NMC and Member News

Register Now! Rock the Academy: Radical Teaching, Unbounded Learning

Nancy Reeves — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:11:44 -0700

Register Now! Rock the Academy: Radical Teaching, Unbounded Learning

Registration is open for Rock the Academy: Radical Teaching, Unbounded Learning, a special 2-day, live online event to be held November 4-6, 2007 via the Internet.

For full details, see www.nmc.org/2008-fall-virtual-symposium

To register now, see www.nmc.org/2008-fall-virtual-symposium/register

Join keynote speakers and colleagues from around the world as we explore the implications and possibilities of new modes of teaching and learning.

About the Symposium
Rock the Academy, the twelfth in the NMC’s Series of Virtual Symposia, will explore the kinds of ideas and activities that are changing the shape of education today. Revolutionary practices are breaking apart old models of teaching and learning; students are using new tools to construct meaning and contribute to the design of their own education; teachers are sharing the power that has traditionally been theirs alone. Examples of unconventional, yet highly effective, methods of teaching and learning may be found in pockets all over the world, at all levels of education. When the multitude of examples are taken together, we begin to sense a profound change in the making that will alter our concept of education itself.

The symposium will examine themes such as open education resources and open content; social networking and global connections; guerilla learning, games, and activist learning; the next killer apps for education; alternatives to course management systems; real-time data, maps, and mobiles; backchannels and alternative communication tools; students who do research in their fields; and any technology or practice that shows promise for engaging students and supporting subversive teaching and learning. Proposals are encouraged under any of these or related themes.

The symposium venue will be adapted to fit the topic, and will make use of online communication technologies such as the Adobe Connect 2D web environment, the Second-Life-to-website communication tool Chat Bridge, and the 3D virtual world of Second Life.

For more information on the preliminary schedule of events, please see http://www.nmc.org/2008-fall-virtual-symposium/program

Welcome New NMC Members Who Joined in September 2008!

Nancy Reeves — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:19:02 -0700

Please take a moment to welcome the new NMC members who joined in September 2008!

NMC Asia Connections

Alan Levine — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 22:09:03 -0700

For the last three weeks I have been touring in China, Hong Kong, and Japan, and taking advantage of my time here, took the opportunity to visit with some of our NMC colleagues in the region. The last leg of this trip was in Japan, when I visited with Tatsuya Umezakii with NMC Member Hitachi Information Academy.

The Hitachi Information Academy provides training and eLearning for Hitachi, which is an international organization with more than 300,000 employees. They make more than computer parts; I saw all kinds of mechanical devices in Japan with the Hitachi name, including things like escalators.

Tatsuya was very interested in learning about NMC's projects in Second Life and has been experimenting with both a sim his organization owns and trying to develop some content in OpenSim. If anyone reading this has some experience in OpenSim, Tatsuya is interested in connecting with you.

While in Japan, I also had the opportunity to do a presentation on the Horizon Project for NIME - the National Institute of Multimedia Education where several in the audience were already familiar with the Horizon Report. This group had a strong interest in helping us publish a translation of the report in Japanese language.

The week before this I was in Hong Kong to spend time with Nick Noakes and NMC member Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST).

I did a version of 50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story to a group of faculty, staff, and some graduate students at HKUST.

The primary purpose of this trip was an invitation to be a featured presenter at the Learning 2.008 Conference in Shanghai, which focuses on the use of technology at International Schools. Presentations at this conference included ones on the Horizon Project, GigaPan Technology, and Storytelling with photos.

Adobe eLearning Challenge

NMC — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 06:31:31 -0700

How do you engage learners? We are looking for learning professionals, subject matter experts and designers that are creating online learning content using Adobe tools or delivering and tracking training using Adobe solutions.

We want to see your engaging and innovative use of technology and hear your stories about how Adobe products helped solve your eLearning challenges! Show us what you have done in the past, or whip up something new.

Follow the instructions to submit a screen-recording of your eLearning content (convert flash-based learning content with Sothink SWF to video converter to submit as a video - in the conversion parameters dialog, set Conversion mode to interactive and uncheck Auto end capture at last frame in Capture settings), a VIDEO case study about your use of our products, IMAGE (screenshots) of your work, or a story related to your use of Adobe products in BLOG format.

Have ideas but don’t have the tools? No problem. Just download a 30-day trial version of the software and show off your skills. With tools like Adobe Captivate®, Flash®, Adobe Presenter, Adobe Acrobat® Connect™ Pro, Director® and Dreamweaver® the eLearning possibilities are endless.

Rewards

Best Image: One winner, selected by Adobe experts from the top 25 highest scoring entries in this category, will receive Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium, be featured on the Adobe eLearning page, get free attendance to the Adobe Learning Summit (ALS), $1,000 in a PayPal account to be used for travel to the ALS, be showcased during the “Meet the Winners” at ALS keynote, and have a chance to demo their entry at the ALS reception.
Best Video: One winner, selected by Adobe experts from the top 25 highest scoring entries in this category, will receive Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium, be featured on the Adobe eLearning page, get free attendance to the Adobe Learning Summit (ALS), $1,000 in a PayPal account to be used for travel to the ALS be showcased during the “Meet the Winners” at ALS keynote, and have a chance to demo their entry at the ALS reception.
Best Blog: One winner, selected by Adobe experts from the top 25 highest scoring entries in this category, will receive Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium, be featured on the Adobe eLearning page, get free attendance to the Adobe Learning Summit (ALS), $1,000 in a PayPal account to be used for travel to the ALS be showcased during the “Meet the Winners” at ALS keynote, and have a chance to demo their entry at the ALS reception.
Most Viral: One winner, selected by Adobe experts from the top 25 most viral entries from all categories, will be featured on the Adobe eLearning page, get free attendance to the Adobe Learning Summit (ALS), $1,000 in a PayPal account to be used for travel to the ALS, be showcased during the “Meet the Winners” at ALS keynote, get a demo station at the ALS reception, and receive Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium. Learn more about Most Viral.
Best Image Runner-Up: One finalist, selected by Adobe experts from the top 25 highest scoring entries in this category, will get free attendance to the Adobe Learning Summit (ALS).
Best Video Runner-Up: One finalist, selected by Adobe experts from the top 25 highest scoring entries in this category, will get free attendance to the Adobe Learning Summit (ALS).
Best Blog Runner-Up: One finalist, selected by Adobe experts from the top 25 highest scoring entries in this category, will get free attendance to the Adobe Learning Summit (ALS).
Most Viral Runner-Up: One finalist, selected by Adobe experts from the top 25 most viral entries in all categories, will get free attendance to the Adobe Learning Summit (ALS). Learn more about Most Viral.
For all travel prizing, funds will be deposited into the winner’s PayPal account. The winner must have or must create a PayPal account to receive a prize and to access and use the prize. If you do not currently have a PayPal.com account, you must create a PayPal account within 7 days from the time of prize notification. Follow directions to register and become a member. Membership to PayPal is free. Potential winner with a PayPal account must have his/her account in good standing in order to receive a prize. The prizes will not be awarded to potential winners with locked, closed or restricted accounts.

How to Submit

Create an eLearning entry designed with Adobe products or use an Adobe eLearning project you have made in the past.
Click the Submit Entry tab and follow the steps provided.
Tell your friends to come to Brickfish and vote for your entry!

Requirements

All entries must be original work of the participant. All entries must be a video, image (photo or screenshot) or blog (story) about an actual or new eLearning project created with Adobe solutions. Blog entries should be no more than 1,000 words and video entries must be no longer than 2-minutes in length.

Legal Notice

Contest is open to members of Brickfish.com who are legal residents of the fifty (50) United States, the District of Columbia, or Canada (excluding Quebec) and has access to the Internet, 21 years or older, at the time of entry and have completed account registration prior to the end of the contest. Account registration is complete once activated via email. Click here to view the complete campaign rules and regulations.

Michael Wright exhibiting work in San Diego exhibition “Urban Legends and Country Tales”.

Michael Wright — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 08:49:57 -0700

Michael Wright, aka Mrags Writer is exhibiting work in a juried exhibition called “Urban Legends and Country Tales”. The exhibition showcasing the work of forty-two artists from around the world opens on the 4th of October, 2008 at the Bonita Museum, San Diego, California. The opening and public reception for Urban Legends and Country Tales will be 6 to 8:30 pm on Saturday, Oct. 4th. Wright will be exhibiting a print from his avatar series as one of the fifty juried prints demonstrating the multiple directions art has taken in the contemporary art world – both in pluralism of styles and the hybridism of technique and media. The jurors for this exhibit included Don Archer, the founder in 1993 of the world's largest online computer art museum - MOCA [http://moca.virtual.museum/] ; Andrew Darlow, photographer and author of 301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques, and editor of imagingbuffet.com and inkjettips.com ; and Mel Strawn an artist for over six decades; published in Going Digital: The Practice and Vision of Digital Artists.

Michael Wright is a painter who began to explore Digital Media in the mid 1980s on an Amiga computer. He exhibited his first Digital Prints in 1989. He has exhibited digital and traditional works on a national & international level over the past 38 years. He is currently exploring art and art education in virtual reality.
Wright's digital work is represented in “The Art of the Digital Age” my Bruce Wands, “Going Digital” by Joseph Nalven and JD Jarvis,"Computer Graphics World" '25 year Retrospective of Digital Art" in its January 2002 issue and in the magazine’s "Portfolio" section of the November, 2001, issue. Wright is profiled in "Computer Graphics Companion" edited by Jeffrey McConnell Anthony Ralston and Edwin Reilly His work also appears in "The Computer in the Visual Arts" by Anne Morgan Spalter of Brown University, published by Addison Wesley and is also published in Linda Jacob's seminal book, "CyberArts: Exploring Art & Technology". He and his work have been featured in Wired, Micro Publishing News, Computer Graphics & Applications and Agent X, Television Tokyo. Wright's digital prints are in the collection of the State Museum in Novorsibirsk, Russia and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London UK, the repository for British art book & print collections.

Wright is a professor in the Digital Media and Liberal Studies Programs at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. He is a member of SIGGRAPH, Ylem, ASCI, ACM, NMC, and the Los Angeles Printmaking Society. He is the recipient of the Otis Award of Excellence in Arts Education and served as Art Gallery Chair for ACM SIGGRAPH 2003 in San Diego California. He was a guest artist at the SIGGRAPH 2004 & 2005 conferences in Los Angeles where he created the “Portrait Virus” at the SIGGRAPH Guerilla Studio. Wright was one of six resident artists invited to SIGGRAPH’S first Artists in Residence Program at SIGGRAPH 2007, in San Diego. Wright as also curated into the SIGGRAPH international exhibition “Global Eyes” 2007. Wright exhibited work this past summer as part of “Digital Art.LA International New Media Expo” at the Los Angeles Center For Digital Art in Downtown Los Angeles curated by Howard Fox, curator of contemporary art, L.A. County Museum of Art.

http://www.digitalartguild.com/content/view/49/26/

Event Rescheduled: Bringing the Jazz Age to Life

cblue — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:59:50 -0700

~ PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FOLLOWING EVENT HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED DUE TO HURRICANE IKE ~

VIRTUAL HARLEM and VIRTUAL MONTMARTRE:
BRINGING THE JAZZ AGE TO LIFE

A Texas Learning and Computation Center (TLC2) Research Seminar
Friday October 3, 2008 1:00 to 2:30 p.m., U.S. Central Time

Location
University of Houston's Phillip Hoffman Hall, Room 232

Please RSVP to
Sarah Sweaney, Tel. 713-743-4019 or Email sarah@tlc2.uh.edu

Co-sponsors
The UH Texas learning and Computation Center; The Academy Foundation; UH Instructional Support and Outreach Program; UH African American Studies Program and The Dawn Project.

Webcast
The Greater Houston Education Collaboration (GHEC) website will host a live webcast of the event at www.ghecgroup.net.

About the Event
Dr. Bryan Carter, Associate Professor of English at Central Missouri State University, is one of the forerunners in the use of technology in the digital humanities classroom, incorporating podcasting, desktop videoconferencing, blogging and Second Life into each of his courses. Dr. Carter specializes in African American literature of the 20th Century with a primary focus on the Harlem Renaissance and a secondary emphasis on visual culture. Dr. Carter has recently been awarded a second Sorbonne Professeur Invite award to enhance Virtual Montmartre.

Carter's Virtual Harlem and Virtual Montmartre are virtual reality reconstructions of Harlem and Paris during the 1920s and 1930s. These locations are also learning environments designed to directly immerse students in the historical context of the literature of the period so that students experience the Harlem Renaissance and Paris Noir as cultural field trips. This virtual reality experience is designed to augment the books, music, photographs, and documentaries typically used in Harlem Renaissance courses with an environment that encourages active learning. Dr. Carter's Virtual Harlem and Virtual Montmartre have been presented around the world and he actively connects his classes with those of colleagues in Sweden and France as well as universities in the United States.

CFP Opens for Rock the Academy, the 12th in the Series of NMC Virtual Symposia

NMC — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:19:24 -0700

Rock the Academy: Radical Teaching, Unbounded Learning
The 12th in the NMC Series of Virtual Symposia
November 4-6, 2008 via the Internet

Proposals for presentations for Rock the Academy: Radical Teaching, Unbounded Learning, a special 2-day, live online event to be held November 4-6, 2008, are being solicited through October 6.

About the Symposium
Rock the Academy, the twelfth in the NMC’s Series of Virtual Symposia, will explore the kinds of ideas and activities that are changing the shape of education today. Revolutionary practices are breaking apart old models of teaching and learning; students are using new tools to construct meaning and contribute to the design of their own education; teachers are sharing the power that has traditionally been theirs alone. Examples of unconventional, yet highly effective, methods of teaching and learning may be found in pockets all over the world, at all levels of education. When the multitude of examples are taken together, we begin to sense a profound change in the making that will alter our concept of education itself.

Symposium Format and Topics
The symposium venue will be adapted to fit the topic, and will make use of online communication technologies such as the Adobe Connect 2D web environment, the Second-Life-to-website communication tool Chat Bridge, and the 3D virtual world of Second Life.

Proposals are encouraged on any of the following themes, but this list is not exhaustive and selections will not be limited to these categories:

open education resources and open content
social networking and global connections
guerilla learning, games, and activist learning
the next killer apps for education
alternatives to course management systems
real-time data, maps, and mobiles
backchannels and alternative communication tools
students who do research in their fields
any technology or practice that shows promise for engaging students and supporting subversive teaching and learning

Sessions should describe new approaches, illustrate case studies, or address the implications for learning and teaching of themes like those above.

Proposals may be submitted online.

This event is the twelfth in the ongoing series of specially focused online gatherings that explore new ideas and issues related to technology and learning. The NMC Series of Virtual Symposia is itself an exploration of emerging forms of collaboration and tools.

Additional information about the Symposium can be found at the Symposium website.

NMC Awarded $955,000 National Leadership Grant from IMLS

NMC — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:11:00 -0700

The New Media Consortium has been awarded a three-year National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS) in the amount of $955,000. The grant will fund Steve in Action: Social Tagging Tools and Methods Applied, a project to further develop the Steve tagging application, a tool that simplifies the navigation of online museum collections by allowing viewers to tag an image with descriptive terms.

The NMC and several museum partners, inlcuding the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Denver Art Museum, will apply research learned from the first iteration of the Steve Project to develop enhanced tools to make Steve more accessible to a broader variety of institutions and people. The Minnesota Digital Library Coalition, the MINITEX Library Information Network, and a number of small to mid-sized museums will also participate in the project.

"Social tagging tools are likely to have significant benefits for cultural heritage professionals as well as the general public, especially if they are implemented and adopted on a broad basis," notes Dr. Larry Johnson, CEO of NMC and the project’s lead and principal investigator. "Previous work by the Steve project team found that visitors and professionals use very different terms to tag the same pieces. This grant will support continued research and development into social tagging and aims to further illuminate the potential applications of tagging for museums, libraries, and other cultural heritage institutions."

To support and encourage mainstream adoption of social tagging tools by cultural heritage organizations of all sizes and types, the Steve team will enhance the software tools developed for the original research project; develop, implement, evaluate, and document multiple models for adopting social tagging; demonstrate integrations with major information management systems; and continue to galvanize discussion within the community about the strengths and weaknesses of tagging as a method for communicating with audiences. At the end of the three-year grant period, a variety of tagging environments will have been implemented and evaluated with at least thirty partners, testing the applicability of the Steve tools to a variety of collection types.

The project will begin in October, 2008 and conclude in October, 2011.

For more information about the grant, please see the IMLS Press Release.

Download the NMC Press Release (PDF, 52k).

Adobe Education Customers Utilizing Acrobat Connect Pro

ngray — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:29:18 -0700

From virtual school initiatives and curriculum management to rapidly delivering professional development, and everything in between, Adobe® Acrobat® Connect™ Pro software makes it easy for educators to teach, learn, and collaborate with virtually anyone — anywhere, anytime.

Adobe Presenter software and the Acrobat Connect Pro Training and Acrobat Connect Pro Events modules enable educators and schools to extend the benefits of Acrobat Connect Pro and enhance their learning management systems (LMSs).

Visit http://www.adobe.com/education/products/acrobatconnect.html to learn more!

University of Texas Austin Invites You to Second Life for “An Evening With The Honorable Madeleine K. Albright”

Alan Levine — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:11:01 -0700

The LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin will welcome former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright to help launch the School’s new Master of Global Policy Studies (MGPS) degree on Wednesday evening, September 10 at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas.

The in-person event is already sold out, but no matter where you live, you can participate in this event at the GSD&M Idea City Island Amphitheatre in Second Life located at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Idea%20City/104/204/39 at 4:00 PM PDT (check your local time.)

Idea City in Second Life

In “An Evening with The Honorable Madeleine K. Albright,” Dr. Albright will join LBJ School Dean and former Deputy National Security Advisor James B. Steinberg in a “public conversation” on the emerging global and transnational challenges of the 21st century and how the next generation of young leaders can contribute to developing innovative strategies to meet these challenges.

“Madeleine Albright is one of our most influential scholars and practitioners whose career has helped chart new approaches to the emerging transnational challenges of our time. I can think of no one better suited to help us launch this exciting new degree program at the LBJ School,” said Dean Steinberg.

The event will be both webcast live and presented in the virtual world of Second Life at 4:00 p.m. PDT. The Second Life presentation is made possible by Austin-based advertising agency GSD&M Idea City’s Idea City Island Amphitheatre. “Second Life offers us a unique forum for the introduction of our Global Policy Studies degree program and the discussion with our inaugural guest, Madeleine Albright,” said Steinberg.

For the complete agenda and details on joining “An Evening with The Honorable Madeleine Albright”, please visit http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/news/story/583/

Invitation to visit University of Pacific in Second Life

Alan Levine — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:18:36 -0700

One of the NMC Virtual Worlds projects this year was construction of the virtual campus for the University of the Pacific which included a mixture of replication of campus structures, such as Burns Tower, and creation of new spaces which only exist on the virtual campus.

Since the ribbons were cut May 7, 2008, faculty and staff at the University have been busy using the space and developing new applications for therr virtual learning space.

They are inviting you to learn more about their Second Life campus and how it has already been put to use in this new machinima video:

Some things of interest include their learning spaces high above Burns Tower, the "Sky Labs" where faculty and classes meet in flexible designed spaces, a space for sharing "freebies" a gallery of student created content, and a lab where faculty are developing custom learning applications.

In the video, we learn from Volleychick Boa about how Second Life is being used for Speech Critique where students stream their webcam into Second Life for review by their faculty, how the debate teams are conducting activities in world, a nifty survival experience (a crashed plane! snow!) for a management class, and the development of a student club area, just to name a few examples.

To visit this exemplary campus in Second Life, check out the University of the Pacific at http://slurl.com/secondlife/U%20Pacific/166/141/22

NMC Welcomes New Members Who Joined in July and August 2008!

Nancy Reeves — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:46:17 -0700

Please take a moment to recognize and welcome the new members who joined the NMC during the months of July and August 2008!

Ball State Digital Artists Showcased in Second Life on NMC’s Ars Simulacra

Larry Johnson — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:57:50 -0700

Imagine flying over a pyramid shaped boat as a variety of tones from the engine combine to create a melody. That is just what visitors will get when they interact with the new virtual art collection created by Ball State University faculty in Second Life.

John Fillwalk, Ball State associate professor of art, and director of the Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts and Animation (IDIAA), is the lead artist on a project that will be showcased in Second Life beginning Sunday, Aug. 24 2008, and run through September.

The NMC offered Fillwalk and the IDIAA the chance to transform an entire Second Life island with interactive virtual art. The collection, which will be up for a month, is part of a series of installations hosted by NMC throughout the year.

Fillwalk (SL Name: Mencius Watts) and Jesse Allison, Ball State faculty fellow and research specialist (SL Name: Taggert Alsop ), worked for three months with help from SL resident Media Hax to create a series of interactive exhibits that will be featured on the NMC's special Second Life arts showcase island, Ars Simulacra
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ars%20Simulacra/46/88/37/

"The experience is compelling. And while the background technology is complex, visitors to the exhibit can easily engage with the art," Fillwalk said.

Visitors to the island can interact with exhibits, which incorporate video, sound and still photos, via their avatars. One exhibit features a live connection to Flickr, a photo sharing Web site. Individual visitors can choose the subject matter and customize their viewing experience.

Fillwalk says this collection of interactive virtual art showcases and expands upon IDIAA's expertise in building virtual reality applications for simulation, and visualization environments.

"We're positioning the business profile of IDIAA to work with external clients to build significant research, well as showcase Ball State's emerging media prowess," he said.

Ball State has received recognition for its work developing hands-on, experiential, project-based learning environments. Its virtualized film studio won the first Greenhouse Grant for Virtual Worlds and an award in the 2008 Campus Technology magazine Innovator competition. Another Innovator award went to Ball State's Digital Corps.

Learn more about the Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts at http://www.digitalintermedia.org

Announcing the NMC Jam Pack!

Larry Johnson — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:15:59 -0700

As many of you know, as past of the NMC's 15th anniversary celebration going on all year, participants at the NMC 2008 Summer Conference had a special opportunity to visit the John Lennon Bus - a world class audio/video studio on wheels-- and spend 15 minutes laying down a lick, a groove, a vocal, or other gem that was then processed by bus staff as Apple Sound Loops. The loop files are designed to be used in audio editing software to mix and match in tracks to generate new songs.

The loops are now ready at http://www.nmc.org/jampack, and we're are issuing a call for musical compositions using them as part of NMC@15-- it's time to put your jam on!

These files can be imported into GarageBand, LogicPro, Acid, and other sound editing software and alone or with other loops to create new musical works. To help you, we have created a brief guide to using the loops with instructions for GarageBand and Acid XPress.

Please experiment with the loops, generate new music, and share them back with us. Simply upload your final songs as MP3 files to where ever you can put them online reachable via a URL. Then share them with us by commenting below and/or tagging them in delicious as nmcjampack where they are easily played via the built in player control there: http://delicious.com/tag/nmcjampack

Many thanks to Tom Knab (of NMC Rock Hall Jam fame) for this idea, and to all the folks who contributed loops on the bus. Now we ask you to show us how creative you can be with remixing the sound loops shared by your NMC colleagues.

Adobe Design Achievement Awards Announced!

Peggy Snyder — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:43:58 -0700

The Adobe® Design Achievement Awards celebrate student achievement reflecting the powerful convergence of technology and the creative arts. The competition — which showcases individual and group projects created with industry-leading Adobe creative software — honors the most talented and promising student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, developers, and computer artists from the world's top institutions of higher education in more than 30 countries!

The award winners are announced today- see them and more at
http://www.adaaentry.com/adaalive.html

Michael Wright aka Mrags Writer is exhibiting work as part of “Digital Art.LA International New Media Expo”

Michael Wright — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:48:45 -0700

Michael Wright is exhibiting work as part of “Digital Art.LA International New Media Expo” at the Los Angeles Center For Digital Art in Downtown Los Angeles. Digital Art L.A. is a multi-site international digital art expo in the Gallery Row area of Downtown Los Angeles The centerpiece will be an international new media exhibit of juried submissions hosted by Los Angeles Center For Digital Art selected by Howard Fox, curator of contemporary art, L.A. County Museum of Art.

This exhibit will run through September 6 at LACDA. Los Angeles Center for Digital Art Opening Reception: Thursday August 14, 7-9pm 107 West Fifth Street Los Angeles, CA 90013

Juror's Statement from Howard N. Fox,

Digital technology was initially invented for computing and data storage; later it was developed for use in audio and video equipment; and after that was adapted to all manner of communication and imaging, from cell phones to body scans. But all such applications are rooted in the apprehension, storage, transmission, and display of information - that is, of facts, of data, of any useful worldly intelligence - in the form of binary code. At least until the artists got to it.

It is hardly surprising, given the roots of modern art in notions of a revolutionary avant-garde, that progressive artists in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries devoured new materials, new technologies, and new art forms with a prodigious and omnivorous appetite. Digital technologies are no exception, and whether artists today use digital tools to aid in generating traditional art forms (for example by making virtual sketches toward paintings or sculpture) or as the basis of experimental new art forms that are generated by and/or displayed via binary code, many artists around the world have indeed gone digital.

In selecting the works for DigitalArt.LA, no aesthetic parameters or requirements were set. Artists were free to submit work of any artistic persuasion - and they did, with copious entries that ranged from moving images to interactive installations to still images. Yet it seems that certain aesthetic predilections may have been at work. The works that asserted themselves most strongly tended to be those that integrally and overtly engage digital technology in the final form of the work. Thus, while some very compelling "straight" photography made with digital cameras and print methods is deservedly represented, the preponderance of works here tend to manipulate the factuality of the real world or to invent worlds that exist only in a realm of digital generation and display. The exhibition is characterized less by faithful reportage than by invention, transfiguration, and wonderment.

So while the "ancient" history of digital technology may have its DNA in strictly practical, informational tasking, the interests and imaginations of the artists who have appropriated those technologies in recent years have evolved them into agents of human psyche that, like much art throughout human history, has only a passing focus on things as they are and much more engagement with our dreams, our fears, our desires.

Howard N. Fox Juror, DigitalArt.LA
http://digitalart.la/index.html

Michael Wright is a painter who began to explore Digital Media in the mid 1980s on an Amiga computer. He exhibited his first Digital Prints in 1989. He has exhibited digital and traditional works on a national & international level over the past 38 years. He is currently exploring art and art education in virtual reality. Wright is also currently exhibiting work in “Omage: The Artists, Designers, and Writers of Otis College of Art and Design” at Track 16 Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica thru Saturday August 30. Wright is featured in a one person exhibition on the LearningTimes Squirrel Island in the virtual world Second Life opening Aug 1 2008. The exhibit which will remain up for several months consists of real life works that have been upload to the virtual environment and displayed in two different galleries on the island. Dome West 15,166,22 and Tail Gallery. http://www.track16.com

Wright's digital work is represented in “The Art of the Digital Age” my Bruce Wands, “Going Digital” by Joseph Nalven and JD Jarvis, "Computer Graphics World" '25 year Retrospective of Digital Art" in its January 2002 issue and in the magazine’s "Portfolio" section of the November, 2001, issue. The article was called "Pixel Perfect: Michael Wright". Wright is profiled in "Computer Graphics Companion" edited by Jeffrey McConnell Anthony Ralston and Edwin Reilly. His work also appears in "The Computer in the Visual Arts" by Anne Morgan Spalter of Brown University, published by Addison Wesley and is also published in Linda Jacob's seminal book, "CyberArts: Exploring Art & Technology". He and his work have been featured in Wired, Micro Publishing News, Computer Graphics & Applications and Agent X, Television Tokyo. Wright's digital prints are in the collection of the State Museum in Novorsibirsk, Russia and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London UK, the repository for British art book & print collections. Wright is a professor in the Digital Media and Liberal Studies Programs at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. He is a member of SIGGRAPH, Ylem, ASCI, ACM and the Los Angeles Printmaking Society. He is the recipient of the Otis Award of Excellence in Arts Education and served as Art Gallery Chair for ACM SIGGRAPH 2003 in San Diego California. He was a guest artist at the SIGGRAPH 2004 & 2005 conferences in Los Angeles where he created the “Portrait Virus” at the SIGGRAPH Guerilla Studio. Wright was one of six resident artists invited to SIGGRAPH’S first Artists in Residence Program at SIGGRAPH 2007, in San Diego. Wright as also curated into the SIGGRAPH international exhibition “Global Eyes”.

Third Annual Pachyderm Conference - Registration is Now Open!

Nancy Reeves — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:47:50 -0700

Registration is now open for the Third Annual Pachyderm Conference scheduled for September 22-24, 2008 in San Antonio, Texas!

Click here to register now!

For further details on the conference please see
http://www.nmc.org/2008-pachyderm-conference

Hotel Accomodations
The conference will be held at the Hotel Contessa, located on the famous and fun San Antonio Riverwalk. A block of sleeping rooms has been reserved for conference attendees at the Hotel Contessa for $169 single/double. The Hotel Contessa is an all-suites hotel that offers a separate living and sleeping area. Wireless connectivity is complimentary for all conference attendees staying at the hotel.

Please make your hotel reservations no later than Friday, September 5 in order to receive the special room rate and to ensure room availability. Be sure to mention that you are with NMC or The New Media Consortium in order to receive the special room rate.

Hotel Contessa
306 West Market St.
San Antonio, Texas
210-229-9222
866-435-0900 toll free
http://www.thehotelcontessa.com/default_.asp

For complete details on accommodations and travel
http://www.nmc.org/2008-pachyderm-conference/travel

Preliminary Conference Schedule
The preliminary conference schedule can be found here
http://www.nmc.org/2008-pachyderm-conference/program

Watch the NMC website for further details!

All of us at NMC look forward to seeing you in San Antonio!

2008 Pachyderm Conference to Be Held in San Antonio, Texas

NMC — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:41:52 -0700

The 2008 Pachyderm Conference will take place September 22-24, 2008, in San Antonio, Texas. This is the third annual Pachyderm Conference.

The focus of the conference is to bring together Pachyderm authors, developers, and others in an ongoing conversation about how to communicate effectively with digital media. The conference provides a forum for beginners to learn from established experts, and for those with more advanced skills to exchange ideas and gather inspiration from their peers.

The theme of this year’s conference is the power of story. Highlights will include final details about the next release of Pachyderm, as well as a special showcase of presentations that demonstrate the deep connection between story and audience.

This year, the conference will take a form that involves the audience in ways much like the "unconference" model. The unconference model allows room for spontaneous presentations to come from the audience.

“We are hoping to hear from attendees before the conference about the kinds of things they would like to see and do,” explains Rachel Smith, Vice President of NMC Services. “Of course, we are very much looking forward to the topics that will arise at the conference itself. We are also asking for people to send us links to current projects they are working on, especially those that tell a story effectively, for an online showcase.” Links and suggestions may be forwarded directly to Ms. Smith at rachel@nmc.org.

In addition to informal or on-the-fly “unconference” sessions, a variety of more traditional session types will take place, such as keynotes, panels, and showcases.

Further information about the conference is available on the conference website.

Results of NMC 2008 Member Organization Survey

Alan Levine — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:29:47 -0700

As part of its role in benchmarking the field of New Media, the NMC is sharing the results of its annual survey of member organizations.

Between January and April 2008, we surveyed 276 NMC institutions to collect information on services provided, technologies used, current projects, and staffing. Below you will find the results of this survey, including data on use of NMC benefits media services provided, exploration of new technologies, support for technologies, projects in virtual worlds, use of open-source tools, and staffing/salary data.

Download NMC 2008 Member Organization Survey Summary (1.4 Mb PDF)

In comparison to the last survey, these organizations have notably increased in their use of external audio and video hosting services (including iTunesU, Google Video, YouTube, etc), increasing from 18% of organizations using such services n December 2006 to 49% of organizations for the current survey. This partly reflects an increase in the percentages of NMC organizations using iTunesU (growing from 18% to 31%) and the expanded use of video hosting sites. For 2008, 21% of NMC organizations report having a YouTube channel and another 28% are researching this option.

Not even an option in the previous survey, 14% of NMC organizations are using Google Applications for staff and/or student productivity applications and another 45% are researching this as an option or is in process of setting it up.

Generally organizations are more likely to host their own wiki service (45%) than hosting blogging services (19%). For both technologies, more than one quarter of the organizations are referring users to externally hosted services.

More than half of responding organizations have a project in Second Life; while the majority of projects are classified as research, 50% report having a virtual world project related to a specific course, and 14% have some sort of institutional presence in a virtual world space.

We hope this information is useful for looking at the New Media field as a whole and for benchmaring your own organization, If you have any questions about or suggestions for our surveys, please don't hesitate to contact us.

The Exploratium Covers Total Solar Eclipse with Live Coverage

Alan Levine — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:59:57 -0700

For the fifth time, the Exploratorium is providing live webcast coverage of a total solar ecplipse by sending their special team to a remote area of northwestern China near the Mongolian border (see details on how they broadcast an eclipse). This will take place Friday, August 1, 2008.

full size version of poster 1.4 Mb PNG

You can watch the webcast live on the event web site or go and see the eclipse coverage live in Second Life at Exploratorium Island (86, 141, 32) where there will be a viewing party, complete with interactive exhibits and music. The live video stream will also be available at other locations in Second Life, including the SciLands Skyditorium, the Pi Day Theater at the Sploland sim, the Science School sim, and the Spindrift sim. For teleport links, see http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/2008/secondlife.html

Okay now for the bad news for those in the USA... the time of the totality of eclipse is 4:09 AM Pacific time! Stay up late or set your alarm clocks!