20. March 2009 by admin.

Wait, a simple game where the player is encouraged to refrain from acting on the world. As the player moves the world disappears, but when the player waits, the world becomes more interesting. The majesty is found in the slow, controlled effort. Players are awarded points when the little things in life reveal themselves.

Treatment:
The intention in wait is to return the game experience to a central theme in some artistic practices: the reward of stopping to smell the flowers. The game begins with a fade from white and a fairly empty virtual field with blowing grass and the sounds of nature. If the player does not move, elements of the world are heard and faded into view. When these items are fully in view and physically close to the player the player is rewarded points. Points accrued are expressed by a single modulated tone every few seconds. As time progresses the world begins to fade away. The player must respond by moving to another space in the world. If they do not move by the time the world completely fades away, then the game will end. A score is displayed. The score will, in true game fashion, be compared to the past performance of other players. Play can continue indefinitely if the player moves and waits appropriately.

This game is part of the Critical Gameplay Project, an exhibition for partial completion of the MFA in Electronic Visualization at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Posted in Idea Junkyard, Interactive Arts, Game Sites, Uncategorized | Print | 1 Comment »

20. March 2009 by admin.

SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 Opens For Submissions

Are you eager to present your ideas and share your knowledge with thousands of attendees?

Are you an artist, educator, engineer, filmmaker, innovator, producer, researcher, or scientist? Do you have innovative new ideas that will inspire our attendees and propel our industry forward? Then you should become part of SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 now!

SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 welcomes contributors and volunteers to participate in the 2nd edition of the annual SIGGRAPH Asia Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Yokohama, Japan. To read more about the “How?” and “When?” to submit your proposal, see our Calls for Participation for:

• Art Gallery

• Computer Animation Festival

• Courses

• Educators Program

• Emerging Technologies

• Internship Program (formerly Student Volunteer Program)

• Sketches & Posters

• Technical Papers

No matter how you are involved in computer graphics and interactive techniques, SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 is an excellent opportunity to present your work and advance your career.

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Important Submission Deadlines

The submission deadline for all programs is 23:59 GMT.

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Art Gallery & Emerging Technologies

The Art Gallery and Emerging Technologies share an overall theme: Adaptation.

The Emerging Technologies program at SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 will showcase technological innovations that will change the way we work, live, and play. Accepted works will be presented as ongoing demonstrations throughout the conference. Let your work be experienced by thousands of SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 attendees.

The SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 Art Gallery will feature a diverse, international body of art and design, ranging from pieces driven by technology to works that critically comment on our technological society. The works will be selected based on four criteria: the depth of the concept of the work, aesthetics, craftsmanship, and relevance to the theme of the show. Are you ready for this challenge?

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Computer Animation Festival

The Computer Animation Festival presents a comprehensive and compelling distillation of the best work in the world that advances animation, visualization, real-time rendering, and entertainment via computer animation. We invite you to submit your work to become part of the festival. The juried program of the festival will include Electronic Theater screenings and a number of Animation Theater rooms where the full breadth of your work in computer animation can be enjoyed at length.

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Courses

Hundreds of practitioners, developers, researchers, artists, and students will attend the SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 Courses to broaden and deepen their knowledge of the field, and to learn the secrets of new fields. The insights they gain will shape hardware and software products, computer-animated films, and future research directions. Share your knowledge with them and influence the future by presenting a course at SIGGRAPH Asia 2009!

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Educators Program

The Educators Program is a place where people from all levels and disciplines, from academia and industry, can share their research, methods, and opinions about the teaching and integration of computer graphics and interactive techniques in all areas of learning. The program includes three main components: Education Papers, Panels and Invited Workshops. Find out more and submit your proposal.

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Internship Program

This year new for SIGGRAPH Asia the Student Volunteer Program has been restructured to an Internship Program. Join us and be one of the first to benefit from this change.

Imagine yourself working behind the scenes of the world’s most prestigious conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques. This priceless experience awaits you in Yokohama. You will be given the opportunity to meet and learn directly from industry professionals, artists, and teachers while assisting conference attendees and supporting conference programs and events.

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Sketches & Posters

If you are looking for a dynamic forum to present new and thought-provoking ideas, techniques, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques you should consider submitting your work to Sketches & Posters. These programs cover a broad spectrum of topics including digital art, design, science, engineering, and many more. They encompass ideas ranging from academic research to industrial development, from practical tools to behind-the-scenes explanations of commercial and artistic work.

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Technical Papers

The SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 Technical Papers program will continue the tradition of excellence in computer graphics and interactive techniques that SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia are known for. We invite submission of high-quality papers that will set the standard in the field and stimulate future trends. Accepted papers will be presented at SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 and published as a special issue of ACM Transactions on Graphics.

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18. March 2009 by admin.

“At the 2009 New Media Caucus Business Meeting, members confirmed the election of Paul Catanese, faculty of Interdisciplinary Arts at Columbia College Chicago to the position of President of the New Media Caucus for a three-year term, 2009 – 2012. We are grateful for all the hard work of Gwyan Rhabyt, President of the New Media Caucus from 2006 – 2009.  Thanks, Gwyan for all your energy and enthusiasm over the past three years, nurturing and shaping the NMC into an ever stronger, robust and growing organization… To read the rest of the 2009 Annual Report, visit the NMC Website at: http://www.newmediacaucus.org/annual_report.php

(2) Call for Panel Proposals for CAA Conference (Chicago 2010)
The New Media Caucus invites panel proposals for a 1.5 hour affiliated panel open session at the College Art Association annual conference; the deadline for proposals is May 1st 2009.  At this time, we are accepting proposals for the 2010 CAA Conference in Chicago. Please note that multiple proposals are acceptable. For more information about how to propose a panel read the detailed call outlined on the NMC Website at: http://www.newmediacaucus.org/calls.php

(3) Exhibition Committee for CAA 2010 in Chicago
Leslie Raymond, Vice President of Exhibitions announces: We were able to pull of an amazing feat in Los Angeles, considering the scarcity of our local connections there.  Chicago 2010 is another story, and one that I am super-excited to write about! Our new NMC president, Paul Catanese, is based at Columbia College, making our ground-base a solid foundation for the planning and execution of the next New Media Caucus Exhibition. We are already working on developing our 2010 programs, so get in touch right away if you want to get onboard for the ride. I’m looking for people with ideas and energy to make them happen. A sense of humor goes a long way, too! Contact Leslie Raymond, Vice President of Exhibitions <leslie.raymond@utsa.edu>.

(4) Exhibition Committee for CAA 2011 in New York City
In addition to the 2010 exhibitions committee, the NMC is seeking members who live in or near the greater NYC metro area who can assist with developing the 2011 NMC Exhibition to coincide with the 2011 CAA Conference. Interested members should contact Leslie Raymond, Vice President, Exhibitions <leslie.raymond@utsa.edu>.

(5) New Media Caucus Roundtables at CAA 2010
Each year at the CAA Conference, the NMC sponsors additional events within and concurrent to the conference itself.  At this point, the NMC is seeking member interest in organizing roundtables for professional networking.  Currently, two roundtables are being planned: (1) New Media Syllabis, (2) New Media and the Tenure Track. If you are interested in assisting with the organization of these roundtables, please contact the Roundtable Organizing Committee Co-Chairs Mike Salmond <msalmond@niu.edu> and Vagner Whitehead <whitehea@oakland.edu>.

(6) NMC Website Taskforce
The New Media Caucus is in the process of updating its website in terms of its overall visual design, branding and content. At this point in time, the executive team is forming a taskforce of interested members to assist with the update of the website, both in terms of design as well as research assistance for the discovery process. If you are interested in assisting with the NMC Website Taskforce, please contact James Khazar, Chief Information Officer <james@khazar.com>.

(7) NMC Symposium Taskforce
A discussion at the annual NMC Business meeting at CAA2009 in Los Angeles revealed interest in developing a NMC Symposium that would exist in addition to, but separate from the events and programming that occurs annually at CAA. This represents a significant expansion of activity for the NMC and requires an in-depth discovery and discussion process.  In preparation for potentially moving forward with this expansion, a Symposium Taskforce is being assembled whose initial purpose will be to build a preliminary report to the Caucus outlining a NMC Symposium proposal. If this project is of interest to you, please contact Paul Catanese <pcatanese@colum.edu>.

(8) New Media Related Panels seeking Papers for Chicago 2010 Conference
CAA has officially published the Call for Papers for the Chicago 2010 conference. Among others, you may be interested in submitting papers to the following new-media related panels:
• New Media Art in China: Understanding the Emergence of the Dragon
• 3D Animation Pedagogy and Industry Complicity in New-Media Education
• Studio Art Open Session: New Media, The Culture of Dispersion
• Hypotechnology: Artists Remix the Anachronistic and Obsolete w/the Present • Art and the Televisual
• Lifeloggers: Chronicling the Everyday
• An Audience of One: Assessing the Arts of Privacy
• Public Art Dialogue Site Variations: The Shifting Grounds of Public Art
• Studio Art Open Session Multiples and Multiplicity: Beyond Benjamin.
• Resurrecting the Disappeared: The Problem of Re-Presentation and Exhibition of Time-based Twentieth-Century Art in the Twenty-first Century
• Delineations of Media in Art Theory and Pedagogy
For a PDF containing a full list of panels, descriptions and information regarding deadlines and how to apply, visit the CAA website: http://conference.collegeart.org/2010/

If you have any suggestions, questions, or issues that you think the Caucus should get involved in, don’t hesitate to email Paul Catanese.”

Paul Catanese
New Media Caucus, President

Posted in Publication Calls, Interactive Arts, Conferences | Print | No Comments »

18. March 2009 by admin.

IndieCade invites independent game artists and designers from around the world to submit interactive media of all types – from art to commercial, ARG to abstract, mind-bending to mobile, serious to shooter, as well as academic and student projects – for consideration. Work-in-progress is encouraged.

A diverse jury of creative and academic leaders will select entries for top prizes at the IndieCade 2009 Festival. All entries for the Festival will also receive consideration for presentation at all 2009 IndieCade international exhibitions including:

IndieCade 2009 Events:
IndieCade @ E3, Los Angeles (June 2-5)
IndieCade Asia TBA
IndieCade @ SIGGRAPH, New Orleans (Aug 5-7)
IndieCade 2009 (Oct 1-10)
IndieCade Europe, GameCity, UK (Oct 26-29)


Submissions Deadline: April 30, 2009 at Midnight PST.

For more information and to enter: indiecade.com

Posted in Publication Calls, contests | Print | No Comments »

18. March 2009 by admin.

The call for submissions to present lectures, panels and roundtables at the 2009 Game Developers Conference® Europe (GDC Europe) is now open through Thursday, April 30.

GDC Europe, the premier professional conference for creators of videogames and interactive entertainment, will take place in Cologne, Germany on August 17-19 at the Cologne Congress Center East. The topics solicited range from game design and business to programming, production, mobile and serious game development.

http://gdceurope.com/c4p/index.html

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18. March 2009 by admin.

A little preview of my MFA thesis: CriticalGameplay.com

Critical Gameplay is a collection of strategically designed video games. Each game asks the question, what do common game mechanics teach us? The four games in the collection are designed to help reevaluate our perspective on gameplay experiences. Like Critical Cartography, critical gameplay seeks to offer alternate perspective on the way we play.

This is a game from the Critical Gameplay Project Exhibit. It is an MFA thesis where I created 1 game a week for a month. Each game sought to thwart a common game mechanic under evaluation.

Wait, a game where the player is encouraged to refrain from acting on the world. As the player moves the world disappears, but when the player waits, the world becomes more rich. Players are awarded points when they allow the little things in life to reveal themselves.

Shown here is the first draft. The exhibition version will have more polish.

Posted in Interactive Arts, Conferences | Print | No Comments »

10. March 2009 by admin.

Some resources I provided my students about game aesthetics:

In case you haven’t been reminding yourself that you are an artist, with artistic decisions to make, I thought I’d share an article I really enjoyed.  This was later placed in Gamasustra, but I think one of the really interesting observations occurs about the article (instead of in it).
“No-one has fantasies about being a cell-shaded street racer, or a cubist special forces soldier, and so typically those styles aren’t considered in the original conception; it’s just assumed that if you’re making a game about soldiers, that they’ll look like soldiers. […] This is why I consider photorealism in games to be an absence of a defined art style: because when abstract styles are employed that’s a conscious decision, yet when photorealism is used, chances are the designer just wanted to make a game about driving cars, rather than a game about driving photorealistic cars.”
I really thought that was an important observation, either way I’d suggest reading the article.  Perhaps it will be fodder for an interesting discussion with someone during an interview, or perhaps (ideally) it will inform your future art design decisions (hint, hint for those of you taking Programming for the Artist next quarter).

Enjoy:
http://modetwo.net/users/nachimir/vga/

While you are at it, you might want to read:

• Art in the Age of Video Games: http://www.gamescenes.org/
• Trigger Happy: a FREE .pdf book about the aesthetics of video games: http://stevenpoole.net/blog/trigger-happier/

Posted in Idea Junkyard, students | Print | No Comments »

10. March 2009 by admin.

Here is a simply little article on educational gaming with mention of a few academic items on the topic.

http://www.theinstitute.ieee.org/portal/site/tionline/menuitem.be4d708ccca114d8fb2275875bac26c8/index.jsp?&pName=print_only&TheCat=2201&article=tionline/legacy/inst2009/mar09/featuretechnology.xml&

Posted in Game Sites | Print | No Comments »