacket pocket. Recorded data can be sent or replied automatically via email to a specified recipient. The handset was developed by Fujitsu as part of the popular F671i and F671iS series (which have combined to ship 2.4 million units). The company expects to sell 160,000 units per month of these new handsets, called �Mova F672i.� Additional features are a 2.1 inch TFT display with 65,536 colors (160 x 160 dot), a 1.1 inch monochrome (120 x 66 dot) STN display for the sub screen, advanced text-to-speech functionality and easy email handling functions (input/sending).

ArtFutura 2003

The 14th annual ArtFutura digital art/tech/culture festival is going on right now (Oct 9-12, Barcelona). Parts of the conference is being livecasted (in WMP9). Also, Marta Peirano is live blogging ArtFutura at elastico.net (SYSTRAN es_en).

npr is running an article about orchestras at the Aspen Music Festival beaming concert notes into the PDAs of listeners. Yet another demonstration of information being served to mobile platforms. The devices are called "concert companions," and orchestras are looking to use them to attract new audiences.

from the article:

Presented on a PDA (personal digital assistant), the Concert Companion's key feature is the "listener's guide to the music" that updates you with information about what you're hearing, in real time. As the music plays, a computer hidden in a corner of the hall uses wireless technology to transmit signals to your PDA. Carefully synched with the music, the computer sends a new block of text every 30 seconds or so, suggesting what to listen for in that passage of music.

first thoughts: this may work ok for classical music, which is rich with historical context and filled with musical subtilty (not that this is unique). One excerpt reads: "With the unlikely combination of cellos doubled by violas, a songful, long-breathed melody unfolds over plucked string basses."

Still, there's something ineffable about music, I think, that makes me a little dubious about wanting to read about what I'm hearing in real time. maybe something more like, I go to a britney spears concert, and for each song she plays, my pda is updated with the song name, etc., and then a link to where I can download that song online. that would be a sweet iPod feature. Ok, but seriously - I've never been to a britney concert. what I meant was slayer. A slayer concert.

SCFX

THE GAMERS - a film by the SCFX club/crew. Haven't heard about this yet, but apparently they are screening their first work. 8pm at Norris on 10/20/03. RSVP to productions@gamersthemovie.com

More info about this SCFX club can be found at SCFilm.net

Become a Sim Artist

The Sim Gallery Project Call for Entries

Contribute a 'sim' artwork or performance to a gallery space within the Sims Online--a multiplayer, online game. Works chosen for the SimGallery will also be on view--through in-museum computer stations--during the 'Counter Gaming' show at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in January 2004.

Help us to explore what happens when an 'real world' white-cube
gallery lands in the pre-fab, populist online experiment known as the
Sims Online. What kinds of art and performances are relevant, or even
possible in virtual space?

We invite you to submit artwork or a performance proposal for inclusion in the Online SimGallery Project's in-game show and performance series. Your work, of course, must be manifestable within the game itself.

Some issues we hope interested artists will explore:
- What art can be within the constraints and rules of an online game.
- How virtual embodiment affects performances and the experience of art online.
- How the Sim aesthetic merges with and reshapes your own, when you
bring your work into this venue.
- How a traditionally-styled art space functions in an online game.

Screenshots of the galleries and performance space are available at
http://www.simgallery.net/gallery.html. You can also arrange a hosted
visit to the SimGallery in TSO by sending email to
contact@simgallery.net

Deadline for entries: October 31, 2003.

Complete submission details are below (and available in pdf format at
http://www.simgallery.net/ent.html)

Please note: It is extremely important for artists unfamiliar with
TSO to explore the constraints of the game world when envisioning
works and planning proposals.

Important dates:
Deadline for Entries: Oct. 31 2003.
Notification of Status: November 15, 2003.
Exhibition Dates: January-April 2004.
Proposal Format:
Your proposal must include:
- Project description
- Artist(s) resum�
- Indication of category for your work (performance or artwork)

- At least one of the following:
- A SIM location for existing works and project description.
- 3 URLs to other online works with project descriptions.
- 10 jpgs representative of other works, with a slide list and
project descriptions.
- Portfolio CD, VHS video or 10 slides with slide list or project
descriptions and accompanying SASE.

Submission Process:
Please send your materials either by email to entries@simgallery.net
or by postal mail to:
SimGallery
C/o Katherine Isbister & Rainey Straus
1904 23rd Street
San Francisco, CA 94107

All materials must be received by midnight, October 31, 2003 to
ensure full consideration. We will notify you by November 15 about
the status of your submission.
For more information:
To learn more about the SimGallery Project venue, visit our website
(www.simgallery.net) or visit the gallery itself by logging into
TSO's Alphaville. (Send email to contact@simgallery.net in order to
arrange a hosted visit.)

To learn more about TSO, we encourage you to visit the official
product website
(http://www.eagames.com/official/thesimsonline/home/index.jsp). There
is a brief overview of the game on the project site, as well (http://www.simgallery.net).

360cam-orama

In addition to the 360 camera system (4th View) we have from SONY and the work at Prairie Logic that Brad has been involved in, here are some additional links to work on omnidirectional camera systems (courtesy of Mike Naimark):

- Summary page on Omnidirectional Vision Systems compiled by the Grasp Lab at the Univ. of Pennsylvania

- Stereo Omnidirectional System (SOS), Softopia, Japan (nice movies here)

Two-way Web for the Mainstream?

Seb keeps a blog with pointers and thoughts on the evolution of knowledge sharing and scholarly communication. Here's a recent followup to a Richard MacManus piece asking: why would normal people want to publish to the Web?

MacManus writes:

While I agree wholeheartily with the sentiments expressed by John and others like Phil Wolff, I wonder how practical it is to expect business people to write k-logs. It's all very well having tools like k-collector to aggregate Intranet content, but the real issue is how do we get people to create the content in the first place? Interestingly, this is the exact same problem the Semantic Web has getting off the ground, people currently aren't writing enough metadata to make the Semantic Web happen.

Seb elaborates:

Accurate observations in there. I honestly believe blogging as we currently know it will never become mainstream. The reason is that it is a poor fit for anyone who isn't the (hyper)text-driven, infovore kind of person.

However, that doesn't mean that the more general practice of broadcasting information of personal relevance will not become mainstream. My vision of the future in this respect is closest to what Marc Canter�s been pushing under the moniker of �digital lifestyle aggregator�; this also seems to be where Meg Hourihan is heading with the Lafayette project.

Think about restaurant/show reviews, recipes, pictures. The Web is already full of user-contributed stuff like that; most of it currently resides on centralized sites like Amazon. The individuals who help build those sites do so most of the time with no reward other than a high local profile that is generally non-transferable (how many Amazon reviewers are on your blogroll?). I�m willing to bet that many of them would prefer keeping control over their contributions and putting themselves at the center of their content if systems were available that made that easy.

Mobile Games to "tempt women'

i found this article on bbc.co.uk about how mobile gaming is going to make all women gamers... i would take some of this with a grain of salt, but i think it's worth a look-see.

"Mobile gaming is set to become big business in the next year and the industry is hoping it will attract a different breed of gamers, women.

While the games industry is churning out better, brighter games, mobile makers are coming out with more colour-screened handsets on which to play them.

Both sides of the industry are hoping mobiles will drive more women to gaming because they are easy to use.

But games makers still have to break some of the stereotypical ideas about which games will appeal to men and women, say experts. "

Read more here.

New Server Test

Hello World!

Looks ok to me.

Vida 6.0 / Life 6.0

LIFE 6.0 INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION - CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
Announcing the fifth edition of the competition on "art and artificial
life" sponsored by the Telefonica Foundation in Madrid. We are looking for
outstanding electronic art projects employing techniques such as digital
genetics, autonomous robotics, recursive chaotic algorithms, knowbots,
computer viruses, embodied artificial intelligence, avatars, evolving
behaviours and virtual ecosystems.

An international jury --Daniel Canogar, Chris Csikszentmihalyi, Machiko
Kusahara, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Jane Prophet and Nell Tenhaaf-- will grant
four cash awards totaling 20,000 Euros.

The competition's website at http://www.vidalife.org has the guidelines,
application form, and information on the previous award-winners, including
texts, videos, images and links.

Deadline: Friday, October 31, 2003.

USC Community of Electronic Media Students

It really sunk in tonight for me the existence of an incredible number of disjointed organizations involving Electronic Media here at USC.
Does anyone know the cooperation/communication that is currently going on between:
The Annenberg School of Communication, Integrated Media Systems Center, Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (Integrated Media Systems), The Minor in Interactive Multimedia, The Minor in Multimedia and Creative Technologies,Information Sciences Institute, Institute for Creative Technologies, MSEE (MCT): Master of Science in Electrical Engineering with a Specialization in Multimedia and Creative Technologies, MSCSCI (MCT): Master of Science in Computer Science with a Specialization in Multimedia and Creative Technologies , MSIMS: Master of Science in Integrated Media Systems , Computer Science, Digital Media-Based Imaging Minor, Master of Fine Arts Program, Minor in Animation, Master of Fine Arts in Film, Video and Computer Animationand Interactive Media?

It seems bizarre to me that we're all connected in interests and yet don't regularly communicate. Any opinions?

3d Motion Tracking here at USC

This is probably old news to some, but I just learned (thanks to Susana) that Isaac Cohen at the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems, Integrated Media Systems Center, is an Assistant Proffesor heading up research in the area of attachment free 3d human tracking.

Videos and Text

Anyone know more about this research team?
Anyone know what sort of relationship or lack there of we have with IMSC?

AIM V: SYZYGY The Human Remix

Hi everyone! I interned for this festival last year, and they are having their call for entries again. I thought some of you may have projects that you'd like to enter. for more information, visit www.usc.edu/aim

Art in Motion V: SYZYGY. Presented by the USC School of FIne Arts in partnership with the Armory Center for the Arts.

FESTIVAL THEME
AIM V: SYZYGY calls for entries that explore the question of the human/machine ‘remix’. Derived from a Greek root meaning “yoked or paired”, syzygy implies a state of interdependent duality that speaks to the increasingly permeated relationship between human and machine.

As instantaneous, disembodied communication becomes the constant condition of our lives, and the distinction between biology and technology blurs, so a new experience of self is emerging. It is one of ‘distributed subjectivity’: the state of being (either alternately or simultaneously) both an embodied and a disembodied entity that is supplemented, multiplied, and mediated by technological apparatus. In this renegotiation of what it is and means to be human, we are exploring the ramifications of the ‘remix’ – its impact on human relationships (from global to interpersonal), on perception and the expression of subjectivity (human and/or machine), and on the experience of being a body (physical or virtual, flesh or machine).

The AIM V: SYZYGY (The Human Remix) exhibition will be held March 7 – June 6, 2004 at the Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena. AIM V will also include screenings on the video billboards on West Hollywood’s Sunset strip and satellite lectures and events in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and Cusco, Peru.

SCREENING COMMITTEE
All entries will be viewed, and final selections made by the AIM V Screening Committee: AIM Director Lynzie Baldwin; Amauta Technologies President Carlos Battilana; artist Caroline Clerc; and artist and AIM Co-founder Janet Owen. The jury will view all selected works and award the $500 AIM Student Award and the $1000 Bernay Kurland Grayson Award for Creative Excellence which is open to both students and professionals.

RULES
Works must be ‘time-based’ and address the festival theme (however obliquely). Works may be submitted by professionals, amateurs, or students
of any age, working in any discipline. AIM defines ‘time-based’ to include: Internet-based projects such as websites, collaborative networks, and
technologies for spatializing information; works utilizing wireless technology or wearable computing devices; hardware design; architectural and urban design projects; digital media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs; performative, installation, and augmented reality projects; video, digital video, animation; computer games; and sound pieces - as well as various emerging hybrids that elude traditional categorization.

All submitted works must be completed after September 1, 2001, and entries must be postmarked no later than November 30, 2003.

Submission to AIM is free.

Submit proposals and/or copies of projects (no originals please) in the form of a DVD (NTSC), VCD, VHS (NTSC), Mac/PC CD-ROM, or URL, as appropriate. Other formats can be accommodated only by prior arrangement with AIM.
1. All entries must be postmarked no later than November 30, 2003.

2. All works submitted must be new works: completed after September 1, 2001. A pre-existing work which has undergone substantial alteration shall be considered a new work.

3. AIM will take all reasonable precautions to ensure the safety of materials in its care, but no original or irreplaceable materials should be submitted under any circumstances.

4. All works must be submitted by the artist principally responsible for them. For collaborative works one artist may represent the group, but said artist will remain the individual with whom AIM communicates.

5. All works must be complete enough for presentation at the time of submission.

6. Submit work in the form of a DVD (NTSC), VCD, VHS (NTSC) copy, a Macintosh CD-ROM, or a URL, as appropriate. Other formats can be accommodated only by prior arrangement with AIM.

7. Final responsibility for a work’s presentability lies with the artist. Failure to deliver a presentable copy for exhibition shall render the work ineligible.

8. AIM will view all submitted works and select those to be exhibited. The jury will view all exhibited works, and select award winners.

9. Members of the AIM jury shall not be eligible to enter works for festival competition, but may have works on exhibition.

10. All rights to any given work remain with the artist. However, submission to the festival constitutes agreement on the part of the artist that Art In Motion has the right to publicly show his/her entered work as part of the festival and/or as part of on-going festival-related activities and promotions, without remuneration.

11. AIM is not responsible for lost, misdirected, or delayed entries. Materials will only be returned if the entry includes a U.S stamped, self-addressed envelope.

12. All legal responsibility for any work submitted remains with the artist. AIM assumes no liability for any exhibited work.

13. All jury decisions are final.

Hidden Agenda games-to-teach contest

Here's the game design contest that Andrew announced. Anyone interested in forming an IM team?

Welcome to Hidden Agenda—a contest designed for the college student with a penchant for video games, a passion for innovation and a hankering for $25,000. If you think you’ve got the skills, pull together an ace design team and build a fabulous new video game. The winners will get it all—the fame, the fortune, bragging rights and maybe even a date with that hottie in economics.

So what’s the hidden agenda? Well, you can’t build just any game for anybody. It has to be a genius game for a middle school crowd. So fun, in fact, that they don’t notice it ‘s also teaching them something. That’s the “stealth education” aspect. Shh!