Digital Technology and Culture
A blog for students and friends of Washington State University Vancouver's Digital Technology and Culture Program
Name: Dr. Dene Grigar
This blog is maintained by Dr. Dene Grigar, WSUVancouver. Contact me at grigar@vancouver.wsu.edu
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In the spring 2008, the DTC will host the Electronic Literature Organization's annual conference. Close to 200 electronic artists will particpate in the conference and its accompanying media arts show.
The keynote for the conference is Mark Amerika, named a "'Time Magazine 100 Innovator.'" His work "has shown at the Whitney Biennial, the ICA in London, the Walker Art Center, and the Denver Art Museum. He has had four early career retrospectives including the first-ever net art retrospective in the summer of 2001 at the ACA Media Arts Plaza in Tokyo, Japan ("Avant-Pop: The Stories of Mark Amerika [an Internet art retrospective]"). Both retrospectives covered the years 1993- 2001. In 2004, he had two new retrospectives, one at Ciberart Bilbao in Spain, and one at the Festival International de Linguagem Eletronica at the Gallerie do SESI in Sao Paulo, Brazil. A cult novelist, media theorist, web publisher, and VJ artist who has performed has performed internationally, Amerika is the author of many books including his recently published collection of artist writings entitled META/DATA: A Digital Poetics (The MIT Press)." He is "founder of the Alt-X Network, publisher of the electronic book review, and a Professor of Art and Art History at the University of Colorado at Boulder."
Mark will be hosting a workshop for conference participants as well as DTC students on Thursday, May 29, 2008. More details will follow. In the meantime, check out his website: markamerika.com
--Dene
The Digital Technology and Culture program is happy to announce its fall 2007 “Artists-in-Residence” Program.
The DTC Artists-in-Residence Program is comprised of three two-week to month-long residencies taking place during the fall 2007 semester. Three different artists will visit, each taking one of the residencies. During their stay at Washington State University Vancouver the artists will teach a segment of DTC 477 “Advanced Multimedia Authoring,” a course that provides students high level technology skills needed for careers in digital media, and DTC 300, the one-hour lab course associated with it; mentor students interested in pursuing a career in digital media; network with faculty at Washington State University Vancouver; and offer learning opportunities to the Vancouver community through such activities as workshops, exhibits, or performances.
The first artist arriving for the program is Canadian-UK new media writer and animation specialist, Chris Joseph, currently Digital Writer in Residence at the Institute of Creative Technologies in De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. Also known as “babel,” Joseph has produced such award-winning works as Inanimate Alice, The Breathing Wall, and Animalamina. Joseph will teach the animation segment of the course.
The second artist is Steve Gibson, a Canadian multimedia artist, composer, curator, and theorist. He completed his Ph.D. at SUNY Buffalo, where he studied music composition, and completed postdoctoral research in media and technology with Arthur Kroker at Concordia University in Montréal. He was formerly Senior Lecturer and Director of the Multimedia Program at Karlstad University in Sweden, and now serves as Associate Professor of Digital Media at University of Victoria, Canada. For the course Gibson will teach multimedia performance and installation with an emphasis on digital music.
The third artist, Samantha Blackmon, is an Associate Professor of English at Purdue University. She received her PhD from Wayne State University in 2001 and has been working in the area of computer-mediated environments and game development. During the semester she will teach storyboarding and writing for video games.
I am hosting a Resume Writing Workshop on Thursday, June 28 at 11 a.m. in VMMC 111. Although it is part of my DTC 476 course, I am opening it up to all interested DTC students.
If you decide to join us, please bring a copy of your most recent resume on a flash drive or CD. You will be able to work on your resume during the workshop. In other words, the workshop offers the opportunity for a hands on experience reworking and fine tuning your resume rather than a lecture about resumes.
--Dene
Andy Opel leaves WSUV's DTC program to return home to Florida. Those of you who had the opportunity to take his Video Production course know that his contribution to our program was a valuable one. We all wish him a safe return.
Thank you for joining us for Summer I, Andy!
As most of you know, a requirement of the DTC major is the completion of the Senior Seminar. With the Senior Seminar students have two options: Those who are interested in pursuing a job after graduation are encouraged to take the Internship (DTC 498), which John Barber oversees; those interested in graduate school are encouraged to take a formal, project-driven course, which I oversee.
The course that has traditionally served as the Senior Seminar course is DTC 476. This course will continue to be used for this purpose until I create a special DTC course for the Senior Seminar, which should happen for fall 2008.
Because the enrollment for DTC 498 and DTC 476 are small, we have to be careful about when to offer them since the university requires a certain number of students to "make" the class. It is for that reason that the two courses are not both offered in the summer. The key is to offer a good course rotation so that students can get the courses when the students need it *and* for the courses to have enough students in them to satisfy university enrollment requirements.
That said, we are offering DTC 476 this summer and in fall 2007 and NOT in spring 2008. And we are offering DTC 498 in the fall 2007 and spring 2008 and NOT in the summers.
**********So, if you are a student planning to graduate next spring (2008) and you need to complete the Senior Seminar requirement, you should plan on taking these courses when they are available. Once again, here are your choices:************
Summer 2007: DTC 476 (Summer II)
Fall 2007: DTC 498 and DTC 476
Spring 2008: DTC 498
There is still room in the summer DTC 476 course that begins next Tuesday and room in both DTC 498 and DTC 476 offered in the fall.
If you are uncertain about your future plans, contact Teresa or me for advising. The key is not to find yourself trying to graduate and needing a course that is not offered. Plan ahead!
