Digital Lunch this Friday CANCELLED

We regret to inform everyone that this Friday's Digital Lunch on Game Development ("The Citizen Kane of Video Games") is canceled due to illness.

We hope to reschedule soon!

Digital Lunch @ UNM - The "Citizen Kane" of Video Games

There's been much recent (and ongoing) discussion about whether games can compare with some of our truly classic movies, with critics like Roger Ebert saying video games will never have an achievement like "Citizen Kane".

Local Game Developer Hunter R. Gough takes on this issue in our last Digital Lunch of the season.

WHAT:        Digital Lunch @ UNM:  Citizen Kane of Video Games

WHEN:       Friday, April 30, 12 - 1:00 PM

WHERE:     UNM ARTS Lab, 131 Pine St., NE

COST:         Free & Open to the Public (includes lunch)

ABOUT DIGITAL LUNCH AT UNM:
Digital Lunch at UNM is ARTS Lab's Friday lunchtime get-together with students, teachers and professionals from the community. Special thanks to Cinnafilm for its support.

 

Artificial Selection Events @ ARTS Lab

We're very excited to be working with the good folks at 516 Arts in Albuquerque and their "Artificial Selection" event series (more info at http://www.516arts.org/exhibitions_pages/artificialselection.details.html).


What will you see here at ARTS lab?


ROBO-HACK-O-RAMA (Thursday, April 29th 2PM) 

516 ARTS and UNM ARTS Lab present a workshop and demo exploring some how-to techniques of robotics and hacking as they can be applied to artistic practices. This workshop is led by Simon Mehalek, artist and researcher featured in Artificial Selection.


Participants will learn robotics concepts, options for different sensor systems, and how Arduinos can be used to control other systems. Participants will work in groups to complete assembly and initial programming of basic moving robot w/ wheels, sensors and an arduino brain.
Open to teens, students and adults.


UNM Students Free (w/ ID -- space is limited, so pre-register)
516 Arts Member $12
Community Participant $15


Visit http://artslab-robo.eventbrite.com/ to sign up!
(no service charge if you pay by cash or check at the door)



MAN, MACHINES & METROPOLIS (featuring The Chuppers) (Friday, April 30th 8PM)

In conjunction with the Artificial Selection exhibition, 516 ARTS and UNM ARTS Lab present a unique evening of live music and digital media inspired by the dystopic vision of Fritz Lang’s classic film Metropolis (1927) and issues of humanity and machines. This event features a performance by The Chuppers, a showing of specially selected content in ARTS Lab’s fulldome theater, the “GDome”, and a few other treats. The Chuppers grew out of UNM’s Electric Ensemble, a collaboration between UNM’s Music Department, Ubik Sound and the Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media Program (IFDM). Facilitated by Manny Rettinger, the group creates musical instruments called “chuppers” which combine old and new technology, including audio processors, speakers, computers, microphones, cameras, traditional and non-traditional instruments, projectors and more.

UNM Students & Faculty $5 

516 Arts Member $5

General Public $8

Visit http://metropolis.eventbrite.com/ to sign up!
(no service charge if you pay by cash or check at the door)

And again -- more info at http://www.516arts.org/exhibitions_pages/artificialselection.details.html for other Natural Selection Events w/ 516 Arts!


Opening Reception @ 516 Arts on Saturday, April 24th from 6-8PM

THIS FRIDAY: Cultural Media Development for "Tales of the Maya Skies" @ Digital Lunch

Cultural Media Development for "Tales of the Maya Skies"

How did UNM's ARTS Lab fulldome team approach the creation of a scene from Mayan mythology for the fulldome? Join ARTS Lab's Hue Walker for a view of the development process both from a technical and a cultural standpoint; how ancient and current Mayan imagery and stories were incorporated into a fulldome mythic world that would evoke the mysterious story of the Mayan hero twins.

WHAT:       Digital Lunch @ UNM:  Making Maya Skies

WHEN:       Friday, April 23, 12 - 1:00 PM

WHERE:     UNM ARTS Lab, 131 Pine St., NE

COST:         Free & Open to the Public (includes lunch)

ABOUT HUE WALKER:
Hue Walker has been working in the world of fulldome since 2001, building an understanding and theory basis for immersive artwork and visualization. She works to both create and encourage others to create more thoughtfully designed content and techniques for immersive media. She is currently senior artist at UNM's ARTS Lab.

ABOUT DIGITAL LUNCH AT UNM:
Digital Lunch at UNM is ARTS Lab's Friday lunchtime get-together with students, teachers and professionals from the community. Special thanks to Cinnafilm for its support.

From ARTS Lab @ UNM

Digital Lunch (4/23): Making Maya Skies

How did the team at UNM's ARTS Lab create the world for the fulldome show, "Tales of the Maya Skies"?  Join ARTS Lab's Hue Walker for a trip behind the scenes to see how she and the team took cultural artifacts and other sources to fashion a piece that would truly evoke the spirit of the Mayan culture.


More details to come!

WHAT:       Digital Lunch @ UNM:  Making Maya Skies

WHEN:       Friday, April 23, 12 - 1:00 PM

WHERE:     UNM ARTS Lab, 131 Pine St., NE

COST:         Free & Open to the Public (includes lunch)

ABOUT DIGITAL LUNCH AT UNM:
Digital Lunch at UNM is ARTS Lab's Friday lunchtime get-together with students, teachers and professionals from the community. Special thanks to Cinnafilm for its support.

From ARTS Lab @ UNM

Gale Memorial Lecture Series Thursday Night: Phillip Thurtle

Phillip Thurtle, the final speaker in the Gale Memorial Lecture Series.

WHEN:    Thursday, April 15th at 5pm

WHERE:  ARTS Lab Garage,  131 Pine St. NE

Directions at: http://artslab.unm.edu/where.html

FREE and open to the public.

PHILLIP THURTLE :: Vital imagery: animation and life

The world presented through digital technology is an increasingly animated world.  Film, the WWW, and television now contain significant amounts of animated content. Despite the prevalence of animated content, few scholars have begun to explore the cultural, epistemic, and phenomenological dimensions of animated experience. This talk will focus on one specific component of animation, the differential manipulation of layered surfaces, in order to deepen an understanding of why animation is so useful for depicting change over time. An exploration of the animations of William Kentridge and Stephanie Maxwell, will help us understand why some animations seem to posses an extraordinarily amount of vitality, the feeling of the potential for change even if nothing really changes. We will then see how the emerging science of evolutionary and developmental biology uses this sense of vitality to depict the development of living organisms.

BIO:

Phillip Thurtle is the acting director of the Comparative History of Ideas program and an associate professor in the History Department at the University of Washington. He is the author of /The Emergence of Genetic Rationality: Space, Time, and Information in American Biology 1870-1920/ (University of Washington Press, 2008), the co-author with Robert Mitchell (English, Duke University) and Helen Burgess (English, University of Maryland) of the interactive DVD-ROM /BioFutures: Owning Information an Body Parts/ (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008), and the co-editor with Robert Mitchell of the volumes /Data Made Flesh: Embodying Information/ (Routledge, 2003) and /Semiotic Flesh: Information and the Human Body/ (University of Washington Press, 2002). His research focuses on the material culture of information processing, the affective-phenomenlogical domains of media, the role of information processing technologies in biomedical research, and theories of novelty in the life sciences. His most recent work is on the cellular spaces of transformation in evolutionary and developmental biology research and the cultural spaces of transformation in superhero comics.

Digital Lunch THIS Friday: Kicking & Screaming Into the Digital Age

How are filmmakers embracing the new tools and digital technologies at our disposal?  Please join us for our next Digital Lunch this Friday at ARTS Lab with local filmmaker -- and tech developer Anton Kozikowski.

WHAT:       Digital Lunch @ UNM:  Kicking & Screaming Into the Digital Age

WHEN:       Friday, April 16, 12 - 1:00 PM

WHERE:     UNM ARTS Lab, 131 Pine St., NE

COST:         Free & Open to the Public (includes lunch)

About Anton Kozikowski:

• Anton Kozikowski is an Emmy award winning Writer/Producer who cut his teeth at CBS In San Francisco where he produced promotional content for Investigative Reports, Survivor, Super Bowl XXXVIII and Special Projects. 
• In 2005 Kozikowski established Blur to Focus Productions. His 25 minute documentary film "Climate Change: New Mexico" was featured on Comcast "On-demand" and incorporated NASA Satellite Imaging, Animation, 3D Compositing and interviews from the country's top environmental specialists. The film examined snowpack and streamflow at the Santa Fe watershed. (Currently being presented in science curriculum at several NM schools)
• In 2009, Kozikowski worked with Mechanical Designer Ed Reasner, and a team of Engineers from Los Alamos labs to develop camera stabilization technology and will be pursuing the patent process in 2010.
• Kozikowski was recently First AD on a REDCAM film out of New York. The film "Stuck" was shot on the same location as "No Country for Old Men."  He is currently in post production on a short action drama film titled: "Wild Horses" which he directed and produced. Wild Horses was shot using HVX200 and the RedRock M2 lens adapter system (http://www.redrockmicro.com/micro35.html)  and is scheduled for release in July.

ABOUT DIGITAL LUNCH AT UNM:
Digital Lunch at UNM is ARTS Lab's Friday lunchtime get-together with students, teachers and professionals from the community. Special thanks to Cinnafilm for its support.

From ARTS Lab @ UNM

April SIGGRAPH Meeting: "The Making of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland" 4/10

One of the bigger, cooler things happening in New Mexico's digital media world is the resurgence of New Mexico's "Rio Grande" SIGGRAPH Chapter.  Connecting all parts of the state is part of their mission -- and programs are including many different aspects of media (we've already had game development and reel review 'events' with both Albuquerque and Las Cruces locations).

If you haven't been following RG-SIGGRAPH already, this is a great time to sign up with them on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=166192065528) and sign up for their new, especially cool event next Saturday. More info below:

 

Rio Grande SIGGRAPH April Meeting:

Sony Pictures Imageworks presents The Making of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland
Saturday, April 10th, 4pm

WHERE:

ALBUQUERQUE
Woodward Hall, UNM Main Campus
Albuquerque, NM 87131
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107557564493071140294.00045c7c58ffcdcae8475&ll=35.083578,-106.621692&spn=0.007735,0.014409&z=17

LAS CRUCES
DACC Campus Room 272
3400 South Espina St
Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003-8001
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107557564493071140294.00045c7c58ffcdcae8475&ll=32.279686,-106.753775&spn=0.007991,0.014409&z=17

Sony Pictures Imageworks shares behind-the-scenes insights on creating the amazing visuals for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Local Albuquerque artists Bob Winter, CG Supervisor, and Jeff Schu, Lead Animator, will presenter.

Meeting locations will be at UNM's Woodward Hall in Albuquerque and DACC Campus room 272 in Las Cruces.

 

Thanks to Dona Ana Community College and UNM's Interdisciplinary Film & Digital Media Program for their support!

Make sure to RSVP on Facebook - space may be limited!
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=110816008936251&ref=mf