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)

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:

Continue reading "IMD Forum for 10/14/09: Christopher Janney" »

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

Speaker: Curtis Wong, Microsoft Research
Time: Wednesday, August 26, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: Tuva and the whole Universe - Experiments in Interactive Media Learning

The application of Interactive Media for learning has been one of the compelling but elusive goals for the technology since its early days. In this talk I will briefly focus on the evolution of “ECR” an information architecture for learning gleaned from twenty years of developing Interactive media from interactive laserdiscs, CD-ROMs, enhanced digital television, broadband Web, Web applications and cloud services. The balance of my talk will focus on the origins, learnings, challenges, goals and aspirations behind two recent interactive media learning projects: The WorldWide Telescope and Project Tuva.

“ECR is for Engagement | Context | Reference. It’s a simple idea: first, you hook someone—whether they’re using a CD-ROM, watching a video, or visiting a website or a museum—with a story or an object that produces an immediate emotional impact. Then, at the very moment they’re most engaged and curious, you offer them context that broadens their understanding. Finally, you provide a deep reference layer, for the people who get so intrigued that they want to know a lot more.”
Excerpted from Xconomy.com blog: “Project Tuva or Bust: How Microsoft’s Spin on Feynman Could Change the Way We Learn”

BIO: Curtis Wong is a Principal Researcher in Microsoft Research focusing on interaction, media, visualization, gaming and storytelling. Curtis and his collaborators have built advanced prototypes which have influenced Microsoft products and have been featured in numerous executive keynotes on the future of computing. He also spends a portion of his time working with selected non-profit organizations to develop examples of next generation media such as his collaboration with PBS’s television series Frontline to produce The Age of AIDS on the global AIDS pandemic and the broadband enhanced documentary Commanding Heights ~ The Battle for the World Economy, winning a British Academy Award and nominated for the first interactive TV Emmy. Continued......

Continue reading "IMD Forum for 8/26/09: Curtis Wong" »

Posted by Scott Fisher at 8:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Time: Wednesday, April 29, 6-9pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Featuring Spring Semester Class Projects from :

- CTIN 405 Design and Technology for Mobile (Carter & Stein)
- CTIN 406 Sound Design for Games ­(Diamante)
- CTIN 483 Programming for Interactive Media (Brinson)
- CTIN 488 Game Design Workshop (Swain/Arey/Diamante)
- CTIN 484/489 Intermediate Game Design (Brinson & Fullerton)
- CTIN 501 Interactive Cinema (Kratky)
- CTIN 542 Interactive Experience Design (Bolas)
- CTIN 544 Experiments in Interactivity (Hoberman)
- CTIN 590 Directed Research (Bolas, Brinson, Hoberman, Fisher)
- Immersive Research Group (Bolas)

and more....

Food and Drink will be provided starting at 5:45.

***SCHEDULE below*****

Continue reading "IMD Forum for 4/29/09: IMD Project Presentations" »

Posted by Scott Fisher at 9:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speakers: Lisa F. Grand, PhD Visiting Scholar (USC) and Jeff Watson, IMAP PhD Student (USC)
Time: Wednesday, April 22, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Abstract: This presentation will explore the evolution and trajectory of ubiquitous computing technologies that enable designers to embed media artifacts and computational systems in physical space. By placing custom bar code glyphs, GPS/Google Earth markers, sensor systems or other smart-phone-readable triggers in physical locations, designers can create hyperlinks connecting real-world objects or places with a wide variety of media -- from video, audio and text content to dynamic data feeds and opportunities for interactions with both human and non-human agencies. Crucially, however, this layering practice does not stop at the level of the hyperlink or the traditional notion of Augmented Reality. Rather, designers are beginning to perceive opportunities for embedding responsive computational power in physical space, enabling environments to track, profile and communicate with their inhabitants, providing customized, adaptive and anticipatory user experiences. After surveying this nascent practice of layering information and computation atop and within physical space -- the latest step in the gradual disintegration of the boundary between the Real and the Virtual -- the presenters (Lisa F. Grand, Visiting Scholar and designer of the TRISH Responsive Environment, and Jeff Watson, IMAP PhD Student) will lead a discussion exploring the profound implications of these new technologies on the nature of entertainment, storytelling, game play, privacy, and social organization.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 7:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speakers: IMD's Mobile and Environmental Media Lab (Fisher, Stein, Watson, Gotsis, Kratky, Preuss, Carter, Yasuda)
Time: Wednesday, April 15, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: “Mobile Storytelling”
Abstract: The overall objective of our Mobile and Environmental Media research program is to design and prototype new capabilities for unique entertainment and out-of-classroom educational opportunities available to anyone, at anytime with the added benefit of being embedded in the rich context of specific “place”. The recent focus has been on content development for location-specific museum, game, and arts installations in which the ‘virtual’ contents are embedded on site and perceived through mobile display or viewing devices. This presentation will describe several of the group's projects ranging from crowd-sourced cinema and mobile advertising to " Ambient Storytelling".

Posted by Scott Fisher at 8:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaker: Ulla-Maaria Engeström, Thinglink.Org
Time: Wednesday, April 8, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: Thinglink: Web pages for design objects

Abstract: This presentation explores how tagging physical objects with personal stories can make them work as agents of social networking on the Internet. Thinglink is a free product code and an online catalog of design products that enables design enthusiasts to share photos and personal references of products with their friends. These photos and references link back to the catalogue forming a dialogue between designers, manufacturers and their products in the various real life settings. The presentation includes practical examples of creating ID stickers for artifacts and claiming a product in the Thinglink database.
Note: Thinglink is currently in private beta and it will open to public later this year. Ask for an invitation on thinglink.com.

Bio: Ulla-Maaria Engeström is a social media developer and columnist living in Palo Alto. Her works explores connecting physical artifacts to online communities of design and craft. Ulla-Maaria is the founder of Thinglink, a free product code and online catalog of design objects. In 2003-2006 she attended a graduate school at the University of Helsinki, Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work research, focusing on the development of collective design capabilities. In 2000-2002 she worked as the director of Institute for Design Research in Finland.
Blog: http://www.hobbyprincess.com

Posted by Scott Fisher at 8:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(Generated by Wordle)

Discussion leaders: Bryan Jaycox & Sean Plott
Time: Wednesday, April 1, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Discussion Topic: Tonight's seminar will focus on the topic of "Tinkering" raised in the previous two seminar presentations by John Underkoffler and Peter Brinson. Logs for the backchannel discussion can be reviewed on the respective talk announcements..

Abstract: In the modern age, the rapidly changing knowledgebase of technology is quickly outpacing our human ability to assimilate it. No longer is it possible to simply acquire a skillset and practice it in stagnation. In the rapidly evolving face of technology we must continuously adapt to stay on top of the curve. In this environment of changing technology learning how to learn for oneself and find knowledge becomes a much more valuable skill than simply learning artifacts of knowledge themselves. Tinkering is a way for us to learn how to learn through physically doing and dabbling in everything. It is a means for sparking interest in learning through exploration rather than textbook studies, and an opportunity for us as artists to open up into new expressive forms from biology to philosophy to engineering. This talk will cover tinkering as a new mode for learning and artistic expression in areas ranging from bioart, LED music boxes and circuit bending, to Henry Jenkins and education.

Required Readings/Watchings:
1. " Reflections on Tinkering", blog post by Alex Pang
2. John Seely Brown YouTube video: "Tinkering as a Mode of Knowledge Production"
3. Explore these two Tinkering websites:
- "Reed Ghazala's Art of Circuit Bending".
- "The Biotech Hobbyist"

Optional:
1. "The Social Construction of Knowledge in Digital Media: Three Perspectives"
by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown (on IMD wiki under CTIN 511 class)
2. Henry Jenkins YouTube video on Convergence Culture.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaker: Eric Goldberg, Walt Disney Animation Studio
Time: Wednesday, March 25, 6:30 (sharp!) - 8:30pm
Location: Joint meeting with Digital Arts and Animation Seminar in SCA 108

Long-time Disney animator Eric Goldberg, well known for designing the Genie in Disney's Aladdin, will discuss character design in his presentation "Getting Character Out of Your Characters". He is the author of the recently published book, Crash Course in Animation.

Also featuring Pat Beckman, who is the WDAS Schools and Outreach Manager. Pat will provide students with preparation tips and tools for a career in the animation industry.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Presenters: 2nd Year MFA students in CTIN 542 and CTIN 548
Time: Wednesday, March 11, 6pm-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: " Shake Rattle and Roll - CTIN 542,548 Second Year MFA Combined One-Week Interactive Design Project, Spring 2009"

Instructors/Jurors: Mark Bolas, Perry Hoberman, Steve Anderson.

The Challenge: Keyboards contain the arms, wrists, hands and fingers to slight taps along a tiny plane. Mice confine the entire body to slight motions along a plane – reducing intent to inches. Screens constrain our backs, necks, and heads into Nixon-esque postures – eyes fixed forward, shoulders slumped. It is time to break free from the bondage of our systems and engage our bodies in the interaction. It is time to Shake, Rattle and Roll!

Your assignment is to conceive of, design, and produce an interactive experience in which the body is not a mere spectator, but a central element of the experience. The experience should engage the body and be one or more of the following: surprising, shocking, bewildering, addictive, amazing, exquisite, thoughtful, provocative. Students are to incorporate the box, in some way, to create an interactive experience that transpires in between .002 to 200 seconds. Engagement is a two-way street – we move, speak and sweat while we also hear, see, feel, touch and smell. Think in terms of the whole body, and a full range of sensory possibilities.

Continue reading "IMD Forum for 3/11/09: Shake Rattle and Roll !" »

Posted by Scott Fisher at 6:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaker: Peter Brinson, Instructor of Cinematic Practice, Interactive Media Division, USC School of Cinematic Arts
Time: Wednesday, March 4, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: Matching Meaning and Mechanics

Peter will discuss his upcoming, The Cat and the Coup, an experimental documentary game focusing on an aspect of U.S. warfare that has little presence in game history - the covert military interventions carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency. Broken into historical chapters, the game explores the justifications for U.S. interventions, the actual violent coup d’états, the subsequent effects on the country, and the consequences of "blowback" on U.S. foreign affairs. Currently in production, the first level ("justifications") puts the player in the role of the cat of Mohammed Mossadegh, the democratically elected leader of Iran. On the night of August 19, 1953, the Prime Minister undergoes a CIA sponsored coup d’état. You accompany him through significant events of his life including living under house arrest, being convicted for high treason, undergoing the coup, meeting the President of the United States, and being elected Prime Minister. Future levels will document CIA coups in Chile and Cuba.

Peter Brinson is a game developer, filmmaker, and educator living in Los Angeles. His work explores the narrative possibilities found in animal protagonists, documentary play, and collective ownership. His films and games have exhibited in numerous venues, including the Museum of Modern Art, SIGGRAPH, Ars Electronica, Slamdance, Indiecade, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, The Kitchen, and the Telluride Film Festival. Brinson attended the University of North Carolina and the California Institute of the Arts, and currently teaches in the Interactive Media Division of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaker: John Underkoffler, Chief Scientist at Oblong Industries
Time: Wednesday, February 25, 6-9pm
Location: SCA Digital Collaboratory Annex, 509 W. 29th Street
(Between Flower and Figueroa Streets, Behind the Panda Express parking lot)

Tonight's CTIN 511 seminar will feature a special session and reception with John Underkoffler, chief scientist at Oblong Industries who will present and demonstrate Oblong’s G-speak Spatial Operating Environment. The G-speak SOE is a gesture-based immersive environment that was first envisioned in the film Minority Report; Underkoffler served as science advisor on the film and then went on to establish Oblong Industries to develop the platform.

The evening will also include demonstrations of other interactive experiences created by faculty and students who are part of the Interactive Media Division’s Collaborative-Design Lab (aka the Flower Street Lab). PLEASE NOTE: The talk and reception will take place at the School of Cinematic Arts’ Digital Collaboratory Annex.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Discussion leaders: Nahil Sharkasi & Diane Tucker
Time: Wednesday, February 18, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Discussion Topic: Tonight's seminar will focus on the topic of "Social Computing" raised in the previous two seminar presentations by Warren Sack and Andreas Kratky. Logs for the backchannel discussion can be reviewed on the respective talk announcements..

Abstract: Social computing – the dynamic ways in which technologies and social behavior reflect and affect each-other -- has become pervasive in this era in which the network is the dominant metaphor for everything from information technology to international relations and as Hillary Clinton works to make the network and its associates – crowdsourcing and collaboration – into bases for American foreign policy in the Obama Administration (http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/02/117345.htm )

Social computing's ubiquity has arguably inhibited our acknowledging the range of transformations linked to its rise-- e.g. changes in the geographies of networks, the economies of processing, and the topographies of expertise – and prevented our realizing that the peer production it facilitates constitutes a new mode of production. We'll talk about each of them as well as consider how radically what Benkler calls "commons-based peer production" promises to overturn businesses founded in more industrial models.

Readings/Watchings for this discussion:
TED Talks - Howard Rheingold: Way-new Collaboration
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html

Gin, Television, and Social Surplus" by Clay Shirky
http://www.shirky.com/herecomeseverybody/2008/04/looking-for-the-mouse.html
TED Talks - Yochai Benkler: Open Source Economies
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/yochai_benkler_on_the_new_open_source_economics.html

Do We Need a New Internet by John Markoff
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/weekinreview/15markoff.html?emc=eta1

Other recommended Readings are:
M. Ito, "Amateur Cultural Production and Peer-to-Peer Learning"

Posted by Scott Fisher at 7:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaker: Andreas Kratky, Visiting Asst. Professor, Interactive Media Division, USC School of Cinematic Arts
Time: Wednesday, February 11, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: Simulation Versus Representation – What Can Simulations Tell Us About the Past?

Abstract: An increasing amount of successful interactive media works uses mechanisms of simulation to construct their experience. As systems defined by an initial state and transformation rules, simulations are directed towards a future result. To consider the importance of this kind of process-oriented work as a general cultural form we need to ask what they can tell us about the past and how our systematic abstractions shape how we perceive the world around us. This presentation will show a selection of works that investigate this question looking at the experience of a stroll through urban streets, museum collections, and theater.

Bio: A media artist whose work focuses on memory, database, and new forms of cinema, Andreas Kratky was born in Berlin, Germany, and lives and works in Berlin and Los Angeles. He is designer and co-director of several award winning projects including That’s Kyogen (2001), Bleeding Through – Layers of Los Angeles 1920-1986 (2003), Soft Cinema (2004), and Title TK (2006).

Posted by Scott Fisher at 5:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaker: Warren Sack, Associate Professor of Film and Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz
Time: Wednesday, February 4, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

TITLE: Technologies of Community, Conversation by Design: How should networked public spaces be designed?

ABSTRACT: In the United States, public space is splintering into shards. Poor urban planning and the demise of many institutions of civil society are two factors that are to blame. But, media technologies, like television, are usually, also, seen to be destructive forces in this shattering of public space. Can new media technologies be designed to engender community rather than undermine it? I outline “discourse architecture,” an approach to designing software for community and then present a few examples of technologies that my group and I have designed in the last several years.

BIO: Warren Sack is a software designer and media theorist whose work explores theories and designs for online public space and public discussion. He is Associate Professor of Film and Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz and earned a B.A. from Yale College and an S.M. and Ph.D. from the MIT Media Laboratory. Warren's writings on new media and computer science have been published widely and his art work has been shown at the ZKM|Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany; the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the artport of the Whitney Museum of American Art; and, in the exhibition "The Art of Participation: 1950 - now" currently open at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Discussion leaders: Ian Dallas & Logan Olson
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Discussion Title: "Serious Games: Reality Check"
Tonight's seminar will look at the current state of "serious games" with a more critical eye. Games with learning components, games arguing a specific perspective, and games attempting to evoke feelings beyond simple enjoyment. What have current video games tried to achieve in these arenas, and how effective have they been?

To ground our discussion we'll be focusing on three games. Please play these games before seminar. They're short, free, and available online:
1. Rohrer, Jason. Passage. 13 December 2007. http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/
2. The ReDistricting Game. Los Angeles: USC Game Innovation Lab, 2007. http://www.redistrictinggame.org/
3. Ruiz, Susana. Darfur is Dying. mtvU: 2006. http://www.darfurisdying.com/

Readings for this discussion:
1. Lazarro, Nicole. Why We Play Games: Four Keys to More Emotion Without Story. Oakland: XEODesign, 8 March 2005. PDF available here: http://www.xeodesign.com/xeodesign_whyweplaygames.pdf
2. Rohrer, Jason. Interview with Travis Boisvenue. The Happy Medium. http://thehappymedium.tumblr.com/post/43808908/small-words-and-short-sentences. 28 July 2008.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 9:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Speaker: Chris Swain, Interactive Media Division, School of Cinematic Arts.
Time: Wednesday, January 21, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: Future of Games"
Bio: Chris Swain is a game designer, educator, and co-author of the textbook Game Design Workshop. He co-founded the EA Game Innovation Lab at USC. His serious game lab projects include:
• The Redistricting Game—funded by the USC Annenberg Center for Communication
• Immune Attack—funded by National Science Foundation and created in collaboration with Brown University and the Federation of
American Scientists.
• ELECT-BiLat and ELECT urbanSIM—funded by the U.S. Army and produced for the USC Institute for Creative Technologies.
• The New New Deal—funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and produced in collaboration with the Los Angeles Times.

Prior to coming to USC, Swain worked on games for Microsoft, Sony, Disney, Activision, Acclaim, and many others. He was a founding member of the New York design firm R/GA Interactive. At R/GA he led over 150 projects for clients that included AOL, Warner Brothers, PBS, Intel, Children’s Television Workshop, and many others. He was a creator of NetWits—a massively multiplayer online game show—for the Microsoft Network. Other notable projects include Multiplayer Wheel of Fortune and Multiplayer Jeopardy! for Sony Online, and Weakest Link Interactive for NBC.

Swain was a founding member of the start-up Spiderdance, Inc. He served on the Board of Directors of the Emmy’s from 2000-2004. His work has received many awards including Time magazine’s Best of the Web. He started his career at the pioneering interactive firm Synapse Technologies.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 7:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CTIN 511 Syllabus - Spring 2009:
Download file

Posted by Scott Fisher at 10:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CTIN 511/Spring 2009
COURSE SCHEDULE

“ Provocative Play”
Week 1 (1/14) Eric Zimmerman, Gamelab
Week 2 (1/21) Chris Swain, USC Interactive Media Division
Week 3 (1/28) (Discussion led by Ian Dallas and Logan Olson)

“ Social Computing”
Week 4 (2/4) Warren Sack, UC Santa Cruz
Week 5 (2/11) Andreas Kratky, USC Interactive Media Division
Week 6 (2/18) (Discussion led by Nahile Sharkasi and Diane Tucker)

“Tinkering”
Week 7 (2/25) John Underkoffler, Oblong
Week 8 (3/4) Peter Brinson, USC Interactive Media Division
Week 9 (3/11) One Week Project Demo (CTIN 542 & CTIN 548)
Week 10 (3/18) Spring Break – no class
Week 11 (3/25) CTAN seminar TBD
Week 12 (4/1) (Discussion led by Bryan Jaycox & Sean Plott)

“ The Internet of Things”
Week 13 (4/8) Ulla-Maaria Engeström, Thinglink
Week 14 (4/15) IMD Mobile and Environmental Media Lab project presentation
Week 15 (4/21) (Discussion led by Jeff Watson)

Week 16 (4/28) IMD Final Project presentations

Posted by Scott Fisher at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Photo by Vince Diamante

Speaker: Eric Zimmerman, Co-Founder & Chief Design Officer, Gamestar Mechanic
Time: Wednesday, January 14, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: The Ludic Century: In the Future, Everyone will be a Game Designer

In this wide-ranging and far-reaching talk, Eric will build on his fifteen years of experience as a game designer and game industry gadfly to talk about the wider relevance of games to the culture at large. What are games? What is game design? And in what ways is our culture changing to become more game-centric? The importance of thinking in terms of complex systems, playful technologies, and the world as a designed construction are bringing about new ways of making meaning, and demanding new kinds of literacies for understanding these meanings. In a talk that will include playing games with the audience and offering a sneak peek at his next major unreleased game title, Eric will provide a provocative glimpse into a very playful future.

Bio:
Eric Zimmerman has been working in the game industry for fifteen years. He is the co-founder and Chief Design Officer of Gamelab (www.gamelab.com), an independent game development company based in New York City. Gamelab creates and self-publishes innovative singleplayer and multiplayer games that are distributed online, on mobile phones, and through retail, including the hit downloadable games Diner Dash, Miss Management, and Jojo's Fashion Show. Pre-Gamelab titles include SiSSYFiGHT 2000 and the PC title Gearheads. Eric has taught courses at MIT, New York University, and Parsons School of Design. He has lectured and published extensively about game design and is the co-author with Katie Salen of Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals (MIT Press, 2004), and The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology (MIT Press, 2006), as well as the co-editor of RE:PLAY (Peter Lang Press, 2004).

BACKCHANNEL LOG from presentation: Download file and below.

Continue reading "IMD Forum for 1/14/09: Eric Zimmerman" »

Posted by Scott Fisher at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Time: Wednesday, December 3, 6-9pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Featuring Fall 08 Semester Class Projects from :

CTIN 484/489 Intermediate Game Design Workshop
CTIN 401 Interface Design for Games
CTIN 464 Games Studies Seminar (Machinima!)
CTIN 488 Game Design Workshop
-------BREAK-------
CTIN 532 Interactive Experience and World Design
CTIN 482 Designing Online Multiplayer Game Environments
CTIN 491 Advanced Game Projects
CTIN 534 Experiments in Interactivity I
CTIN 541 Design for Interactive Media

Plus bonus research presentations by IMD/ICT Immersive group, the new prototype for Participation Nation, and more....

Food and Drink will be provided starting at 5:45.

***SCHEDULE below*****

Continue reading "IMD Forum for 12/3/08: IMD Project Presentations" »

Posted by Scott Fisher at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Discussion leader: Veronica Paredes
Time: Wednesday, November 19, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Discussion Title: "Technologies of Perception"
Tonight's seminar will focus on the toic of "Technologies of Perception" raised in the previous two seminar presentations by Jim Campbell and Perry Hoberman. Logs for the backchannel discussion can be reviewed on the respective talk announcements..

Readings for this discussion are:
1. Donald Hoffman, "Peeking Behind the Icons" from Visual Intelligence: How We Create What We See (1998).
2. George Lakoff interviewed by Iain A. Boal, "Body, Brain, and Communication" from Resisting the Virtual Life (1995).
3. Alva Noe, "Perspective in Content" from Action in Perception (2004).

Other recommended Readings are:
1. "Virtual Environments, Personal Simulators & Telepresence." by Fisher, Scott S. in Virtual Reality: Theory, Practice and Promise, S. Helsel and J.Roth, ed. , Meckler Publishing, 1991
2. "The Ultimate Display" by I E Sutherland (1965) Proceedings of IFIP Congress
3. "Amplified Smell" in The Inventions of Daedalus by David E. H. Jones (1982)

Posted by Scott Fisher at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaker: Perry Hoberman, Associate Research Professor, Interactive Media Division
Time: Wednesday, November 12, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Bio: Perry Hoberman is an installation artist whose work has been exhibited widely throughout the United States and worldwide. He works with a variety of technologies, ranging from utterly obsolete to seasonably state-of-the-art. His installation "Timetable" was awarded the Grand Prix at the ICC Biennale '99 in Tokyo, and "Systems Maintenance" won a 1999 Prix Ars Electronica "Award of Distinction"."Unexpected Obstacles", a retrospective survey of his work, was exhibited during summer 1998 at the ZKM Mediamuseum in Karlsruhe, Germany, and before that at Gallery Otso in Espoo, Finland. Other recent works include "ZOMBIAC", exhibited at the Kiasma Museum in Helsinki, and "Workaholic", shown at the exhibition "Vision Ruhr" in Dortmund, Germany. His work has been featured in the "Future Cinema" exhibition at the ZKM Center for New Media in Karlsruhe. Hoberman has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, and is both a 2002 Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and a 2002 Rockefeller Foundation Media Art Fellow. He is represented by Postmasters Gallery in New York.

BACKCHANNEL LOG from presentation: Download file

Continue reading "IMD Forum for 11/12/08: Perry Hoberman" »

Posted by Scott Fisher at 4:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Speaker: Jim Campbell
Date: Wednesday, November 5
Time and Locations:
5-6:30pm Visions & Voices Lecture @ USC Fisher Museum of Art, University Park Campus (MAP)
7-8pm Informal Q&A @ ZML (Optional but food and drink will be provided).

Originally trained as a mathematician and electrical engineer, Campbell started to make interactive work in video and with electronic components in the late 1980s. In his work in “Phantasmagoria,” Campbell explores the limits of legibility by employing electronic systems in which the image is converted to its basic elements, demonstrating that both eye and brain tend to supply the missing information.

A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics, Campbell has virtually no formal training as an artist. His art apprenticeship consisted of repairing video equipment and, later, designing integrated circuits for video in Silicon Valley. But at a time when many artists who want to create technologically-based art seek a partner who knows the electronics and will leave the creativity to them, Campbell is a whole different thing — a technocrat who discovered early on that he has an artist’s soul.

Website: http://www.jimcampbell.tv/
Suggested Readings: "Delusions of Dialogue: Control and Choice in Interactive Art" and also here as pdf from Leonardo.
"Electronic Time: the Memory Machines of Jim Campbell." Afterimage, November/December 1997. by Marita Sturken.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Discussion leader: Kristy Kang
Time: Wednesday, October 29, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Discussion Title: "Paradigms of Innovation"
Tonight's seminar will focus on the various approaches to innovation raised in the previous two seminar presentations by Tracy Fullerton and Paul Yarin. Logs for the backchannel discussion can be reviewed on the respective talk announcements and IMD wiki.

Readings for this discussion are:
1. Clayton Christiansen, "The Innovator's Solution (intro)."
2. John Seely Brown, "Introduction: Rethinking Innovation in a Changing World."
3. John Seely Brown, "The Debriefing"

Other recommended Readings are:
1. "Innovation", WIkipedia.
2. "50 Greatest Game Innovations", Business Week, 11/5/07

BACKCHANNEL LOG: Download file

Continue reading "IMD Forum for 10/29/08: "Paradigms of Innovation"" »

Posted by Scott Fisher at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaker: Paul Yarin, Blackdust Design
Time: Wednesday, October 22, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Paul Yarin, founder of Blackdust Design, is a consultant in the fields of interactive media, product design, and technology research. Paul’s experience spans both research and industrial projects, many of which have been developed into real products. His focus is the rapid application of new technologies to challenging design problems. While a student in the MIT Media Lab’s Tangible Media Group, Paul developed embedded displays for visualizing patterns of use of physical objects and spaces. This effort made use of networked microcontrollers, radio-frequency identification, and rapid prototyping technologies. The research system, TouchCounters, was presented at the 1999 and 2000 CHI conferences. Before attending MIT, Paul earned a Master's in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

Paul's ACM publications here.

BACKCHANNEL LOG: Download file

Continue reading "IMD Forum for 10/22/08: Paul Yarin" »

Posted by Scott Fisher at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Speaker: Tracy Fullerton, Associate Professor, Interactive Media Division and Director, EA Game Innovation Lab
Time: Wednesday, October 15, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: " The Ghost of Innovation Past"

Bio: Associate Professor of Interactive Media at USC and Director of the EA Game Innovation Lab. Tracy is co-author of Game Design Workshop, a design textbook now in use worldwide. She designed The Night Journey a unique game/art project with artist Bill Viola, and Liberty Under the Law, a collaboration with Activision and KCET funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. She was faculty advisor for the award-winning student games Cloud and flOw. Prior to joining USC, she was president and founder of the interactive television game developer, Spiderdance, Inc. Spiderdance’s games included NBC’s Weakest Link, MTV’s webRIOT, The WB’s No Boundaries, History Channel’s History IQ, Sony Game Show Network’s Inquizition and TBS’s Cyber Bond. Her work has received numerous industry honors including an Emmy nomination for interactive television and Time Magazine’s "Best of the Web."

BACKCHANNEL LOG: Download file

Continue reading "IMD Forum for 10/15/08: Tracy Fullerton" »

Posted by Scott Fisher at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

Discussion Title: "Smart Toys, Things that Think, and Evocative Knowledge Objects"
Tonight's seminar will focus on the topic of things-that-think and things-that-help-us-think raised in the previous two seminar presentations by Steve Anderson and John Sosoka & Caleb Chung. Logs for the backchannel discussion can be reviewed on the respective talk announcements.

Readings for this discussion are:
1. The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman.
2. "Behold the Toys of Tomorrow", David Shenk in the Atlantic.

Other recommended Readings are:
1. When Things Start to Think by Neil Gershenfeld
2. " I, Pleo" , Interview with Caleb Chung in Maker
3."Boundary Objects, Please Rise! On the role of boundary objects in distributed collaboration and how to design for them." Ellen Christiansen
4. "The Role of Objects in Design Co-Operation: communication through Physical or Virtual Objects.", Claudia Eckert and Jean-Francois Boujut,
5. Shaping Things by Bruce Sterling (Spimes!)

Posted by Scott Fisher at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaker: John Sosoka, CTO, UGOBE
Time: Wednesday, October 1, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: "Lifeforms: exploring a new medium"
"Ugobe transforms the relationship humans have with technology by giving machines a soul. We are the first company to transform the relationship between humans and robots by blending emotions and personality with logic in machines... Our first product is Pleo, the robotic baby dinosaur."

Bio: John Sosoka brings inspired ideas to life at UGOBE and heads the technological innovation at the company. Recently he co-founded and was CTO at Neurosmith. Under Sosoka's technical leadership, this educational technology toy company grew to $12M in sales and won almost every major toy industry award including the "Most Innovative Toy Of The Year" (TOTY). In 2003, Neurosmith was acquired by Small World Toys. Prior to Neurosmith, Sosoka held senior executive positions at Davidson & Associates, Emerson Technologies and the Technology Application Group.

BACKCHANNEL LOG: Download file

Posted by Scott Fisher at 7:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

(Wordle by S.Anderson)

Speaker: Steve Anderson, Asst. Professor, Interactive Media Division; Director of iMAP
Time: Wednesday, September 24, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Abstract:
Coined by Rich Gold in his book "The Plenitude," the concept of evocative knowledge objects may be mobilized across a wildly diverse range of theoretical and practical pursuits. This presentation considers a range of "objects" -- a term that is also here broadly conceived to include such things as a virtual environment, a media database, an electronic journal and an experimental graduate program -- as tools to think with. How does our engagement -- dare I say immersion? -- in contemporary cultures of media and technology affect our most basic ways of thinking, knowing and being in the world?

Bio: http://iml.usc.edu/remix/anderson/

BACKCHANNEL LOG from Seminar: Download text file or Download HTML

Posted by Scott Fisher at 8:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

CTIN 511 Schedule Fall 08

Here's an updated schedule for CTIN 511: Download file

Posted by Scott Fisher at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(Wordle by S.Anderson)

Discussion leader: Jen Stein with help from Nahil Sharkasi and Bill Graner
Time: Wednesday, September 17, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Discussion Title: "Define Immersion..."

Tonight's seminar will focus on concepts of immersion raised in the previous two seminar presentations by Mark Bolas and Scott Fisher. Logs for the backchannel discussion can be reviewed on the respective talk announcements.

These points of view will be discussed in relation to the "Immersive Fallacy" presented by Zimmerman and Salen in Rules of Play, (pp. 450-458). Please read this article

Other important readings:
- The Virtual Reality Experience, in Understanding Virtual Reality, pp. 381-398

- A Grounded Investigation of Game Immersion, Emily Brown and Paul Cairns University College London Interaction Centre (UCLIC)

- Player Immersion in the Computer Game Narrative, Hua Qin, Pei-Luen Patrick Rau1, and Gavriel Salvendy
(can be downloaded from on-campus network or vpn)

- Multisensory immersion as a modeling environment for learning complex scientific concepts, Dede, C., Salzman, M., Loftin, B., & Sprague, D.

BACKCHANNEL LOG from seminar: Download file

Video summary of discussion by Brandi Wilcox and Sean Plott:

Posted by Scott Fisher at 9:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Speaker: Scott Fisher, Interactive Media Division
Time: Wednesday, September 10, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: "Immersion, Context & Presence"

BACKCHANNEL LOG of seminar: Download file

Posted by Scott Fisher at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week, the IMD blog will be guest curated by Cynthia Nie and Emily Duff.
Thanks to Diane Tucker for her excellent posts and insights last week...keep'em coming.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 8:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaker: Mark Bolas, Assoc. Professor, Interactive Media Division & Director, Mixed Reality Lab, Institute for Creative Technologies.
Time: Wednesday, September 3, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: "Growing the Medium"
Abstract: Mark will discuss his work to create a design vocabulary for the multi-faceted medium called VR.

BACKCHANNEL LOG for class (partial): Download file

Video summary of presentation by Susana Ruiz and Jeff Watson:

Posted by Scott Fisher at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

REVISED 511 Student Pairing Assignments

511 Student Pairing Assignments

Week 2
Intro: Diab (2) + Bouchard (1)
Blog: Van Dyke (2) + Tucker (1)
Video: Ruiz (2) + Watson (1)

Week 3
Intro: Sharkasi (2) + Graner (1)
Blog: Nie (2) + Duff (1)
Video: Dallas (2) + Fenton (1)

Week 4
Intro: Stein (2)
Blog: Wilcox (2) + Plott (1)

Week 5
Intro: Paredes (2) + Ponce (1)
Blog: Jaycox (2) + Swensen (1)
Video: Cao (2) + Olsen (1)

Week 6
Intro: Kang (2) + Chen (1)
Blog: Dallas (2) + Yasuda (1)
Video: Van Dyke (2) + Duff (1)

Week 7
Intro: Anne
Blog: Sharkasi (2) + Silverman (1)

Week 8
Intro: Stein (2) + Taylor (1)
Blog: Paredes (2) + Chen (1)
Video: Ryu (2) + Swensen (1)

Week 9
Intro: Cao (2) + Fenton (1)
Blog: Diab (2) + Olsen (1)
Video: Nie (2) + Taylor (1)

Week 10
Intro: Kristy
Blog: Ryu (2) + Graner (1)

Week 11
Intro: Jaycox (2) + Tucker (1)
Blog: Cao (2) + Ponce (1)
Video: Wilcox (2) + Plott (1)

Week 12
Intro: Ryu (2) + Watson (1)
Blog: Stein (2) + Yasuda (1)
Video: Jaycox (2) + Silverman (1)

Week 13
Intro: Paredes (2)
Blog: Kang (2)

Posted by Scott Fisher at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CTIN 511 Syllabus

CTIN 511 Schedule

Posted by Scott Fisher at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Time: Wednesday, April 30, 6-9pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Featuring Spring Semester Class Projects from :
- CTIN 485L Advanced Game Development - Brinson
- CTIN 544 Experiments in Interactivity (Hoberman)
- CTIN 463 Anatomy of a Game (Hight)
- CTIN 405 Design and Technology for Mobile (Bleecker)
- CTIN 406 Sound Design for Games ­(Diamante)
- CTIN 488 Game Design Workshop (Swain/Arey/Diamante)
- CTIN 484/489 Intermediate Game Design (Brinson & Fullerton)
- CTIN 491 Advanced Game Project ( Swain)
- CTIN 492 Experimental Game Topics (Bleecker)
- CTIN 544 Experiments in Interactivity( Production 1) (Kratky)
- CTIN 542 Interactive Experience Design (Bolas)
- CTIN 590 Directed Research - Fisher

and more....

Food and Drink will be provided starting at 5:45.

***SCHEDULE below*****

Continue reading "IMD Forum for 4/30/08: IMD Project Presentations" »

Posted by Scott Fisher at 8:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speakers: Mk Haley, Jill Smolin, and Josh Grow, SIGGRAPH 2008 committee members
Time: Wednesday, April 9, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

This week the CTAN 522 John C Hench Animation & Digital Arts Seminar combines forces with the CTIN 511 Interactive Media Seminar. Our visiting speakers will be three of the committee members for SIGGRAPH 2008 here in LA: Mk Haley, Jill Smolin, and Josh Grow. Jill represents the Animation Festival, Josh represents the Student Volunteer Program, and Mk represents the Interactive Installations. They will talk about the SIGGRAPH conference itself, as well as provide some examples of student submitted work, and a discussion related to how to best submit your work for consideration.

ACM SIGGRAPH's mission is to promote the generation and dissemination of information on computer graphics and interactive techniques and to foster a membership community whose core values help them to catalyze the innovation and application of computer graphics and interactive techniques. Some highlights of the annual conference are its Animation Theater and Electronic Theater presentations, where recently created CG films are played, and an installation of Emerging Technologies that showcases recent work from the crossroads of science, art, and technology and celebrates the best in creativity and innovation from the past year. Dozens of research papers are presented each year, and SIGGRAPH is widely considered the most prestigious forum for the publication of computer graphics research. In addition to the papers, there are numerous panels of industry experts set up to discuss a wide variety of topics, from computer graphics to machine interactivity to education. This year, the conference is also co-located with the 3rd annual Sandbox Videogame Symposium.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speakers: Jonathan Strietzel and John Snoddy, Big Stage Entertainment
Time: Wednesday, April 2, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Big Stage is a media company whose breakthrough technology allows users to easily create and integrate a life-like 3-D avatar of themselves into everything from famous movie scenes, TV shows and video games, to music videos, short video clips, virtual worlds, still images, user-generated content, instant messages, e-mails, social networks and more – instantly. All Big Stage content can then be shared across social networks,mobile phones, and more.

The privately held, Pasadena, Calif.-based company was founded by three tech entrepreneurs who shared a vision for a new media paradigm in which users themselves inhabited the very content which they consumed, and in which the digital fidelity of 3-D animated people -- created and controlled by average consumers -- would soon render virtual performances almost indistinguishable from original performances captured in high-resolution media.

Big Stage’s life-like avatar creation system stems from advanced stereo reconstruction technology funded by multiple government grants, including the CIA, as part of a nineyear cumulative research project at USC. Company Co-Founder Jonathan Strietzel first saw the potential for this technology while meeting with the project’s chief scientist, Doug Fidaleo, Ph.D., at USC. He then assembled Co-Founders Jon Kraft and Jon Snoddy, who each brought unique skills and perspectives to the table, and were able to craft a powerful business vision, secure funding, obtain the core technology license from USC, and hire Fidaleo to officially help bring their vision to life.

Building on the USC research, Chief Technology Officer Snoddy, Chief Scientist Fidaleo and their team were able to take the quality and accuracy of complex, expensive 3-D scanning technology previously only available to production houses and animation companies and offer it to any consumer with a digital camera through a free, fun and easy to use Internet-based platform, for wide-spread entertainment immersion.

BACKCHANNEL LOG from PRESENTATION: Download file

Posted by Scott Fisher at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Speaker: Anne Bray, LA Freewaves
Time: Wednesday, March 26, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

HollyWould?
LA Freewaves Executive Director Anne Bray will present a preview of this year's festival and several related projects and opportunities for media art, activism and public media culture. This year's Freewaves festival is titled HollyWould and will be distributed across every screen on Hollywood Boulevard. Since 1989, LA Freewaves has been presenting biennial festivals of film, video and new media art, under the direction of Anne Bray, who founded the concept of LA Freewaves and has administered the festival for two decades. http://www.freewaves.org/

Anne has been working in the field of media arts since the mid 1970s as an administrator, artist and art teacher. As the Freewaves Executive Director, she has continued to see the organization through the technological, social and aesthetic changes of the 1990s to the present, exploring innovative venues, curatorial models and distribution strategies ranging from traditional screenings to online distribution to public art venues. In addition to presenting on LA Freewaves, Anne teaches in the IML's Honors in Multimedia Scholarship program and the public art program at Claremont Graduate University.

***Special Bonus Presentation: Proceeding Ann's talk, first year IMD MFA student, Taiyoung RYU will give an encore presentation of his GDC '08 talk on "Game Design based on Micro-transactions in Online Games". ***

Posted by Scott Fisher at 4:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Presenters: 2nd Year MFA students in CTIN 542, 544, 548
Time: Wednesday, March 12, 6pm-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: "Flying Off The Handle - CTIN 542, 544, 548 Second Year MFA Combined One-Week Interactive Design Project, Spring 2008"

Instructors/Jurors: Mark Bolas, Perry Hoberman, Michael Naimark, Peggy Weil

Project Description:
"In the center of the table in front of you is a pile of handles, knobs and pulls. These objects, specifically shaped for the human hand, can be attached to other objects or surfaces, allowing them to be pushed, pulled, grabbed, closed, opened, turned, twisted, switched, lifted, shifted, operated, poured, tossed, etc. Handles can be attached to either movable and immobile objects. Handles can have both symbolic and/or practical functions - a handle is a kind of affordance. Affordances provide clues to how an object can or should be used (clues that can be useful, but also misleading). Your assignment is to conceive of, design, and produce an interactive experience in which the operation of one or more of these handles by a human user is a central component. This experience should be one or more of the following: surprising, shocking, bewildering, addictive, amazing, exquisite, subtle, provocative."

Posted by Scott Fisher at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaker: Richard Lemarchand, Game Designer, Naughty Dog
Time: Wednesday, March 5, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: "Audacious Feats of Daring: An Expanded Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune Post-Mortem"

Brace yourself for a rollicking ride as Naughty Dog game designer Richard Lemarchand leads a collaborative presentation deconstructing the successes and pitfalls of his studio’s first PlayStation 3 release, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. A contemporary reinvention of classic pulp adventure, the game was released at the end of 2007 to wide critical acclaim, public w00ts and the massive salez0rs.

In an Easter egg and bonus content-laden reprise of his GDC 2008 talk, Lemarchand covers the open, meritocratic, intensively collaborative way that Naughty Dog works, the iterative, play-test oriented development methodology that the studio subscribes to, and the technological, design and production challenges that the project faced.

Subjects ripe for discussion in this uniquely interjectional seminar format include interactivity design as exploration, managing large, talented teams through creative chaos, player attention as it relates to immersion, flow and variably scheduled activities, interactive storytelling techniques and emotion in games, wide-linear versus open-world gameplay, and gaming as mass entertainment, literature and fine art. The takeaway promises to be both practically applicable for game developers and stimulating for thinkers about interactive media.

Bio: Richard Lemarchand has made story-based character-action games the main focus of his design career, and has worked with some of the industry’s best and brightest in the field along the way. He spends his days building games with his metaphorical sleeves rolled up, advocating for the player and helping keep the development team on track. His credits include the Gex and Soul Reaver series of games, Jak 3 and Jak X: Combat Racing, and he was most recently the Lead Game Designer for Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. He’s a contributor to Game Developer Magazine, and a frequent visitor to USC.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Speakers: Patrick Goddi & Kurt MacDonald, HP Labs
Time: Wednesday, February 27, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: "Mediascapes make fun of GPS"

This talk covers the current state of HP Labs' mscape platform, a software toolkit for building, playing and sharing discreet location-based games and rich media experiences for handheld GPS devices. Each "mediascape" can be opened in the editor so that everyone can see how it's built. The non-commercial beta version of the software is freely available for download and use. And mscapers.com is a community-driven, sharing website where many examples of games, tours and other experimental locative media can be downloaded.

Patrick Goddi is a senior researcher at HP Labs in Palo Alto.
Kurt MacDonald is an independent designer and USC Interactive Media alum.

BACKCHANNEL LOG: Download file

Posted by Scott Fisher at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Speaker: Rob Legato
Time: Wednesday, February 20, 6:30 - 8:30 PM
Location: Lucas Building, Room 108

Meet Academy Award-winning visual effects artist Rob Legato as he shares his perspective on the VFX industry and art form. Legato has been the driving VFX force behind some of Hollywood’s biggest films, including The Departed, Aviator, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Cast Away, Armageddon, Titanic and Apollo 13. In 1997, he received an Oscar for Best Visual Effects for Titanic. Legato most recently created the Virtual Cinematography System that will be used on the upcoming James Cameron films Avatar and Battle Angel, as well as the new Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson film Tintin.

Doors open to all at 6:20p.m. on a first-come, first-served basis. (Priority seating for all Animation & Digital Arts and Interactive Media division students who arrive prior to 6:15.)

Posted by Scott Fisher at 10:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Speaker: John Knoll, Industrial Light & Magic
Time: Wednesday, February 13, 6:30 - 8:30 PM
Location: Lucas Building, Room 108

Join visual effects master John Knoll for an in-person presentation of his Oscar-nominated work in The Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End!

Knoll is an Academy Award-winning, visual effects supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). He is known for his innovative CG work on The Pirates of the Caribbean series, Star Wars Episodes I, II, III, Mission: Impossible and The Abyss. Knoll, a USC alumnus, and his brother Thomas are the original creators of Photoshop software.

(Priority seating for all Animation & Digital Arts and Interactive Media division students who arrive prior to 6:15.)

Posted by Scott Fisher at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaker: Machiko KUSAHARA, Waseda University
Time: Wednesday, February 6, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: "Device Art: Latest Trend in Media Art and Technology from Japan"

Why does Japanese media art tend to be playful? Why are artists so design-conscious, sometimes even designing gadgets themselves? Where does the Japanese "love for technology" come from and how is it reflected in media art? Questioning borders between art, design, technology, or even entertainment, is a worldwide phenomenon today. Such tendency has been most visible and widely accepted in Japan. Analyzing this phenomenon brings a new aspect in the role of media art in our society. This lecture will introduce the concept "Device Art," providing ample examples from Maywa Denki and other artists working within this realm. It will also analyze this Japanese trend within what's currently happening worldwide in art and design.

Bio: Machiko Kusahara is a media scholar and curator. She has published internationally in the field of art, technology, culture and history, including essays on Japanese games and mobile phone culture. With her background both in art, science and technology, she has been teaching computer graphics, multimedia and media study since 1985. She taught at UCLA in 2002-03, and is currently a professor at Waseda University, Tokyo. Kusahara holds a Ph. D. in engineering from University of Tokyo. Her recent research studies the correlation between digital media and traditional culture.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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

Eddo Stern works on the disputed borderlands between fantasy and reality, exploring the uneasy and otherwise unconscious connections between physical existence and electronic simulation. His work explores new modes of narrative and documentary, experimental computer game design, fantasies of technology and history, and cross-cultural representation in computer games, film, and online media. He works in various media including computer software, hardware and game design, kinetic sculpture, performance, and film and video production. His short machinima films include "Sheik Attack", "Vietnam Romance", ”Landlord Vigilante” and "Deathstar". He is the founder of the now retired cooperative C-level where he co-produced the physical computer gaming projects "Waco Resurrection", "Tekken Torture Tournament", "Cockfight Arena”, and the internet meme conference "C-level Memefest" He is currently developing the sensory deprivation game “Darkgame" recently featured at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Online at http://www.eddostern.com

For this seminar, Eddo will talk about "Empirical game design , extra-diegetic Machinima", and his new sensory deprivation game Darkgame.

BACKCHANNEL LOG HERE: Download file

Posted by Scott Fisher at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Speaker: Flavia Sparacino, Founding Principal, Sensing Places
Time: Wednesday, January 16, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Talk Title: "Interactive Media Environments & Architectural Machines"

Contemporary digital information has led us to question the traditional
meaning of presence, matter, and the human body. When confronted with
virtual landscapes on the internet such as Second Life, architecture
potentially takes on a new process of redefining itself through the
exploration of new identities and new venues. Flavia Sparacino, a former
researcher at MIT's Media Lab, believes we are witnessing the birth
of a new architectural science, combining the research of exquisite
organic forms with increasingly complex functions and communications, all
tied into areas of sustainability. She will identify current areas of her
particular research and professional work which, she argues, call for
defining new professional roles, design methodologies, and educational
directions. She will present numerous examples that her company, Sensing
Places, is developing; media-enhanced responsive environments which
incorporate tactile and visually-immersive display technology,
architecture, and filmmaking.

Bio:
Flavia Sparacino, Ph.D., is a technology inventor, experience designer,
and fellow of MIT. She is the founder and director of Sensing Places,
a company based in Santa Monica, California, dedicated to creating
cutting-edge interactive architecture. She has designed
responsive media environments for museums, corporate headquarters,
retail stores, theaters, theme parks, airports and cities around the
world. Her emphasis has been on natural computational interfaces that,
through advanced computer vision algorithms and electronic sensors,
allow people to freely interact with physical objects, digital video
displays, graphics, and light. Her installations have been displayed
in MOMA, SFMOMA, and La Scala Opera Theater in Milan, and have been
featured in numerous newspapers, magazines, such as The New York Times,
the Boston, The Wall Street Journal, and television documentaries
aired on the Discovery Channel, Japan's NHK, and
Italy's RAI. A nominated Knight of the Republic of Italy, she holds
six academic degrees, a Ph.D. from MIT, and works as a technology
consultant for large architecture studios and museums around the world.

For more information on Flavia Sparacino, please visit:
http://www.sensingplaces.com
and also review some of her publications here.

BACKCHANNEL LOG from presentation: Download file

Posted by Scott Fisher at 2:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Speaker: Anthony Borquez
Time: Wednesday, January 16, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Anthony Borquez is the Vice President for Online and Mobile Business Development at Konami Digital Entertainment. His responsibilities include: identifying new business opportunities across multiple platforms, content strategy, technology innovation, social communities, and digital distribution. He is currently developing a strategy to leverage Konami’s back catalog of products, as well as new IP, for the online market. Additionally, Anthony’s team is evaluating digital distribution models enabling consumers to purchase online and mobile content from a variety of digital platforms.

Anthony has also been teaching at the University of Southern California since 1994. He has designed nine video game courses and currently teaches Video Game Production to Engineering, Cinema, and Business students. In 2003, he started an annual high school summer program in Video Game Design that attracts students nationwide. Anthony received his Undergraduate, Masters, and Doctoral Degrees all from the University of Southern California.

Tonight's presentation will focus on new Konami projects such as DDR - flash version, game widgets across web 2.0 sites, the impact of in-game advertising and HUD design, the convergence of mobile/PC/XBLA/Wiiware for future titles. We will also discuss the design and development of 'fear mechanics' for games in the survival horror genre (Silent Hill, Resident Evil, etc.) for a possible collaborative project.

Backchannel Log from presentations: Download file

Posted by Scott Fisher at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Time: Wednesday, December 5, 6-9pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Featuring Fall Semester Class Projects from :
CTIN 484/489 Intermediate Game Design Workshop
CTIN 401 Interface Design for Games
CTIN 464 Games Studies Seminar (Machinima!)
CTIN 488 Game Design Workshop
CTIN 482 Designing Online Multiplayer Game Environments
CTIN 491 Advanced Game Projects (3)
-------BREAK-------
CTIN 532 Interactive Experience and World Design
CTIN 534 Experiments in Interactivity I (1st Years)
CTIN 534 Experiments in Interactivity I (2nd Years)
CTIN 541 Design for Interactive Media
CTIN 590 Directed Research Projects

Plus bonus presentation on research by:
IMD Immersive group

and more....

Food and Drink will be provided.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 8:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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

Title: "Hands-On: Three Decades in the Pixel Business - The only thing you can count on with a career in new media is that you will never stop learning."

A few topics up for discussion:

. Unfinished Business
Spending years working on a game that does not get
finished/published/distributed/played is heartbreakingly common. Some very
talented folks have a string of these experiences, which can be damaging to
creative inspiration as well as a career. Are there warning signs early on
for which projects will make it to completion and which will be abandoned
along the way? Is there a way to evaluate the concept, the development team,
and the business environment to maximize the chances of being involved in a
project that goes all the way to completion?

. Bleeding Edge Development
Partnering with technology companies to help get needed features built into
next gen products and in turn providing demonstration elements for their
marketing machines means that what you create can influence hardware, API,
and software tool design. The thrill of pioneering new landscapes is matched
by the risk of being first to a market that does not yet exist. Is leading
edge development right for you? Where is the "sweet spot" for integrating
new technology with your content?

. Unique Voices
Traditional gaming culture can be quite narrow-focused. The game development
environment - insular, isolated, and prone to sleep-deprivation-induced
paranoia - can be even more so. Because of this vulnerability (and the
natural tendency to believe one's own press releases), it is vitally
important to have non-traditional, "outsider" voices in the mix. How can you
make your voice heard when you are THE minority on a development team?

Joan's bio after the jump -->

Continue reading "IMD Forum for 11/28/07: Joan Wood" »

Posted by Scott Fisher at 6:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Speaker: Erik Loyer
Time: Wednesday, November 14, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: "Seeking eloquence in interactive space"

From Chris Crawford to Richard Nixon, Ella Fitzgerald to James Joyce, a look at the practice of eloquence and its relationship to interactive design.

Erik Loyer, Creative Director for Vectors: Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular and founder of the design studio Song New Creative, is a designer and media artist whose work explores the ways in which digital interactivity enables human eloquence. His award-winning, internationally-exhibited works include The Lair of the Marrow Monkey, one of the first websites to be added to the permanent collection of a major art museum, Chroma, a web serial about the racial politics of virtual reality, and Public Secrets, an interactive documentary on the California prison system created in collaboration with artist Sharon Daniel. Loyer’s commercial portfolio includes Clio and One Show Gold Award-winning work for Vodafone, as well as projects for Sony, BMW, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and NASA. He is an alumnus of new media pioneers Inscape and The Voyager Company, and founded the information architecture division of Razorfish in Los Angeles.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

(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)

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)

Speakers: Greg Downing, Perry Hoberman, Dr. Judith Hirsch
Time: Wednesday, September 26, 6:30-9:00pm
Location: USC School of Cinematic Arts, George Lucas Building, Room 108.

Title: " Visual Effects, Stereoscopy, and Perception".

This week the CTAN 522 John C Hench Animation & Digital Arts Seminar combines forces with the CTIN 511 Interactive Media Seminar. The objective of this forum is for scientists, artists and industry experts to discuss their research and ideas as it relates or intersects with animation and digital art. This evenings' experts will discuss visual perception and is application to stereoscopic and panoramic imaging. Students from the Division of Animation and Digital Arts have developed a web log with background information on the topics and speakers - please contribute your comments.

*******PLEASE NOTE DIFFERENT LOCATION AND START TIME!!*******

Posted by Scott Fisher at 11:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Speaker: Dale Herigstad, Chief Creative Officer, Schematic
Time: Wednesday, September 19, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: Space and Time in Digital Media Interface

Abstract: Dale will present a number of projects from Schematic from the viewpoint of how interaction is influenced by notions of spatial context and time. Topics will include: layered media, invasive media, rich media, and connected media. Recent work presented will include Broadband TV applications, new experiences on game boxes with EA Sports, enhanced viewing experiences on HDDVD, and advanced thinking in new content-finders for Television. New gestural work will also be presented from work with Microsoft Surface, and an environmental media project with Accenture installed in airports. Dale will also present ways in which working in this new digital space has altered the creative processes at the company.

Dale's Bio: Download file

Posted by Scott Fisher at 6:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Speaker: Flint Dille, Writer, Designer, Producer, Bureau of Film & Games
Time: Wednesday, September 12, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

After receiving an MFA from USC’s Cinema Writing Program, Flint established himself as an animation writer and producer on programs such as Transformers and G.I. Joe. During the course, Flint wrote the Tiny Toon Movie and the feature-film American Tail II: Fieval Goes West for Steven Spielberg. Last year, Flint and John Platten sold BACKWATER to Dimension as a film. It was shot in Fall of 2005 as Venom. Flint was also the creative director of TSR-LA and worked on numerous DUNGEONS & DRAGONS projects along with the award winning board games LINE IN THE SAND and XXVc: BATTLE FOR THE FUTURE. All of Bureau of Film & Games' original projects are developed as franchises that can move seamlessly in to other media, including original soundtracks, graphic novel serializations, and feature film/TV possibilities. Flint will talk about his long and successful career working in movies and games, ongoing insurgency, and moving between media.

IMDB bio is here
and Moby games credits here.
Video interview of Flint talking about "Transformers: The Game".

Posted by Scott Fisher at 8:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Speakers: IMD 3rd Year MFA Students
Time: Wednesday, September 5, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

This forum will focus on the thesis projects required for completion of the IMD MFA program. First we'll review a short documentary of the "Are you Here" installation showcasing projects by the class of 2007. Then, current 3rd Year students in the IMD MFA degree program will each present the projects that they will be working on this year.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 9:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

IMD Research Open House
Presenters: IMD faculty and staff
Time: Wednesday, August 29, 6-9pm
Location: IMD CoDesign Lab, Digital Collaboratory Annex, USC School of Cinematic Arts
2823 Flower street (Main entrance at 509 29th st.)

The program for this Open House and 511 session will showcase a wide variety of research developed by the Interactive Media Division and their various collaborations. It will include brief presentations by IMD faculty and Staff members in the context of their research demonstrations; the objective is to introduce IMD faculty, their research interests, and potential opportunities for student participation.

Projects will include: TiltSim, Wide FOV Head Mounted Display, Concave Surround Optics, Wii Games, "MobZombies", "The Night Journey", "Condemned to Repeat, "Trusted Makes", "Cloud", The Redistricting Game, "There's Nothing to See Here", Stereo 3D Projection, and more!

Posted by Scott Fisher at 6:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Time: Wednesday, April 25, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Featuring Spring Semester Class Projects from :
- CTIN 484/489 Intermediate Game Design (Brinson & Fullerton)
- CTIN 405 Design and Technology for Mobile (Bleecker)
- CTWR 410 Character Development and Storytelling for Games ( Bilson)
- 2006-07 Game Innovation Grant "Elysium Project"
- CTIN 488 Game Design Workshop (Swain/Arey)
- CTIN 491 Advanced Game Project ( Fullerton)
- CTIN 501 Database Cinema (Kratky)
- CTIN 542 Interactive Design and Production (Bolas)
& CTIN 544 Experiments in Interactivity (Hoberman)

and more....

Food and Drink will be provided starting at 5:30.

*****Schedule Below******

Continue reading "IMD Forum for 4/25/07: IMD Project Presentations" »

Posted by Scott Fisher at 9:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaker: Danny Bilson
Title: "Screenwriting in Gamespace"
Time: Wednesday, April 18, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML), Room 201

Danny Bilson is a writer, director, and producer in movies, television,
videogames, and comic books. With his writing partner Paul DeMeo, Danny
Bilson wrote the movie The Rocketeer (1991), the videogame James Bond 007:
Everything or Nothing (2003), the television series The Sentinel (1996) and
The Flash (1990), and recent issues of the comic book, The Flash. Bilson
also directed and produced The Sentinel and The Flash.

Bilson's scope has been characterized as transmedia. He has adapted comic
books into movies (The Rocketeer), comic books into television (The Flash),
and movies into videogames (James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing). Bilson
and DeMeo's writing has tended toward action and sci-fi genres, emphasizing
more than human heroes and their visceral adventures.

Wikipedia bio here.

Posted by Scott Fisher at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speakers: Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Jordan Mechner,Mark Marino, and Jeremy Douglass
Time: Wednesday, April 4, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML), Room 201

Title: Second Person: An evening on writing and gameplay
Tonight, the IMD Forum will host one of the editors and several of the authors included in Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media , a new text from MIT Press, and follow-on to their excellent and often referenced previous volume, First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game.

Jeremy Douglass
Jeremy Douglass is a Ph.D. candidate in English Literature at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB profile). His research focuses on interactive fiction and reader response to textual new media. His research on poetry software, "Slidewords: Towards Livecomposing Animated Poetry" are forthcoming at Digital Arts and Culture 2007. Jeremy is a database and web developer for numerous projects, including the academic search engine Voice of the Shuttle, and writes for the new media blog http://writerresponsetheory.org.

In "Enlightening Interactive Fiction" Jeremy Douglass discusses the meaning of Andrew Plotkin's 'Shade' in terms of both surface signification and source code, continuing how the medium and its particular history shape the message of the individual work unfolding before the player.

Mark Marino
Mark C. Marino is a new media scholar and artist, studying chatbots, electronic literature, and games. His dissertation, I, Chatbot: The Gender and Race Performativity of Conversational Agents, integrates sociological research with critical theory. In addition to blogging for Writer Response Theory (http://writerresponsetheory.org), he is editor of Bunk Magazine (http://www.bunkmag.com). His latest analytical work launches “Critical Code Studies,” an approach to interpreting computer code. He is the author of several hypermedia works, including “a show of hands” and “12 Easy Lessons to Better Time Travel.” He currently teaches writing at the University of Southern California (link to faculty site: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~mcmarino/).

Mark will present “12 Easy Lessons,” which is featured in Second Person.
[Also see Mark's post about this event on his WRT blog. ]

Jordan Mechner
Jordan Mechner is one of the world's best-known videogame creators. His games, including Karateka, Prince of Persia, The Last Express, and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, have sold millions of copies and received worldwide critical acclaim. He is also the director of two award-winning short films, Waiting for Dark and Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story. Mechner received his BA from Yale University.

Jordan will talk about his Second Person contribution, which was about the writing and story and game design for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Noah Wardrip-Fruin
Noah Wardrip-Fruin is a digital media writer, artist, and scholar. His writing/art has been presented by galleries, arts festivals, scientific conferences, DVD magazines, and the Whitney and Guggenheim museums. In addition to Second Person, he has edited First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game (2004, with Pat Harrigan) and The New Media Reader (2003, with Nick Montfort), both from MIT Press. He is an Assistant Professor of Communication at UCSD, a Vice President of the Electronic Literature Organization, and a blogger at http://grandtextauto.org.

Noah will talk about the overall Second Person project.

BACKCHANNEL LOG from Presentation: Download file