Scott Fisher

(image caption: “Field-Works” ongoing project, by Masaki Fujihata)

Speaker: Michael Naimark, USC Interactive Media Division
Time: Wednesday, October 31, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: Representing Earth

Representing Earth, actual places at actual moments, presents a unique challenge. Unlike fantasy places like Second Life and video games, Earth has a “ground truth” frame of reference, indexed by latitude, longitude, altitude, and time. Hence all potential Earth models cross correlate with each other into a singular Earth model.

Recently several new Earth model applications have appeared. Some are more photo-realistic (Google Street View, Microsoft PhotoSynth, EveryScape), some are more interactive (Google Earth, Microsoft Live Search, Yahoo Maps), but, regardless of the hype, none are really “like being there.” The arts community, which instinctively understands that artifacts can be good things, has produced several alternative Earth models (e.g., Art+Com, Shaw, Fujihata).

We’ll take a critical look at these applications and examples, discuss a framework for conceptualizing (and feeling comfortable with) these new forms of representation, and speculate about their future.

We’ll also introduce a new IMD project, in collaboration with ICT and supported by a research award from Google, called "Viewfinder". Viewfinder is designed as a fast, lean project to seamlessly “Flickrize” Google Earth.

A workshop on the Viewfinder project will take place next Monday 5 November 1-5pm in the ZML. Team members from both IMD and ICT will be there.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Image from rikomatic.com

Speakers: Peggy Weil & Nonny de la Peña
Time: Wednesday, October 24, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: "Heinous Corpus in the Multiverse"

Exposing practices and conditions in Guantanamo Prison by integrating
documentary footage and coordinated events in an installation in
Second Life, an online environment. We are providing a virtual,
accessible version of Guantanamo, in contrast to the real, but
inaccessible U.S. prison camp.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/IML/182/211/123

Bios:
Nonny de la Peña, writer, documentary filmmaker and journalist, has
consistently produced work across a variety of media probing
constitutional, social and human rights issues. Her journalistic work
has appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times, Time Magazine, Texas
Monthly, Premiere Magazine, Buzz Magazine and La Familia de Hoy. Her
most recent film, Unconstitutional, focused on civil liberties issues
post 9/11 including Guantánamo Bay. De la Peña's films have
appeared in worldwide theatrical release, broadcast on Sundance
Channel, BBC, CourtTV, and Al Jazeera, and have been shown at dozens
of film festivals including the Toronto Film Festival, South by
Southwest, Melbourne Film Festival and the Edinburgh Festival. She is
currently developing Gone Gitmo, a virtual installation of Guantanamo
Prison in Second Life.

Peggy Weil, Visiting Assistant Professor of Interactive Media at USC
School of Cinematic Arts, is a digital media artist and designer
focusing on interactive design as immersive experience for perceptual
and civic engagement. She's produced interactive projects for The
Voyager Company, Broderbund, Electronic Arts, Von Holtzbrinck and
Ravensberger Interactive, and was awarded the MILIA D'OR in Cannes in
1998. She was creative producer/designer for USC's Institute for
Creative Technology E.L.E.C.T. project, a role playing game to train
officers in bi-laterial negotiation skills. She acted as producer/ designer
for The Redistricting Game, a USC Annenberg Center sponsored project
to increase voter awareness about redistricting, and is currently developing
Gone Gitmo, a virtual installation of Guantanamo
Prison in Second Life.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 6:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Scott Fisher at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speakers: 3rd Year MFA students (and IMD Faculty)
Time: Wednesday, October 17, 6-8pm
Location: IMD Thesis studio @ 555 w. 23rd Street (at Figueroa)

This week's CTIN 511 seminar will be held at the IMD's Student Thesis Studio Spaces located at 555 W. 23rd Street starting at 6pm. The 555 class will be presenting prototype sketches which physically embody, test and communicate a subset of their project's technical and experiential goals. This is the first year we are having a 'Sneak-Peek' - you can read more about each project on the IMD wiki under Proposals & Committees.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 9:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speakers: Dennis Wixon & August de los Reyes, Microsoft Game Studios
Time: Wednesday, October 10, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: “Making Emotions Work for You – Revolutionizing the way Emotions are understood and Measured for Product Design. "
How can you know if that a design works? Do users see the design the way you intended it? Can user research and design partner to make to provide useful answers? We say Yes and we can “prove” it. We present a brief overview of the current approaches to product design. We introduce a classic but innovative theory of human emotion that has simple and practical implications for both design and research. We show how this approach is reflected in many consumer products. We take this framework and show how it was used to guide the research work on the most successful game in history. The aim is to change the way you think about creating an engaging design, user research, and human emotion.

BIOS:
Dennis Wixon directs research at Microsoft Games studios which is recognized as a leader in applied methodology. Previously, Dennis was usability manager in the Software Usability Engineering group at Digital Equipment Corporation, where methods such as usability engineering and contextual inquiry were developed. He co-edited a book Field Methods Case Book for Software Design with Prof. Judy Ramey of the University of Washington. Dennis holds a PhD. in social psychology from Clark University.

August de los Reyes researches emotional design as a degree candidate in the Advanced Studies Program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Also a PhD candidate in the Technical University of Delft’s Industrial Design Engineering initiative on Emotion and Design, August will be a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford beginning this fall.

This work was recently featured in Wired and is critical to our industry. Don't miss this talk!

Posted by Scott Fisher at 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)