Coming Next Week @ ARTS Lab

We've got a crazy week coming up... and I think it'll only get crazier. Here's a quick run-down of the next week @ ARTS Lab:

Tuesday (11/10) @ 4:00 PM: Gale Memorial Lecture Series: Ed Osborn (FREE)

Ed OSBORN

http://www.roving.net/

Ed Osborn works with many forms of electronic media including installation, video, sound, and, performance. His pieces show a tactile sense of space, movement, image and aurality combined with a precise economy of materials. Osborn has received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Creative Work Fund, and Arts International and been awarded residencies from the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program, the Banff Centre for the Arts, Het Apollohuis (Eindhoven, Netherlands), STEIM (Amsterdam), the Djerassi Resident Artist Program (Woodside, CA), and the Center for Research and Computing in the Arts at UC San Diego.

He has presented his work worldwide with exhibitions at the singuhr-hörgalerie (Berlin, Germany), the Berkeley Art Museum (Berkeley, CA), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco), Artspace (Sydney, Australia), the Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane, Australia), Sonambiente Festival (Berlin, Germany), the Kiasma Museum, (Helsinki, Finland), MassMOCA (North Adams, MA), the Auckland Art Gallery (Auckland, NZ), and the Sonic Arts Research Centre (Belfast, Northern Ireland) among many others. He has lectured and taught in numerous institutions and is currently Assistant Professor in the Visual Art Department at Brown University.

Wednesday (11/11) @ 6:00 PM: Rio Grande IGDA Meet & Greet (FREE)

Interested in game development here in New Mexico? Come meet the people who are making it happen in our (growing) local game industry.

More info at the NEW IGDA site: http://www.igda.org/albuquerque

Monday (11/9) @ 7:30 PM: SPECTRE Series: Malcolm Goldstein ($5/$10 Suggested Donation)

The penultimate show of William Collins' experimental music series features composer/violinist/improviser Malcolm Goldstein.

More info at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184577108254

NM Game Jam Coming (July 10th through 12th)

NM Game Jam Challenges Video Game Developers To Make a Game in 48 Hrs

The Rio Grande chapter of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) presents the first ever NM Game Jam, a 48 hour video game development challenge to be held the second weekend of July (July 10^th – July 12^th). Inspired by their participation in the Global Game Jam earlier this year, members of the Rio Grande IGDA have organized a similar event for New Mexicans to spend a wild weekend designing and creating innovative games.

A game jam follows a format much like the 48 Hour Film Festival being held the same weekend. Participants arrive on Friday evening to receive three theme words, chosen at random, roulette-wheel style, from a published list of 30 potential themes provided by game writer and chapter member Carolyn Handler Miller. Participants brainstorm ideas on possible games that incorporate two of the three chosen themes and form teams to build their games.

Once the teams have decided on their game’s premise, the participants are in a mad rush to create the art, music, and code that will produce a playable version of their concept. Luke Nihlen, President of 10^th Artist and project lead for the lone Albuquerque team in the Global Game Jam, gives his impression on why this type of event leads to making innovative games:

"The great thing about a game jam is that the limited time forces developers to focus on accomplishing only a small feature set. Smart developers will focus on gameplay and will plan in a gameplay-centric fashion. Specifically, the question that should come up in planning is "What does this feature add to the gameplay?" This, in my opinion, is the way that any good game is made."

The creators of the NM Game Jam hope that this event accomplishes several missions, most importantly to help cultivate and strengthen the budding game development industry taking shape in the state. Jon Whetzel, Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories and Rio Grande IGDA chair member, viewed the Global Game Jam as “the best method I’ve seen so far in getting people even remotely interested in making games involved. Not only did I get to meet several game developers, both seasoned and new, who share the same passion, but we all contributed to putting a game together that still makes me proud.” Eric Renz-Whitmore, Program Coordinator for the UNM ARTS Lab and Chairman of the Rio Grande IGDA hopes that the event shows off New Mexico's game-making talent. "There's a tremendous amount of creativity here, which we saw at the Global Game Jam," said Renz-Whitmore. "This is a great opportunity to meet, work together and have fun."

The NM Game Jam is scheduled to start on July 10^th at 6:00 pm at the UNM ARTS Lab (131 Pine St., NE). The NM Game Jam concludes on Sunday July 12^th at 6:00 pm followed immediately with game demonstrations and presentations. For more information of the NM Game Jam, visit their website ( http://nmgamejam.org) or contact Eric Renz-Whitmore (whitmore@unm.edu or 277-2253).

Chris Crawford to speak at ARTS Lab (6/13)

We're very excited to welcome legendary Game Designer/Thinker/Author Chris Crawford to New Mexico this June.  He'll be speaking at the Santa Fe Complex on Wednesday, June 10th -- and at a special Rio Grande IGDA event at UNM's ARTS Lab on Saturday, June 13th.

More info on the ARTS Lab / IGDA event below -- and at: http://nm-games.eventbrite.com/ 

Lecture:  Process-Oriented Thinking

The central problem in designing software is the difficulty of creating algorithms that describe interesting and useful processes. This lecture will explain the precise nature of this problem, the source in our natural thinking processes, and how designers might overcome the problem.


Workshop: Interactive Storytelling

Interactive storytelling is not at all similar to games; it appeals to a different audience and challenges different mental processes. The lecture will describe some of the basic concepts in interactive storytelling, and afterwards we will go over some of the basics of the Storytron approach to interactive storytelling. Attendees who have a laptop are encouraged to bring it for this session.

Details

When:          Saturday, June 13th; 1:00 PM Talk; 2:00 PM Workshop

Where:         UNM ARTS Lab, 131 Pine Street, NE (see map!)

How Much:  Free!  (But please consider joining the IGDA  -- and our Rio Grande chapter)

About Chris Crawford

Chris Crawford earned a Master of Science degree in Physics from the University of Missouri in 1975. After teaching physics for several years, he joined Atari as a game designer in 1979. There he created a number of games: Energy Czar, an educational simulation about the energy crisis, Scram, a nuclear power plant simulation, Eastern Front (1941), a wargame, Gossip, a social interaction game, and Excalibur, an Arthurian game.

Following the collapse of Atari in 1984, Crawford took up the Macintosh. He created Balance of Power, a game about diplomacy, Patton Versus Rommel, a wargame, Trust & Betrayal, a social interaction game, Balance of the Planet, an environmental simulation game, and Patton Strikes Back, a wargame. In 1992, Crawford decided to leave game design and concentrate his energies on interactive storytelling, a field that he believed would become important. He created a major technology for interactive storytelling systems, patenting it in 1997. He is now commercializing his technology at his company website at storytron.com.

Crawford has written five published books: The Art of Computer Game Design, now recognized as a classic in the field, in 1982; Balance of Power (the book) in 1986; The Art of Interactive Design in 2002; Chris Crawford on Game Design in 2003; and Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling in 2004.

He created the first periodical on game design, the Journal of Computer Game Design, in 1987. He founded and served as Chairman of the Computer Game Developers’ Conference, now known as the Game Developers’ Conference.

Crawford has given hundreds of lectures at conferences and universities around the world, and published dozens of magazine articles and academic papers.

Crawford served as computer system designer and observer for the 1999 and 2002 NASA Leonid MAC airborne missions; he also has done some analysis of the resulting data. He lives in southern Oregon with his wife, 3 dogs, 10 cats, 5 ducks, and 3 burros.

This Thursday: Game Developers @ O'Niells

How do 11 local game developers create an XBox game over a weekend?

Join Luke Nihlen and the team behind ChromaGeist for a wrap-up of their experience during the 48 hour Global Game Jam -- and updates on their efforts to upgrade the game for release on XBox Live Arcade.

Also... Reports back from this year's Game Developers Conference Attendees.

And info on upcoming events, like this year's GameSlam.

It's all this Thursday at O'Niells Pub Meeting Room, 4310 Central Avenue SE (by Washington).

Who: Game Developers & enthusiasts (ages 17 and up)
What: Global Game Jam Wrap-up & Update
When: 5:30 - 7:00 PM, Thursday, April 9th
Where: O'Niells Pub, 4310 Central Avenue SE
Cost: Free, but a $5 donation is appreciated

Global Game Jam | Albuquerque -- video on-line

this might not be too exciting visually... but we've got a great crew of folks here for Global Game Jam.

Free TV : Ustream

Global Game Jam this Friday

Image via Wikipedia

There are only a few hours to go before Global Game Jam (an international game development 'jam' competition) starts -- it officially kicks off here in New Mexico at 5PM January 30th over at ARTS Lab.

Want to sign up? I need your info today! (ewhitmore at gmail dot com)

For more information, visit: http://groups.google.com/group/riogrande-igda?hl=en
Or the main Global Game Jam site: Global Game Jam

UNM ARTS Lab hosts Global Game Jam (1/30-2/1)

UNM's ARTS Lab will host the New Mexico operations of this year's Global Game Jam. What is the Global Game Jam? From their site:

What is a Game Jam?
In a Game Jam, participants come together to make video games. Each participant works in a small team on a complete game project over the course of a limited time period, usually over a weekend. With such a small time frame, the games tend to be innovative and experimental. The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the first of its kind: a game Jam that takes place in the same 48 hours all over the world! The global Game Jam will start at 5:00PM Friday, January 30, 2009 through 5:00PM Sunday, February 1, 2009, (all times local). All participants in the Global Game Jam will be constrained by the same rules and limitations, with each time zone having one distinct constraint.

The inaugural Global Game Jam also features a streaming video keynote from World of Goo developer Kyle Gabler (pretty cool!).

Street Address: 131 Pine St., NE (One block west of University Blvd., 1/2 block north of Central)
Building Name: UNM ARTS Lab

Participants must pre-register - no admission without pre-registration

This Week: Animators, Game Developers & Tech Legislation

Lots of good things going on this week that we'd like you to know about.

AniMotion NM Holiday Meet-up (12/9)
IGDA Holiday Fundraiser (12/11)
NMITSA Tech Legislation Preview (12/12)

Animotion NM
Animotion NM is teaming up with the Art Center Design College Animation club for
a holiday potluck celebration with film, food and friends: entries from 2008 motionawards and motionfest will be shown and they're also planning a holiday exchange, so please bring books, software and/or hardware that's collecting dust to swap with others and the items they've brought

WHEN: Tuesday, December 9th from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in the
WHERE: The Art Center Design College Auditorium ( Map ).
For more info, contact the Art Center Design College's Animation Club President, Jake Anthony Mirabal, at jayxter@gmail.com


IGDA Child's Play Charity Game Night

The Rio Grande International Game Developers Association chapter is glad to announce our 2nd annual holiday fundraiser for Child's Play (http://www.childsplaycharity.org/).

Since 2003, over 100,000 gamers worldwide have banded together through Child's Play, a community based charity grown and nurtured from the game culture and industry. Over two million dollars in donations of toys, games, books and cash for sick kids in children's hospitals across North America and the world have been collected since our inception.

Participants will have a chance to play different games of skill and chance to become tournament champion. All proceeds go to Child's Play.

WHEN: Thursday, December 11th, 6-9PM
WHERE: O'Niells Pub, 4310 Central SE Albuquerque
COST: $10 Donation
Info: More info at: http://groups.google.com/group/riogrande-igda?hl=en

Can't make it? You can also donate at http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html/?_&id=21EIN5ZGOFY3U

NMITSA Tech Legislation Preview
For our December luncheon, NMITSA heads north to hear what we can expect from the 2009 session of the New Mexico State Legislature. State Science and Technology Adviser Tom Bowles will provide an overview on state priorities and expected legislation. Also on the program, former ACI director (and current NMITSA board member) Sayuri Yamada will discuss how to work with the legislature and Santa Fe Complex Executive Director Don Begley will explain ways to become more engaged with the legislative actions affecting our businesses and our lives.

WHEN: Friday, December 12th 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM (Presentation begins at noon)
WHERE: Santa Fe Complex, 624 Agua Fria, Santa Fe.
Click here for directions
COST: $25 to NMITSA & Affiliate Members; $40 to other guests.
Please RSVP to Eric Renz-Whitmore (mailto:ewhitmore@gmail.com)
Or sign up and pay online here.

Following the luncheon session, we're also planning discussions of potential activities for a northern chapter of NMITSA -- and on digital media use of NMCAC, New Mexico's Supercomputer.

We hope you can join us!

The Excitement: an Event Update

Hi everyone...

Been a little while, but after this Tuesday's excitement (Please VOTE, if you haven't already), there are a few things we're involved with that we'd like to share some information on...

Thursday, November 6th
ARTS Lab Experimental Music Series

ARTS Lab presents the first in a series of experimental music concerts featuring composer-performers who work inside (and outside) the musical fields of Electroacoustic, Acousmatic, Noise, and Free improvisation.

The first evening features a collaborative performance by Raven Chacon and William Fowler Collins and a set by Luperci. Doors are at 7:00 PM, with the first performance starting by 7:30 PM.

Where: ARTS Lab Garage - 131 Pine Street NE, Albuquerque, NM 87106, just north of Central and one block west of University
When: 7:00 PM
Cost: $5-10 sliding scale
Web: http://artslabmusic.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, November 11th
AniMotion NM

ARTS Lab hosts this monthly meeting of the local animation and visual effects community, with guest speaker Brad Swardson. More info to come...

Where: ARTS Lab Garage - 131 Pine Street NE, Albuquerque, NM 87106, just north of Central and one block west of University
When: 8:00 PM
Cost: always FREE
Web: http://www.nmaug.com/

Tuesday, November 11th
Rio Grande IGDA: An Evening with Novint Technologies
This month the Rio Grande IGDA proudly presents an evening featuring Novint Technologies, creators of the critically-acclaimed Novint Falcon.

Born out of haptics (3D touch) research conducted at Sandia National Laboratories, Novint Technologies has made it possible to simulate realistic sensations of touch through a low-cost consumer device. Recently, Novint Technologies has been a buzz in the game development world, with major publishers such as Electronic Arts and Valve signing up to have the Falcon integrated into their respective titles. Along with these titles, Novint has self-published several games featuring the Falcon, and just released the Pistol Grip addition to the Falcon, giving a new experience to the first person shooter genre. Representatives will be on hand discussing the latest developments at Novint and have plenty of Falcons on hand for attendees to try.

From the company website:

"Novint Technologies, Inc. (NVNT) is the pioneer of 3D touch for consumer computing. Novint is developing a new category of products that add high-fidelity interactive three-dimensional touch to computing, beginning with our introduction of the award-winning Novint Falcon. The Novint Falcon is a first-of-a-kind game controller that lets you experience realistic 3D touch and force feedback when playing touch-enabled games."

What: Rio Grande IGDA Meeting: An Evening with Novint Technologies
When: November 11, 2008. 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm (meeting starts promptly at
7:00).
Where: Arts Center Design College (5000 Marble Ave NE)
Cost: Free!
Web: http://groups.google.com/group/riogrande-igda?hl=en


Thursday, November 13th
NMITSA Tech Lunch: IT Projects as a Catalyst for Change

For our November luncheon, NMITSA is pleased to welcome Dr. Chelle Stringer in a preview of her talk to the Ninth International Conference on Knowledge, Culture and Change in Organisations:

IT Projects as a Catalyst for Organizational Changes: The Other Side of IT Projects

There is a synergistic relationship between information technology projects and organizational change. Organizations decide to implement new technology in order to achieve something they are not currently achieving or to continue performing in a changing environment. The technology implementation usually initiates and often requires changes to policies and procedures, job duties and responsibilities, communication channels, and use of terminology. Additionally, the technology design should address the organizational need which prompted the technology project in the first place.

This presentation will outline five hurdles that IT projects face and strategies for overcoming each hurdle. These strategies have been proven in both private and public sector organizations.

WHEN: Thursday, November 13th 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM (Presentation begins at noon)

WHERE: Technology Integration Group (TIG) 2731 Broadway St NE Suite F

COST: $25 for members of NMITSA Organizations (1 free each); $40 for other guests

WEB: http://www.nmitsa.org

Also coming up with NMITSA (full disclosure, I'm a board member), we're pleased to kick off both our Santa Fe meeting series and relationship with the Santa Fe Complex with our December event:

Friday, December 12th
NMITSA Launches Santa Fe event series with Tech Legislation Preview

As part of NMITSA's efforts to better serve our Northern New Mexico members, we're launching a quarterly luncheon in Santa Fe at the Santa Fe Complex Friday December 12th with our annual Tech Legislation Preview.

From the NM Supercomputer to broadband access and other technology initiatives, the 2009 NM legislative session will shape our tech business landscape for years to come. Featuring State Science and Technology Advisor Tom Bowles, Economic Development Department Director for Science and Technology Stephan Helgeson, and others in technology development, this special NMITSA membership luncheon will provide attendees with a rundown of legislation to watch and the players involved.

WHEN: Friday, December 12th 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM (Presentation begins at noon)

WHERE: Santa Fe Complex, 624 Agua Fria, Santa Fe

COST: $25 for members of NMITSA Organizations (1 free each); $40 for other guests

WEB: http://www.nmitsa.org


And... in January, the NM Media Industries Conference returns on Saturday, January 17th as "MIX" at UNM's Student Union Building. Please save the date.

Education & Serious Games @ IGDA 9/10

There are several exciting things going on in New Mexico's game development community. Please take a look:

First, this month's Rio Grande IGDA chapter meeting will take close a look at educational games ("serious games" for adults as well as video games for school-aged kids). These kinds of games are one of the fastest growing arenas in interactive media, offering exciting opportunities for game developers. They are not only an important tool for classroom teaching and adult training, but they are also used in the health field, in advertising and a variety of other endeavors. Using real case studies, we'll be discussing lessons learned -- successful techniques that earn A's as well as badly-thought out approaches that garner F's. Special guest will be Carolyn Handler Miller, author of Digital Storytelling: A Creator's Guide to Interactive Entertainment and writer of numerous educational games. Also Janeen Anderson from Game Production Services will speak.

When: Wednesday September 10 2008
Time: 6:30 -- 8:30 PM
Where: The Art Center Design College
5000 Marble Ave. NE, Albuquerque NM 87110 (view map) (505) 254-7575
Room TBD, ask reception for directions
Cost: Free!

October's Rio Grande IGDA meeting will focus on teams developing games for the Microsoft Dream|Build|Play competition.

I'm also pleased to introduce our chapter's new program co-chairs, Jonathan Whetzel
(jhwhetz@sandia.gov) and Luke Nihlen (lnihlen@gmail.com) of Tenth Artist. Their energy and enthusiasm is already helping build our local game development community, and I think we'll be seeing even more exciting activities to come.

More info at: http://www.igda.org/albuquerque/events.html

Address 5000 Marble Ave. NE, Albuquerque NM 87110

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ARTS Lab Related Events This Week (10/22-26)

There's a whole bunch!

First, ARTS Lab is a long-time organizational sponsor of High Desert Venture Camp which produces workshops for students and 'emerging' entrepreneurs and helps start tech-oriented business here in New Mexico.

Our latest event with HDVC is the Advance Invention to Venture Workshop from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance -- it runs November 28th through December 1st at UNM. Interested? Want more information?
Visit our website at: http://www.highdesertventurecamp.com
or come by during our information session this Wednesday (10/24) from 5:00 - 6:30 PM at the UNM Student Union (Mirage / Thunder Room)

On Thursday (10/25), we're part of the Albuquerque IGDA Chapter's Membership Kick-Off event from 6:00 - 8:00 PM at Sauce/Raw downtown with special guest, Radical Entertainment CEO Kelly Zmak. For more info, visit the chapter site at: http://www.igda.org/albuquerque or sign up at: http://artslab.unm.edu/igda

Interested in working with green screens? Our ARTS Lab Fridays kick off this Friday (10/26) with a session for indie filmmakers and others interested in doing green screen work for film, events and... can you come up with other interesting possibilities?
For more info, visit our events page at: http://artslab.unm.edu/newsevents (and please sign up if you're coming!

Interested in other ARTS Lab and local events? Visit our news and events page, this blog, or sign up for our events listserv by emailing us at artslab@unm.edu (or do all three, several times a day).