Recent Highlights

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07/07/2007	Game Recreates Lost Oakland Music Scene For the past two years, students in the Graduate School of Journalism have been working with graduate students in the Architecture department to create a three-dimensional rendition of Oakland’s vibrant Seventh Street jazz and blues club scene of the 1940s and ’50s. This virtual reality game aims to revive a long-lost Oakland music scene and the cultural identity of the area.
04/05/2007	International Remix This year the San Francisco International Film Festival wanted to ask directors if they would allow excerpts of their films to be put on the web and remixed. They approached me to ask if Yahoo! Research Berkeley could build a web-based tool to enable this. 2 months later, it's up: http://fest06.sffs.org/remix/ Try it out, and send your feedback to: remixer-feedback@yahoo-inc.com
02/15/2007	Leah Garchik, SF Chronicle Technical difficulties: Two hundred or so revelers celebrated the 10th anniversary of UC Berkeley's Art, Technology and Culture lecture series at the Hearst Atrium on Tuesday night, an event that featured Matmos, recently returned from touring with Björk. When Drew Daniel and Martin Schmidt, both internationally known sound artists, got up to speak to the digerati, however, there was terrible feedback on the sound system. Instead of fumbling along, says lecture series founder Ken Goldberg, Daniel and Schmidt moved around the stage with the mikes off, played a water bottle and fooled around with other objects, and, in keeping with the theme of the event, "the talk turned into a performance.'' ...
02/02/2007	New Media & Social MemoryInternship Openings at Industrial Light and Magic On January 18, 2007, the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive presented New Media & Social Memory, a public symposium to discuss strategies for preserving digital art and digital culture. The video of this symposium is now available online for watching, downloading, and sharing. If you missed this event in person; catch it in bit form. Go to this page and click on the names in the symposium program to see each panel/talk: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/about_bampfa/avantgarde.html
05/05/2006	Internship Opening: Summer 2006 Internship Openings at Industrial Light and Magic Position Summary: Under direction of Training Staff, review and edit existing on-line technical documentation for ILMs proprietary applications. Learn the fundamentals of various software packages used at ILM. Desired skills: * Two plus years in graphics or film production environment preferred. * Familiarity with 2D and 3D software packages, such as , such as Maya, XSI, or 3D Studio * Ability to synthesize highly complex technical information into concise and easily comprehensible text. * Demonstrated facility in learning of new technologies. * Exceptional organizational ability. * Excellent writing skills * Strong ability to convey complex information in a clear and appealing form. * Extremely self-motivated and self-sufficient * Strong interest in film and computer graphics Education, Experience and Skills: · Undergraduate students or recent graduates with a computer science major preferred * Experience with XML a plus * Editing experience a plus To Apply: If you or someone you know is interested in this position please submit a resume online at www.ilm.com. You may also send a resume to Industrial Light + Magic Attn: Recruiting, Job # 11-06, P.O. Box 29909 San Francisco, CA 94129-0909.
04/12/2006	Job Opening: Postdoctoral Research Associate The Center for New Media at the University of California, Berkeley, invites applications for three postdoctoral research positions, sponsored by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation. The positions are for one year with the possibility of renewal for one or more years. The postdoctoral researcher will work as a fieldworker/ethnographer on a project on digital kids and informal learning, which involves foundational research on how children and youth are using information and communication technologies and participating on the Internet. The project is led by Professor Peter Lyman in the School of Information Management and Systems and Dr. Diane Harley at UC Berkeley. Responsibilities involve monitoring and participating in online activity, conducting interviews with kids and parents, and participant observing in schools and community programs. Researchers would also be responsible for analyzing, writing, and presenting results, and considering policy and design implications of the ethnographic research. Additional responsibilities include assistance with overall project management, guidance/direction of graduate students, managing databases, and other project logistics as needed. We seek candidates with Ph.D.s (required) in fields such as science and technology studies, information sciences, communications, education, anthropology, and sociology with background and interest in areas related to new media, education, and childhood studies. The ideal candidate would have experience in ethnographic fieldwork, collaborative and interdisciplinary research, and experience working with kids and families. Experience running large multi-site, collaborative research projects a plus. Excellent writing, editing, and data management and analytical skills required. Experience with web technologies a plus. Spanish language ability is also a plus. The positions will be full time, salary commensurate with experience from $31,668 to $49,129. Applications should include a CV, a cover letter including a personal statement, and a brief statement of research goals and experience in relation to ethnographic research on kids and technology and names and full contact information for three recommenders. Address all application materials to Evelyn Wong, Center for New Media, University of California, Berkeley, 390 Wurster Hall, Mail Code 1839, Berkeley, CA 94720-1839. Application deadline is May 5, 2006. The University of California is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer.
03/29/2006	Preserving Work That Falls Outside the Norm FOR centuries, museums, libraries and collectors have been forced to worry about how to keep artifacts and documents from falling into pieces. Despite the inevitable decay of the materials involved, curators and conservators have protected mummies, paintings and other objects. Now these curators and conservators find themselves in the digital era, with artists presenting work that challenges not only the audience, but also the traditions of preservation. The essential question is, How does a museum safeguard work that was built as an interactive experience and that may be based on computer code that will almost certainly disappear in less than two years?
02/21/2006	New Media Summer For the first time this summer, UC students and visitors can explore facets of the burgeoning world of New Media close-up through UC Summer Session courses. The first of the Center for New Media’s inaugural summer offerings is “Social Memory: Documenting ISEA 2006”. Instructor Richard Rinehart, Berkeley Art Museum Director of Digital Media, will introduce enrollees to the Media Art Notation System, a new metadata framework from the museum and art community. The Media Art Notation System uses new media to document, preserve, and “remember” cultural artifacts, such as media art and complex cultural projects, which have heretofore confounded traditional attempts at documentation. Students in this three week class will use and test the Media Art Notation System to document a live, complex cultural event, the ISEA2006/ZeroOne Conference and Electronic Arts Festival in San Jose. The second course, “Digital Reconstruction of Historic Sites”, melds issues of historic preservation with digital visualization. Instructor Laura Ackley will guide students in proposing, researching and presenting a digital reconstruction of a real world cultural historic site using 3D Studio MAX modeling to produce a 3D model, renderings and animation. Details and enrollment information may be found at the UC Summer Session website at http://summer.berkeley.edu/.
02/08/2006	They're not about whether you win or lose Greg Niemeyer finds both pleasure and insight in games from Roshambo to Pac-Man. According to Greg Niemeyer, games are much more than mere diversions. "Everything we know," he says, "we learn from games."
01/12/2006	America's wildest videos — coming to a monitor near you? CONE technology aims at helping biologists monitor animal behavior from the comfort of their keyboards.