Steve Anderson

IML2 goes online in Second Life

2008-08-27T19:45:44Z

The IML's brand new 64-acre parcel of land in Second Life just went online last night in time for the first meeting of CTIN 482: Designing Online Multiplayer Game Environments. The design challenge for the class this semester is to create an innovative learning space and a set of game-based learning objects as part of a virtual campus for the School of Cinematic Arts. The new space is a tabula rasa, waiting to be terraformed, designed, developed and put into practice. From here you can see both the old and new IML spaces. If you have requests for what you'd like to see in a virtual SCA campus, now is the time to make them!

Mobile Voices project and class

2008-08-15T21:47:18Z

Comm 620: Mobile Phones, On-Line Community, and Social Change, a year-long biweekly multidisciplinary research seminar

Instructors:
François Bar (Communication),
Steve Anderson (Cinematic Arts)
Murali Annavaram (Viterbi School of Engineering)

This seminar explores how mobile phones can serve to build on-line community, even among people who are mostly off-line. It runs in parallel with “Mobile Voices”, an academic-community partnership project to research and design a platform allowing low-wage immigrants in Los Angeles to publish stories about their lives and their communities directly from their mobile phones. The seminar provides a venue where researchers can explore the social, theoretical and technical issues raised by Mobile Voices. Students will engage in year-long research projects, individually or in groups, structured to culminate in publication by the end of the year. Some of these projects will directly be part of Mobile Voices, but there will be room for other research projects exploring the role of mobile phones in fostering community and/or social change.

Information about Mobile Voices can be found at https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/VozMob and a syllabus-in-progress for the class at https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/VozMobClass

]]> The seminar is open to graduate students from any department. The exact content is intentionally left flexible to allow adaptation to participants’ interests. The class will meet every other Wednesday, 2:00pm-4:50pm, in Kerckhoff Hall (1st floor). If you are interested, please plan to join our first meeting on Wednesday September 3rd at 2pm.

Participation requires consent of one of the instructors. Students can then choose to register for Comm620 (4 units per semester), sign up for 1-4 units of independent study with any of the three instructors, or audit the class.

Contact François Bar: fbar AT usc.edu

Theory-Practice Pecha Kucha Monday May 19 1:00 in ZML

2008-05-18T22:52:50Z

Please join us -- in person or online -- for the final event of the Adobe-sponsored Design | Technology | Theory series on Monday May 19th at 1:00PM in the ZML. As a wrap-up to the series, we will be addressing the topic "Design, Theory, Practice and the Future of Scholarship."

What will the next generation of design scholarship look like? In many circles, the archaic stillness of traditional academic texts has given way to new forms of expression that are computational, visual, sonic, mobile or interactive. Join us for a dynamic roundtable pecha kucha-style showdown. It features five designer-scholars: Julian Bleecker, Kristy Kang, Veronica Paredes, Jen Stein, and Steve Anderson, each of whom is operating at the intersection of theory and practice in their production of artistic and scholarly works.

To register in advance for this event please go to the following link:
http://adobekwbu.acrobat.com/pechakucha/event/registration.html

After registering, please go to the following link at the time of the event and enter your username and password:
http://adobekwbu.acrobat.com/pechakucha/event/login.html

Hotbed: Video Cultivation Beside the Getty Gardens!

2008-05-09T04:00:55Z

The Getty Museum is currently hosting “California Video,” a survey of 40 years of video art made in California. To complement this show, the IML’s Anne Bray has curated a stellar program of cutting edge videos from 1980 forward called “Hotbed: Video Cultivation Beside the Getty Gardens"; it will feature 20 videos projected outside on the walls of the Getty in a spectacular and unprecedented display this Friday, May 9 (7:00 - 9:00 p.m.). The show continues on Saturday, but this conflicts with the IMD thesis show opening, so plan accordingly!

]]> The videos center on the nature/culture divide, asking what constitutes the natural and the cultural - is gender natural or cultural? What about race? Videos include East/West, by Su-Chen Hung, which is about the challenges of uniting different cultural heritages in a single self, illustrated deftly with the image of a divided mouth (seen above). Howie Cherman’s Flying I (below) takes us into the impossible through the digital, exploring the ineffable permutations of time, perpetual motion and the body within the image. Flying like this, vibrating in an impossible moment of suspension, can only happen through an image constructed via digital manipulation; and yet that manipulation aligns so closely with real experiences of time and the body in the urgent pace of contemporary culture.

This expansive show offers a rare chance to see powerful, volatile, courageous work produced at a moment when the culture wars demanded a response, not just in terms of giving voice to disparate communities and points of views, but in formal terms as a radical message demanded radical form. The event is free; parking is $8.

Sophie Workshop Call for Proposals

2008-05-02T23:18:37Z

The IML is pleased to announce a workshop May 27-30 for faculty and graduate students to create multimedia projects with Sophie, an easy-to-use free software application developed by the Institute for the Future of the Book and presented by USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. Sophie allows users to design interactive texts that incorporate images, video and sound, and it deploys creative formats for analysis, annotation and citation.

]]> Participants will engage in a hands-on workshop May 27 – 30, 2008, with the goal of creating a scholarly project; they will then be free to use the IML labs with support staff during the summer to continue work on the project; and they will be invited to present their completed projects at a showcase event in August. Participants will receive an honorarium of $1,000 for their participation in the workshop.

Sophie is described by the Institute for the Future of the Book as “software for writing and reading rich media documents in a networked environment.” Sophie’s goal is to encourage multimedia authoring and, in the process, “to redefine the notion of a book or ‘academic paper’ to include both rich media and mechanisms for reader feedback and conversation in dynamic margins.”

Successful proposals will be based on an existing paper or body of research; they will articulate how media elements will enhance or transform the paper; and they will indicate a desire to dedicate a full week to the project during the workshop.

Those interested are invited to submit a proposal that includes the following:
1. Name and affiliation
2. Paper/project title and brief description
3. Sophie project description: what do you imagine doing with Sophie?
4. Why is this an interesting project to translate into an interactive, media-rich, extensible and/or networked format?
5. What assets (images, video, sound) do you have ready to use?

Please submit proposals and questions by email to Holly Willis, Director of Academic Programs, Institute for Multimedia Literacy < hwillis AT cinema.usc.edu >

Deadline for proposals is 5:00 p.m., Monday, May 12, 2008. Participants will be notified on Friday, May 16, 2008.

New Ecology of Things at ZML Friday 4/25 1:00PM

2008-04-22T21:29:01Z

The New Ecology of Things comes to ZML this Friday April 25 1:00-2:30PM!
The New Ecology of Things (NET) is a research initiative to explore emerging forms of interactive communication brought about by pervasive networked technologies. The project began as a studio class run by Art Center's Graduate Media Design Program (MDP) and has evolved into a conceptual model, a forum for discussion, an ongoing series of projects, technological inventions, and new issues for design pedagogy. The NET website, which is part of a transmedia publication that includes a book, a poster, and video content for mobile devices, just launched in March 2008.

Join us for a panel discussion with three of key designers of the NET project from Art Center College of Design, Phil van Allen, Anne Burdick and Nik Hafermaas, who will discuss the project and its multiple approaches to issues of design, technology and theory. This event is part of the iMAP/Adobe Design | Technology | Theory series and will be simulcast live via Adobe Connect. To attend virtually, please register here.

Multimedia Honors Thesis show Gala Friday

2008-04-15T20:54:28Z

Please join the USC Institute for Multimedia Literacy for the Honors in Multimedia Scholarship 1st Annual Senior Thesis Showcase, featuring a gala reception and exhibition of student projects. Witness the innovative work produced by students from all corners of the campus, featuring interactive projects related to biology, engineering, international relations, psychology, sociology, cinema, business, theater, and more. 

Friday April 18, 2008
 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM

The event is free and open to the public, but we ask that you RSVP: imlrsvp@cinema.usc.edu

]]> Four years ago, the USC Institute for Multimedia Literacy (IML), a research unit within the USC School of Cinematic Arts, launched the Honors in Multimedia Scholarship program. Open to undergraduates from across the univeristy, the program introduces students to the history and theory of scholarly multimedia authoring proactices, and is a ground breaking initiative designed to lead the way in new forms of scholarly research and production. The IML is pleased to announce that this spring marks the culmination of the program for its first cohort of 30 students.

Webfest Awards featuring designer Peter Cho

2008-04-01T17:29:54Z

Wednesday, April 2, 4:00 - 5:30
Zemeckis Media Lab (RZC 201)

Throughout the Web's short history, creative people have wielded code to make interactive experiences that are delightful, innovative, and fun. This talk, presented in conjunction with USC's Web design contest Webfest, will give a subjective history of the Web and computational design, starting with early hypertext experiments from the mid-1990s to recent media-rich works.

Peter Cho is a Los Angeles-based media artist and designer. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the UCLA Design | Media Arts department, where his work dealt with issues of language, writing, and meaning and a Master of Science degree from the MIT Media Lab, where his design research explored custom models for typography in time-based and reactive media. He has received honors for his work from Ars Electronica, Tokyo Type Directors Club, New York Art Directors Club, ID Magazine, and Print Magazine. His work has been shown at the Telic Gallery, Ginza Graphic Gallery, Ars Electronica, Art Sonje, Seoul Arts Center, the Art Directors Club, and Cooper Union. His interests include issues of electronic textuality, narrative, and mapping.

Being Steve Anderson documentation

2008-03-28T17:24:58Z

This short video documents a class presentation from CTCS 505 last fall, in which Ian, Cynthia and Taiyoung worked with students from other SCA divisions to create an immersive mobile game inspired by the Spike Jonze film Being John Malkovich. Thanks to Ian and co. for their extraordinary efforts in integrating an optical tracking system with a mobile video transmitter to maneuver the instructor around the Zemeckis Center and into chance encounters with other students bent on discussing immersive experiences. This is what interactive media is all about.

Alex Galloway at USC Monday March 31 3:30-4:30

2008-03-27T22:01:46Z

Alex Galloway presents Guy Debord's The Game of War
Monday, March 31, 2008: 3:30 - 4:30PM
Taper Hall Room 212

The Institute for Multimedia Literacy is pleased to present Alex Galloway, speaking on "Guy Debord's The Game of War." In this presentation, Galloway explores the contradiction between Debord — a symbol of radical politics and art in 1960s France — and the 19th century Napoleonic campaign game he created. In 1978, Debord designed and fabricated a board game called The Game of War. Thirty years later, Galloway's software collective RSG is resurrecting this largely forgotten game, translating instructions from French to Java and releasing it as an online computer game.

Galloway is an author and programmer who is also a founding member of the software collective RSG and creator of the data surveillance engine Carnivore. Galloway is the author of Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization (MIT, 2004), Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture (Minnesota, 2006) and a new book co-authored with Eugene Thacker called The Exploit: A Theory of Networks (Minnesota, 2007). Galloway teaches at New York University.

Project Remix one week left!

2007-11-19T20:41:55Z

Just a reminder that there is exactly one week left to complete your submissions to Project Remix. DVDs must be received at the Institute for Multimedia Literacy at 746 W. Adams Blvd by 5:00PM on Monday November 26!

Missing the point

2007-11-19T10:56:18Z

Thanks, Peter, for this moment of zen. It has indeed been a long time since I sat and did nothing and even longer since I sat and watched someone else doing nothing - probably since Andy Warhol's Eat, a 39 minute film of artist Robert Indiana eating a single mushroom. As with your video, about half way into the film, Indiana's cat jumps onto the couch where he is sitting, curls around the artist's neck for a few reels, then moves on. Eliding the important differences between them, the key to durational film and video is settling into a work's internal temporal logic. When the cat enters frame after 15 minutes of Eat, it is as ecstatic as any cinematic experience I have ever had. Something similar happens in James Benning's Sogobi when the helicopter appears after 20 minutes of static shots of unpopulated wilderness. Without 20 minutes of minimalism preceding it, the shot loses its power. Sadly, the days of durational film and video are numbered if not gone altogether - a Google search for Eat returns a YouTube video of a single, decontextualized reel with the cat, which seems to me to be missing the point entirely. And so, in the spirit of perversity, I offer the following remix of your excellent video for those who will not rise to your challenge, distilled to one minute, with a perky score by Bongwater, and converted for handy viewing on the iPod. How's that for missing the point?

Design | Technology | Theory Monday 11/19 10:00AM

2007-11-14T01:02:58Z

Join Erik Loyer of Song New Creative, Dmitri Siegel, art director for Urban Outfitters, and Peter Lunenfeld, Art Center College of Design for the first in a series of panel discussions exploring aspects of contemporary design, media and culture. The panel is taking place in the Zemeckis Media Lab (RZC 201) at 10:00AM on Monday November 19th. The discussion, titled "Designing for Convergence" is also being simulcast as an interactive online forum via Adobe Connect. Free and open to the public; follow this link to register online for remote participation. Sponsored by Adobe and iMAP

]]> Description:
The worlds of design and media are in a period of transformation and tumult as industries, technologies and screens converge into increasingly complex, interoperable systems. Some designers and media makers scramble to keep up with these developments, while others flourish in pursuit of new horizons, new media forms, and new opportunities for expression. How do top designers make sure their work rides the wave of convergence, rather than being washed away by it? How does the best contemporary thinking and practice shape the near future of design? Join us for a conversation with three leading figures in the world of design as they discuss the possibilities, problems, and potentials of working in a landscape of shifting design expectations, technologies, and platforms.

When: Monday November 19, 2007, 10:00AM - 11:00 AM PST
Where: Zemeckis Media Lab (RZC 201) and online

Design | Technology | Theory is a series of discussions and workshops co-sponsored by Adobe Systems and the USC School of Cinematic Arts' interdivisional PhD program in Media Arts and Practice (iMAP) http://cinema.usc.edu/imap

Blur+Sharpen presents Machinima Artistica

2007-11-02T21:11:55Z

Blur + Sharpen, a screening series sponsored by the Institute for Multimedia Literacy, is pleased to present Machinima Artistica. This program of artist-made machinima focuses on a full range of expression, from the elegiac force of Phil Solomon and Mark Lapore’s haunting Untitled (for David Gatten) to a range of politically motivated critiques of violence and war, explorations of virtual being, and kinetic, abstract pieces that completely transform game worlds into spaces of awe and beauty. This is machinima like you've never seen it before! Curated by Holly Willis.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007 : 7:00pm to 8:00pm
Robert Zemeckis Center's Ron Howard Theater
Free and open to the public

24/7 A DIY Video Summit registration opens

2007-11-01T18:55:10Z

Registration is now open for:
24/7: A DIY VIDEO SUMMIT
February 8-10, 2008
School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California

Conference web site: http://www.video24-7.org
Blog: http://diy.video24-7.org

Spaces are limited for attendance at the academic panels and the workshops. The video screenings are free and open to the public. Please help us spread the word about this event.

24/7: A DIY Video Summit will bring together the many communities that have evolved around do-it-yourself (DIY) video: artists, audiences, technology providers, academics, policy makers and industry executives. The aim is to discover common ground, and to chart the path to a future in which grassroots and mainstream, amateur and professional, artist and audience can all benefit as the medium continues to evolve.

]]> This three-day summit features:

SCREENINGS OF DIY VIDEO
On February 8 and 9, there will be screenings of DIY video that are
open to the public. These will feature curated programs on design
video, activist documentary, youth media, machinima, music video,
political remix and video blogging. The video program will culminate
in an evening program and reception on February 9 that will draw from
all of these video genres.

ACADEMIC PROGRAM
Registered attendees will have access to the academic program on
February 8 and 9 that features panels on The State of Research, The
State of the Art, DIY Media: The Intellectual Property Dilemma and DIY
Tools and Platforms. Featured speakers include Yochai Benkler, John
Seely Brown, Joi Ito, Henry Jenkins, Lawrence Lessig, and Howard
Rheingold.

WORKSHOPS AND BIRDS-OF-A-FEATHER MEETINGS
On February 10, the day will be devoted to practical and hands-on
workshops for registered attendees on topics such as intellectual
property, media creation, distribution and new-media design tools.
Attendees will also have the option of organizing their own birds-of-a-
feather meetings to connect with other attendees