Speaker: Tamiko Thiel, Artist

Time: Wednesday, November 18, 6-8 pm
Location: Goethe-Institut Los Angeles
5750 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 100
Los Angeles, CA 90036

NOTE: The off-campus location for this seminar. If you a an IMD student who needs a ride to the Goethe-Institut, contact Professor Anne Balsamo.

Tamiko Thiel will discuss the creation of Virtuelle Mauer/ReConstructing the Wall that she created with collaborator Teresa Reuter. This interactive 3D virtual reality art work investigates the impact of the Berlin Wall, which divided West and East Berlin during the Cold War from August 13, 1961 to November 9, 1989. A digital reconstruction of a segment of the dismantled Berlin Wall and its surrounding neighborhoods creates a place of rememberance that users can explore in order to to experience and reflect on this historical time.

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the Goethe-Institut in Los Angeles is staging the installation from November 20-December 3, 2009.

Official Opening: Thursday November 19, 6-9pm
Exhibit: November 20 - December 3, 2009

Goethe-Institut Los Angeles
5750 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 100
Los Angeles, CA 90036, USA
http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/los/kue/en4872732v.htm

For images from this interactive 3D installation on the Berlin Wall see:
http://www.virtuelle-mauer-berlin.de/english/devFiles/screenshots.htm

Speaker: Sha Xin Wei, Topological Media Lab, Concordia University

Time: Wednesday, November 11, 6-8 pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Professor Sha Xin Wei holds a Canadian Research Chair in Media Arts and Sciences; He is also an Associate Professor of Fine Arts and Computer Science At Concordia University in Montreal. The Topological Media Lab (TML) is a studio-laboratory for the study of gesture and materiality from computational and phenomenological perspectives. His talk will present examples of research/art projects that have been developed at the TML over the past decade. These projects include the TGarden responsive environment, Hubbub speech-sensitive urban surfaces, Membrane calligraphic video, and softwear gestural sound instruments.

Speaker: Mark Bolas, Associate Professor, Interactive Media Division, SCA

Time: Wednesday, November 4, 6-8 pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Please join us at the IMD seminar this week for a presentation by IMD Professor Mark Bolas. He also serves as the director of Graphics Lab at USC's Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT). Professor Bolas' research explores perception, agency, and intelligence; he creates virtual environments that are designed to engage one’s perception and cognition to create a visceral memory of the experience. His work has been exhibited in many venues including six Emerging Technology exhibits at Siggraph. In 1988, Bolas co-founded Fakespace Inc. with Ian McDowall and Eric Lorimer to build instrumentation for research labs to explore virtual reality.

Speaker: Gonzalo Frasca, Co-Founder and CCO, Powerful Robot Games

Time: Wednesday, October 28, 6-8 pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Play like you mean it! Videogames & Rhetoric

Please join us for a talk by Gonzalo Frasca, who is the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Powerful Robot Games. His talk will describe a framework for understanding how play and games convey ideas through the use of rhetoric rather than rules.

Gonzalo Frasca is a game developer, researcher and entrepreneur, who lives in Montevideo, Uruguay. He co-founded the studio, Powerful Robot Games, in 2002 to build both commercial and experimental games. Their game for Cartoon Network reached over 13 million player accounts. They described it as "our biggest gaming success in our history".

One of their most popular indie projects is Newsgaming.com, a project mixing journalism with videogames. It received the Knight Foundation News Games Lifetime Achievement Award at the Games for Change 2009 conference.

Speakers: Lulu Cao, Ala' Diab, Bryan Jaycox, Cynthia Nie, Taiyoung Ryu, Nahil Sharkasi, Peter Van Dyke, and Brandi Wilcox,

Time: Wednesday, October 21, 6-8 pm
Location: The IMD Co-Design Lab (aka Flower Street Lab)
School of Cinematic Arts
Digital Collaboratory Annex
501 29th Street

Please join us at the IMD seminar this week for presentations and demonstrations by the IMD 3rd year Thesis students. The students will present for the 1st hour, and then run simultaneous demos during the second hour. Professor Mark Bolas will serve as facilitator for the evening.

Speakers: Jamie Antonisse, Paul Bellezza, Jenova Chen, Matt Korba, Jesse Vigil
And Others TBA...

Time: Wednesday, September 30, 6-8 pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Please join us at the IMD seminar this week for a panel discussion featuring IMD Alumni Jamie Antonisse, Paul Bellezza, Jenova Chen, Matt Korba, and Jesse Vigil. They will also be participating in IndieCade that runs from October 1-4, 2009 in Culver City. IndieCade is supports and showcases the work of international independent game designers.

Speaker: Noah Wardrip-Fruin, University of California, Santa Cruz

Time: Wednesday, September 23, 6-8 pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

What matters in understanding digital media? Is looking at the external appearance and audience experience of software enough—or should we look further? This week Professor Noah Wardrip-Fruin will be speaking about his new book, Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Comptuer Games, and Software Studies (MIT, 2009). Wardrip-Fruin argues that understanding what goes on beneath the surface, the computational processes that make digital media function, is essential. HE suggests that it is the authors and artists with knowledge of these processes who will use the expressive potential of computation to define the future of fiction and games. He also explores how computational processes themselves express meanings through distinctive designs, histories, and intellectual kinships that may not be visible to audiences. Wardrip-Fruin looks at "expressive processing" by examining specific works of digital media ranging from the simulated therapist Eliza and the first major story-generation system Tale-Spin to the complex city-planning game SimCity. Digital media, he contends, offer particularly intelligible examples of things we need to understand about software in general; if we understand, for instance, the capabilities and histories of artificial intelligence techniques in the context of a computer game, we can use that understanding to judge the use of similar techniques in such higher-stakes social contexts as surveillance.

OPEN HOUSE
School of Cinematic Arts
IMD Co-Design Lab

Time: Wednesday, September 16, 6-8 pm

Location: Digital Collaboratory Annex
(aka Flower Street)
509 W. 29th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90089

The IMD seminar this week will be an Open House at the IMD Co-Design Lab and the IMD Thesis Space. The program for the evening will include brief presentations by 3rd year IMD students about their thesis projects. Research faculty member, Perry Hoberman will also describe new research efforts in stereoscopic cinema and in immersive narrative. He will present a brief demo of Oblong Industry's G-Speak system.

The building is located behind the Panda Express parking lot between Figueroa Street and Flower Street. Enter through the parking lot door. There will be a sign on the side walk in front of the building.

Speaker: Anne Balsamo, Professor in IMD and Annenberg School of Communication
Time: Wednesday, September 9, 6-8 pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

The seminar speaker this week is Anne Balsamo who is a professor in the Interactive Media Division and the Annenberg School of Communication. Professor Balsamo will provide a preview of her forthcoming transmedia book project called: Designing Culture: The Technological Imagination at Work. The transmedia elements she will discuss include an interactive documentary of the 4th UN Conference on Women (China, 1995), an interactive museum exhibition on experiments in the future of reading, and examples of interactive wall books. This work provides the context for new research efforts on the future of museums and libraries in a digital age.

Speakers: IMD Faculty and Students
Time: Wednesday, September 2, 6-8 pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

This week's seminar will feature short presentations by IMD faculty and students about current research projects.

6:00 Scott Fisher
Research in IMD

6:15 Sean Plott and Daniel Ponce
CATS Math Games

The CATS project combines research on cognitive psychology, instruction, assessment, and games to improve the learning of underperforming middle school students. The first prototype, created and tested with students this summer, teaches addition of rational numbers.

6:25 Nahil Sharkasi
Participation Nation

Participation Nation is a game for teaching American constitutional history and civics to high school students. Players can play the “Forces of Change” or the “Status Quo” in a debate over the constitutional issues that shaped the country.

6:35 Logan Olson & Diane Tucker
Intergenerational Play research

The Intergenerational Play project is a collaboration between the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, the University of Michigan School of Learning Sciences, and the GIL. The goal of the project is to discover design principles for creating engaging and intergenerational games that can promote literacy and learning.

6:45 Elizabeth Swensen & Jesse Vigil
Pathfinder

The Pathfinder project is a collaboration between the GIL and USC's Center for Higher Education Policy and Analysis. Funded by a Provost's grant, the goal of the project is to design a game to engage high school students in the college preparation and application process.

6:55 Tracy Fullerton, Todd Furmanski & Bryan Jaycox
Walden

Walden simulates the experiment in living made by Thoreau at Walden Pond in 1845-47, allowing players to walk in his virtual footsteps, attend to the tasks of living a self-reliant existence, discover in the beauty of a virtual landscape the ideas and writings of this unique philosopher, and cultivate through the gameplay their own thoughts and responses to the concepts discovered there.

7:10 Peter Brinson & Kurosh Valanejad
Cat and the Coup

The Cat and the Coup is an experimental documentary game in which you play the cat of Mohammed Mossadegh, the democratically elected leader of Iran. On the night of August 19, 1953, a CIA-engineered coup replaces the Prime Minister, with an absolute dictatorship. As a player, you coax Mossadegh through significant events of his life by knocking objects off of shelves, scattering papers, jumping into laps, and scratching heads.

7:20 Perry Hoberman
MEPEDS

The Multi-Ethnic Pediatric Eye Disease Study (MEPEDS) is a project of the USC Department of Ophthalmology at the Doheny Eye Institute. For a pilot study, a team at IMD is developing stereoscopic 3D print, animation and interactive materials to facilitate recruitment efforts and enhance the waiting room experience.

7:30 Scott Fisher
Million Story Building Project

The Mobile and Environmental Media Lab is currently exploring location-specific mobile storytelling with a project called The Million Story Building (MSB). This research investigates the idea of ambient storytelling and how the built environment can act as a storytelling entity that engages and interacts with the people in specific spaces. Through the use of the downloadable MSB mobile phone-based application,sensor networks, and other software applications, inhabitants and visitors become immersed in an emergent, responsive environment of collaborative storytelling.

7:40 Logan Olson and Emily Duff
New research at ICT/IMD

7:50 Marientina Gotsis
Wellness Partners

This game employs known effective game mechanics from casual games and features from online social networking in order to enable players to leverage their social network to meet individual and/or group wellness goals. This study aims to advance theory and practice through the evaluation of the following key methods, measures, and outcomes.

8:00 Erin Reynolds
Humana Games

A presentation of three mobile sensor-based health game prototypes for nutrition, exercise and immunity sponsored for Humana (Trainer, Healthy Eats, and Germ Wars).

Research Team members: Anne Balsamo, PI; Perry Hoberman, Cara Wallis, Maura Klosterman, Susana Bautista, Scott Minneman, and Dale MacDonald.

Ways of the Hand slide show

A brief description of the convening and its organizing framework was described in a Spotlight Blog post for the MacArthur foundation. Included in the post are short video clips of Tinkering participants: John Seely Brown, Alison Clark, Jaimie Cortez, Mike Petrich, and Eric Siegel.

For the archive, the link is:
http://spotlight.macfound.org/main/entry/anne_balsamo_tinkering_videos/

Current research projects include:

1) An investigation of consumer-grade interactive toys in terms of the way in which the toy design facilitates learning experiences. We are analyzing the mechanics and poetics of interactivity to develop a vocabulary of interactive "mixed-reality" learning.

2) A literature review of the efforts going on in museums and libraries to incorporate body-based learning experiences, including the development of new protocols to allow gaming in community libraries and the incorporation of make-spaces within science/technology centers.

3) The development of case studies of significant popular cultural manifestations of physical tinkering culture including Maker's Faire, Machine Project (LA), and The Tech Shop (Menlo Park, CA).

4) The physical prototyping of new evocative knowledge objects such as a multi-touch interactive globe.

5) The physical prototyping of everyday wearable media that incorporate sensors, LEDs, and smart fabrics. Examples include passport cosys that block RFID signals and totes with built-in cell phone flashers.

6) The development of new protocols of cultural analysis that involve the use of digital software such as semantic network interfaces.

Current members of the research team include: Professor Perry Hoberman (Interactive Media, USC), Cara Wallis (Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Annenberg School, USC), Maura Klosterman (Doctoral Research Assistant, Annenberg School, USC), Susana Bautista ((Doctoral Research Assistant, Annenberg School, USC), and John Brenna (MFA student, Interactive Media, USC).

Early support for this research came from Atlantic Philanthropies and the Institute for Multimedia Literacy (USC) and Zumberge Interdisciplinary Award (USC). Generous support has come from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as part of the initiative in Digital Media and Learning.

Spring 2009

Location: IMD Student Studio Space
Time: Wednesdays 1:00 – 4:00 pm

Anne Balsamo
abalsamo@cinema.usc.edu
Office: IMD Co-Design Lab (Flower Street)
Office Hours: 11-1:00 Wednesdays, or by appointment
415-336-3138 (mobile)

Course Description and Goals

CTIN 594b is the second half of CTIN 594ab, a two semester sequenced course in which third year IMD MFA students are to complete the concept development, production, final documentation and testing of an advanced interactive project culminating in a thesis paper, presentation, and final show. While each project may have several students working in different production or programming capacities, all final controls and decision-making will be the responsibility of the enrolled third year MFA candidate. Along with the faculty supervisor, each MFA candidate student should have already compiled an approved Thesis Committee consisting of a Thesis Supervisor and at least two other participants. The advanced project is not only a portfolio project which demonstrates the student’s technical, creative and managerial skills in creating an interactive project, but also should provide a significant contribution to the body of existing interactive media works.

Final deliverables include:
• Completion of thesis project that includes full functionality and final content;
• Exhibition of thesis project in a project-specific venue;
• One internal and one public presentation of their thesis project;
• Final draft of a thesis paper suitable for publication.

The thesis project is expected to both a technical and a creative achievement that integrates the exploration of new and novel media technologies with compelling and expressive content. Although the lines between technology and content are complex, students are expected to be mindful of both elements and will be assessed accordingly.

Students are further expected to be responsible for documentation and articulation of their thesis project into the corpus of academic scholarship, to both demonstrate “on whose shoulders” their work is built and to “leave a trail” for others pursuing similar work. Students will accordingly be assessed for the contribution in the field through their ability to exhibit, present, and write about their thesis project.

Students are expected to have regular contact with each member of their Thesis Committee, sending them email updates at least once a month through the course of the semester. Students are expected to meet together weekly for production updates and for sharing common information. They are also expected to attend the weekly 511 seminars.

Grading Structure
Grades will be assigned after completion of the project at the end of the second (b) semester as follows:
Creative Execution.................................................................25%
Technical Execution................................................................25%
Contribution to Field...............................................................25%
Collaborative Contribution and Participation in Final Show.................25%

Attendance
Attendance at all classes is mandatory. Punctuality is also expected. Two unexcused absences may lower one's grade a full point while three unexcused absences may lower one's grade two full points. Four or more unexcused absences may result in a request by the instructor for the student to withdraw from the course.

Class Meetings
Students will initially meet weekly as a group during the allocated class time, for lectures, presentations, and discussion. As the semester progresses, the allocated class time may be tailored more for one-on-one meetings and for studio-style work.

USC Supplied Facilities
USC will supply lab space and facilities as available. Generic computer hardware and software and internet access will be provided as available. Students will be required to secure and supply at his or her own expense all project specific hardware, software, bandwidth, etc. as well as non-USC supplied facilities if required

Ownership
Consistent with the policies of USC and the School of Cinematic Arts.

Additional Crew Members
Students may use additional crew members not enrolled in CTIN 594b subject to the approval of faculty. It is specifically intended that students seek out qualified students in other programs and other schools at USC who might bring unique and needed skill to the creative process. It is also intended that students seek out first or second year Interactive MFA students. All projects are required to keep an updated approved crew list that will determine access to USC supplied facilities and equipment.

Missing an Exam, Incompletes
The only acceptable excuses for taking an incomplete in the course are personal illnesses or a family emergency. Students must inform the professor before the final exam week and present verifiable evidence in order for make-up evaluation to be scheduled. Students who with to take incompletes must also present documentation of the problem to the instructor before final grades are due.

Academic Integrity
The School of Cinematic Arts expects the highest standards of academic excellence and ethical performance from USC students. It is particularly important that you are aware of and avoid plagiarism, cheating on exams, submitting a paper to more than one instructor, or submitting a paper authored by anyone other than yourself. Violations of this policy will result in a failing grade and be reported to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs. If you have any doubts or questions about these policies, consult “SCAMPUS” and/or confer with the Professor or Department Chair.

Students with Disabilities
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure that the letter is delivered to the Professor as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30am – 5:00pm, Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.

Thesis Paper and Project Deadlines

CLASS SESSIONS /KEY ACTIVITIES/DELIVERABLES

1/14/09
First Day of Class
Discussion on Thesis Preparation Process

1/21/09
Meet w/Space Designer
Production Plan Document Assigned
Go Over Thesis Paper Outline

DELIVERABLES:
Project Title
Project Descriptions

1/28/09
Crit #1
Guest Critics TBD
SET Drop dead date for user testing (3/4/09)

DELIVERABLES:
Production Plans Due
Upload onto class wiki

2/4/09
Crit #2
Guest Critics TBD

DELIVERABLES
Thesis Paper Outline Due
Detailed Production Schedule
Contribution to Field
Prior Art Identified
Example of Relevant Genre as Publication model

2/11/09
Crit #3
Guest Critic: Michael Renov, Assoc Dean, SCA
Hands On User Testing

2/18/09
Crit #4
Guest Critics TBD
Hands On User Testing

2/25/09
Crit #5
Guest Critics TBD
Hands on User Testing

DELIVERABLES
Draft #1 of Thesis: Distribute to Thesis Advisor and Committee members

3/04/09
Individual Meetings w/Anne regarding research

3/11/09
Project Team Meetings
Obtain Feedback from Thesis Advisor

DELIVERABLES
Detailed Production Updates
Thesis Show Submission Doc

March 14-22, 2009 Spring Break

March 23-27, 2009 GAME DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE

3/25/09
Thesis Papers Uploaded

DELIVERABLES
Thesis Paper DUE


3/30/09 Formal Thesis Presentations 9:30 am until its done

NOTE: IMD Faculty will determine Thesis Show participants based on progress to date


4/1/09
Determine Show Title
Look N Feel
Architectural treatment
Art work/Signage

DELIVERABLES
Final Titles
Key Image Provided
Final Text for handouts

SPACE CLEAN OUT/All Hands Clean Up

4/8/09
Final Space Treatment
Demos of Show Application
Finalize all art/PR materials

DELIVERABLES
Detailed Equipment List

4/15/09
Move into Lucas Gallery
Determine light/sound issues

DELIVERABLES
Final Lock of Application
Show Application Done

4/22/09
Continue Space Transformation

4/29/09
Dry run with real technology
Drop Dead Day
Demo in Exhibit Space

5/6/09
Final Show Preparation
Final Exam Week
Handouts created

May 9, 2009 Thesis Show Opens

May 9-14, 2009 Final Thesis Show
Formal Presentations of Thesis Projects during show

5/14/09
Thesis Show Closing

5/15/09
Commencement

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