Scott Fisher

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)

Title: 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.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 8:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Surfacescapes Demo Walkthrough from Visual Story TAs on Vimeo.

From Microsoft's Surface Blog:

"I don’t want to put any pressure on Michael and the team over at Carnegie Mellon University, but you guys should be getting an A for your class project this semester. Their Dungeons & Dragons experience called “Surfacescapes” on Microsoft Surface is amazing. This is the future of how computers will aid in board games. Remember, D&D playing aids like this are for serious role playing gamers who might normally use balsa cutouts and not just wimpy printed maps. The computer is has a technical role in the gameplay but the DM and the players are the storytellers. That’s why it doesn’t look exactly like a video game. Not that it isn’t seven shades of wonderful. This is crazy cool stuff for role players – unless your dream is a mashup of Project Natal and LARP. ;)"

Posted by Scott Fisher at 9:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lifelogging has been a constant interest for many of us in IMD and there are a few posts around the blog such as here and here. More recently, Professor Mark Bolas did some research with Microsoft on their prototype Sensecam. Here's an update on a new commercial version by UK company Vicon (via New Scientist):

New camera promises to capture your whole life

13:10 16 October 2009 by Kurt Kleiner

A camera you can wear as a pendant to record every moment of your life will soon be launched by a UK-based firm.
Originally invented to help jog the memories of people with Alzheimer's disease, it might one day be used by consumers to create "lifelogs" that archive their entire lives.
Worn on a cord around the neck, the camera takes pictures automatically as often as once every 30 seconds. It also uses an accelerometer and light sensors to snap an image when a person enters a new environment, and an infrared sensor to take one when it detects the body heat of a person in front of the wearer. It can fit 30,000 images onto its 1-gigabyte memory.
The ViconRevue was originally developed as the SenseCam by Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK, for researchers studying Alzheimer's and other dementias. Studies showed that reviewing the events of the day using SenseCam photos could help some people improve long-term recall.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This year's annual L.A. County Technology Week is featuring a panel discussion on the video game industry in L.A. The panel will be moderated by WIRED senior editor, Chris Baker, and will feature Kellee Santiago of thatgamecompany( and IMD alum), Alex Hastings of Insomniac Games, Amir Rahimi of EA (he worked with Steven Spielberg on their Boom Blox games), Chris Hewish of Dreamworks animation and a "yet to be named" panelist from Infinity Ward, makers of the "Call of Duty" series of games. There will also be an interactive exhibit area where attendees can play the games produced by our panelists' game studios.

They have given us a bunch of special student discount codes. Students who register online by the 17th using the code will be given a $70 discount on the $85 ticket price (need to show valid student I.D. when you arrive at the event and receive your passes). Tickets include attendance to all panel discussions, a buffet luncheon and our keynote speaker. I have cards with the details and the discount code - will hand out at seminar and leave rest at IMD front(back) desk.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 3:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sonic Forest is a mesmerizing light and sound installation created by acclaimed artist, architect and composer Christopher Janney. The installation is composed of sixteen eight-foot columns, each containing audio speakers, lights and photo-electric sensors that enable up to four people to interact with each column at once. Students will immerse themselves in the multisensory installation as they pass between the electronic trees, “playing” the forest as they go by, triggering sensors by touch or movement, and creating an ever-changing score of melodic tones, environmental sounds and spoken or whispered texts, with varying effects of light. Christopher Janney has created public interactive sound-light artworks and performances all over the world. Trained as an architect and jazz musician, Janney aims to have music “wrap around you like a blanket.”

OPENING EVENTS:
Monday, October 12
6:45 p.m.: Performance on Hahn Plaza near Tommy Trojan
7:30 p.m.: Panel Discussion at Annenberg Auditorium

For the official opening of Sonic Forest at USC, Christopher Janney has composed a "truly immersive sound experience" to be performed within the installation. The piece will be performed by Stan Strickland on electronic flute together with the percussion section of the Trojan Marching Band. The performance will begin at dusk, and will be followed by the panel discussion, "Public Space, Public Art and Public Life." The panel will be held at 7:30 p.m. in Annenberg Auditorium. For more information on the panel, please click here.
Organized by Scott Fisher (Cinematic Arts), Martin Kaplan (Communication) and Patrick Morganelli (Music).

Posted by Scott Fisher at 5:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Speaker: Christopher Janney, PhenomenArts, Inc.
Time: Wednesday, October 14, 6-8 pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: "Architecture of the Air: From Urban Musical Instruments to Physical Music"

Trained as an architect and a jazz musician, Christopher Janney has combined these two disciplines in a number of projects. Sometimes he has tried to make architecture more like music as in his "Urban Musical Instruments" series. These include a number of large-scale interactive sound/light installations. Projects completed include "Harmonic Runway", a 200 ft. long interactive light/sound corridor in the Miami International Airport; "Chromatic Oasis", a 30 ft. diameter colored glass and steel mobile, at the Sacramento International Airport; "Touch My Building, an interactive light/sound piece for the entire facade of a new nine-story Bank of America building in Charlotte, NC; “Rainbow Cove,” two nine-story colored glass pedestrian towers at Logan International Airport; “Whistle Grove: The National Steamboat Monument”, a 2500 square foot interactive light, sound, steam environment on the banks of the Ohio River; and “Turn Up the Heat” a 30-ft. diameter interactive scoreboard for the American Airlines Arena in Miami, FL. At other times, Janney has tried to make music more like architecture- more physical, more visual. Projects in this vein include his "HeartBeat," a dance/performance piece where the performer wears a modified heartbeat monitor and moves to the sounds of his/her own heartbeat while other musicians perform in counterpoint.

Backchannel log of the presentation after the jump:

Seminar Master › Welcome to Seminar! - October 14th, 2009
14/10/2009 17:27:04 ‹dread› IMD Forum for 10/14/09: Christopher Janney
14/10/2009 18:12:17 ‹dread› http://cavs.mit.edu/
14/10/2009 18:13:03 ‹dread› CAVS founder : Gyorgy Kepes
14/10/2009 18:13:25 ‹dread› http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gy%C3%B6rgy_Kepes
14/10/2009 18:16:35 ‹KylaG› I'm all for anything that brings a little weirdness into an otherwise "normal" space.
14/10/2009 18:17:04 ‹Bill› I love seeing the variety in people's reactions on the subway platform. :)
14/10/2009 18:17:16 ‹dread› http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/calendar/113/event/869490
14/10/2009 18:21:28 ‹ndef› @Bill Go check out Sonic Forest during the day... you get the same thing. Lots of people walking by with different reactions to it.
14/10/2009 18:22:12 ‹Bill› will do! Want to mosey over after seminar?
14/10/2009 18:23:05 ‹Little› is the one in the NYC subway still there? I don't remember seeing that ever and I used that station often.
14/10/2009 18:24:08 ‹dread› has been fun to see the various approaches to the forest : on skateboards, bikes, even a little facilties truck doing a few drivebys to touch the poles..
14/10/2009 18:31:26 ‹ndef› He's brought this concept of a riddle "unlocking" a special display to a couple different projects. It seems like a clever way to create engagement.
14/10/2009 18:33:23 ‹Bill› http://www.bonnaroo.com/
14/10/2009 18:34:53 ‹Bill› I like the "hand" labels, in terms of usability.
14/10/2009 18:35:29 ‹ndef› Yeah, I had the same comment. They're great. You can see people come up and immediately know how to interact with them.
14/10/2009 18:44:31 ‹dread› http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurythmy
14/10/2009 18:49:51 ‹dread› http://web.mit.edu/arts/about/news/extra/1998/0413_janney_baryshnikov.html
14/10/2009 18:59:34 ‹ndef› Architecture jokes!!!
14/10/2009 19:07:26 ‹MAnnetta› http://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Air-Environments-Christopher-Janney/dp/0978814304
14/10/2009 19:07:55 ‹ndef› Avant-garde musical jokes!!!
14/10/2009 19:30:41 ‹Little› http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw
14/10/2009 19:34:16 ‹MAnnetta› This forest goes to 11.
14/10/2009 19:37:24 ‹KylaG› Oh snap.
14/10/2009 19:39:00 ‹MAnnetta› oh, references to Spinal Tap are compliments of the highest order in my mind.
14/10/2009 19:45:38 ‹notbatman› strongly agree with this thing about layers
14/10/2009 20:16:10 ‹dread› END

Posted by Scott Fisher at 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Holographic Interface - round interface - Ringo from Ivan Tihienko on Vimeo.

"this short feature demonstrates the simple of the possibilities of having the holographic shadow (?) instead of a pda or a cell phone, or a computer for that matter."

Posted by Scott Fisher at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)