Maz Jobrani, best known as a founding member of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, visits the Game Innovation Lab (G1L) to brainstorm his idea for an educational video game about the Middle-East.

Noureddin ZarrinKelk, widely regarded as the Father of Iranian Animation, visits USC for a screening at Norris Theatre.  During his 2-day visit, he stopped by the Game Innovation Lab (G1L) to play “The Cat and the Coup.“

We’ve had some good press, but nothing like this:

“There is a question here; How does a country allow its researchers to create such a game to criticize its own policy. Is honesty the best policy?” – Mahdi Fanaei, GameemaG.ir

I demonstrated The Night Journey as part of a lecture by Bill Viola at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado, August 11, 2010.

The Cat and the Coup , my collaboration with Peter Brinson , was mentioned in the NY Times. Astonishingly, the article doesn’t say anything about the role of the CIA in the coup. Labs Where 3-D Is Just the Start … a game called “The Cat and the Coup,” being developed by scholars at U.S.C., points vaguely toward a [...]

My computer animation, When Summer Falls , will be screened at the Fly with the Cage Art show, July 10 – 26, 2009 If you can’t fly out of the cage, just fly with the cage. – Sufi Proverb Phantom Galleries LA, Miracle Mile, 5412 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA Human beings are members of a whole, In creation of one [...]

Moving Forward by Looking Back: Interactive Documentary Illuminated by Persian Miniatures The Cat and the Coup tells a dramatic story of the 1953, CIA-engineered coup to overthrow Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran who nationalized the oil industry just 2 years earlier. Environment Study Persian miniatures elegantly lend them self to telling this story. This [...]

Why did Al Jazeera obscure the face of Baitullah Mehsud, Waziristan’s Taliban commander, with a white glow rather than the conventional pixilation or black box approach? From FRONTLINE’s The War Briefing Certainly they are aware that this veiling method is historically used in Persian miniatures to obscure the face of the Prophet Mohammad. From, The Ascension of Muhammad , from Haft [...]

Performance within the Uncanny Valley only seems believable on virtual characters with creepy body-language, like zombies in horror flicks. But there is another set of mannerisms that may prove as successful on hyper-realistic models and that is the chaotic jerks associated with seizure disorders, like epilepsy, and tic disorders, like Tourrette syndrome. The difference being that this [...]

… contemplating Nature to divine its Spirit.

A Persian Peep Box

These pictures were grabbed from a short clip about Iran’s Film Museum.

And to learn more about Iran’s film history check out: Iran, A Cinematic Revolution.

Instructors: Kurosh ValaNejad (CTIN) and Ann Page (FA) Day and Time: Friday, Nov. 7th, 2008, 1-4:00p.m As part of the workshop, we will be printing up to 8 small (3″x3″x3″) models (4 from Fine Art and 4 from the Cinema school.) Let me know if you have something you would like printed (especially if it’s [...]

The pieces are printed in the amazing form of RabbitHoles state-of-the-art digital motion holograms, which display 1280 frames of full-color, 3D imagery with up to seven seconds of fluid and seamless animation on a completely flat surface. The Hide by Taron Closing Party: Wedn, Sept 17th, 6 – 10pm Gnomon Gallery 1015 N Cahuenga Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90038 [...]

In the interactive art project “ Virtuelle Mauer/ReConstructing the Wall” the artist team T+T (Tamiko Thiel and Teresa Reuter) have created a virtual reconstruction of a section of the Berlin Wall, from the former border crossing Heinrich-Heine-Straße up to the Engelbecken/Adalbertstraße. Visitors are invited to explore this immersive 3D virtual space, experiencing what it meant to live [...]

What: Reception for the FA436: Art and Technology Group Showcase Where: USC Main Campus, Bldg: EEB Room: B16 (In the basement of Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Building) When: 5-8 pm, Thursday, May 8th, 2008 SCHEDULE Interactive Games And Installations: 5:00-5:20 Chase Facer 5:20-5:40 Daniel Dyba 5:40-6:00 Kathleen Meek 6:00-6:20 Germaine Chang Panorama Movies and Visualization: [...]

Garfield Undergraduate Lecture Series Dennis Oppenheim Monday April 7, 2008 Lecture 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Watt 118 Barbecue: 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM (in the Watt Sculpture Yard) “Now there’s a game that I’d like to play.” – Kurosh

Video games’ new frontier: The visually impaired This is Eitan Glinert’s thesis project at the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab. Eitan was the project manager for Immune Attack an NSF funded project by the Federation of American Scientists, which was done in collaboration with Brown University, and USC’s Game Pipe and EA Game Innovation Labs. If you try this game, [...]