Multimedia Student receives TCU Scholarship!

Richland Multimedia Student Phat Du has received a full tuition Graphic Design scholarship at Texas Christian University! Phat answered a few questions for us:

Q: So I heard you just got some scholarship to TCU, can you tell me more about it?
A: Texas Christian University in Fort Worth offered me a full tuition to join their Graphic Design program for 3 years, starting in January. I’m really excited about it. Their football team got
really good this year.

Q: How did you get this scholarship?
A: Well, they looked at my college essay, my letters of recommendation which were written by Dr. Sherry Dean and ex-gallery director Randall Garrett from the Fine Arts and Humanities department, then my resume including leadership of the Student Visual Arts Club, awards such as Photoshop World scholarship, runner up for student category 4th Annual Photoshopuser Awards, 1st place digital art category Richland Annual Art 07-08 and 08-09, exhibitions from the Computer Arts Festival, etc.

Q: That’s cool! They must really like your portfolio!
A: That’s a statement not a question.

Q: Sorry, did they look at your portfolio as well?
A: Yes, but that was after the scholarship. They wanted to make sure my classes are good enough to transfer. TCU grad alumni, new Richland gallery director, Ryder Richards took me there last month to do the portfolio review. It was a fun trip.

Q: Any other comments?
A: I would like to thank Richland Multimedia Department for providing me a strong foundation with their challenging courses, the long-open-hour lab where I built most of my art works. Special thanks to Mr. Dwayne Carter for his help with the art club and letting me use the school’s equipments, Mrs. Debbie Smith, Noah and Matt for their laughs and humors, Miss Marry Benedicto for the ride home at nights earlier this year. Lastly, I hope my story will be an inspiring legacy for future students at Richland.

Congratulations, Phat!

flickerlounge: 35mm

Robert Flowers, Richland College Multimedia Adjunct Faculty, will have a show coming up in early 2010 in Houston, TX.

flickerlounge: 35mm
By Robert Daniel Flowers
co-presented by Aurora Picture Show
January 15-February 20, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday, January 15, 2010, 6-8pm

http://www.diverseworks.org/index.php?pgid=3&subid=6&cid=262

Former Multimedia Student to be Honored

Former Multimedia student Uyen Vo will be added to the Richland College "Student Wall of Honor". After completing her Multimedia degree, Uyen got her BFA at the UTD Arts and Technology Program. She has been successfully employed as a Flash developer ever since. Because of her professional activity, Uyen now serves on Richland's Multimedia Advisory Committee."

The award ceremony will be November 18 at 10:00am in Crockett Hall.

Richland College student and journalist Rebecca Aguilar has received national attention for a social networking group she formed a couple of months ago on Facebook. She credits the Multimedia Program for opening her eyes to social media and networking.

USA Today article: Read it here

Facebook Community: Wise Latinas Linked

Student Work from Tuan Ho's Interactive Storyboarding class, GAME 1302

Some student storyboard pages from Tuan Ho's Interactive Storyboarding class.

one of our students, Mary Benedicto, is in this show

SUBTEXT PROJECTS presents EVERYTHING MUST GO

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 17, 2009

FORT WORTH-Subtext Projects, a group of Fort Worth area curators and writers, presents Everything Must Go. The exhibition, which opens July 23, 2009 at the Fort Worth Contemporary Arts Center and runs through August 6, 2009, takes a storefront approach to the traditional art gallery experience. The works showcased address the prevalence of our society’s increased addiction to commodities and the marketing industries’ goal of eliciting desire, bringing to the forefront the idea that the language of marketing and advertising is part of the fabric of contemporary art.

While Everything Must Go incorporates artworks of varying media, the works themselves are physically removed from the space of the viewer by the glass-paned façade of the gallery (which will not be open). Viewers will see the works strictly through the glass wall, much like viewing merchandise from a storefront of a closed shop or department store.

Traditionally, the gallery space serves as a location of display and ingestion of visual stimulus and concepts. Though often viewed with sincerity and thoughtful consideration, art is also unfairly subjected to mere glimpsing and blind looking. Throw in the added barrier of a glass wall and the formula for looking changes considerably. The storefront window obfuscates that which is normally so approachable. Unlike the storefronts in your local mall that shelter various wares meant to tease the senses and drive you right into the site of commerce, an altogether difference mechanism takes hold when an impenetrable glass barrier is placed in front of art-curiosity is piqued and, on a good day, it makes you want to take a long look at the work inside.

Artists have often explored the relationship between art and commerce - the gallery and store. Perhaps most famously, Andy Warhol provided a link between art as commercial display and the loftier realm of fine art. With his background in designing Bonwit Teller department store window displays in the early 1960s, Warhol pulled this approach to art making along with his as he launched his career as an artist.

Using a similar language as marketing and sales, the work in Everything Must Go mimics the tropes and conventions of the profession to expose its falsehoods and inadequacies. As the exhibition’s title suggests, everything does go in regards to rampant consumerism. And the artistic responses to it call attention to this often faulty free-for-all. As the market-savvy term-noted for its ability to move just about anything-entices and deceives our culture, it normatively does so under the cloak of progress and improvement. Here it is quashed when applied to a closed storefront full of artworks-tempting, indeed, but only agents of provocation and never fully obtainable.

Everything Must Go includes works by the collaborative group Everything in Heaven is TV (including artists Chad Allen, Ben Aqua, Juan Cisneros, Amanda Joy, and Eli Welbourne), and artists Mary Benedicto, David Horvitz, Fawn Krieger, Jason Simon, Viginia Yount, and Chu Yun.

This exhibition is the first organized by Subtext Projects and is curated by Alison Hearst and Erin Starr White. They are both art historians and writers living in Fort Worth, Texas.

Fort Worth Contemporary Arts is located at 2900 West Berry Street (at Greene Street), Fort Worth, Texas 76109.

A brief viewing of the exhibition will take place from 7:30- 8:00 pm on Friday, July 24.

Subtext Projects will also host a mini-film festival of works related to the exhibition. It will be held at Fort Worth Contemporary Arts on Saturday, July 25 beginning at 2:30 pm. A discussion with the curators will follow and all are invited to attend.

35mm Flowers

Robert Flowers, Richland College Multimedia Adjunct Faculty, has a currently-running show. Article: http://www.dallasobserver.com/events/35mm-1424201/


Robert Daniel Flowers' "Disjecta"
35mm Flowers

By Anastasia Jakse

If you've got a penchant for the psychedelically weird, then Robert Daniel Flowers' newest film project might be right up your alley. After graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute with an MFA in filmmaking, Flowers has produced a collection of films and videos from The Garden of Eden to Are There Fairies Dancing on the Lawn?...And If There Are, Can I Catch Them in a Net? From June 20 until July 6, an exhibition of his newest project, 35mm: a collection of five digitally manipulated films will be presented at the University of Texas at Dallas' Centraltrak from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. Get out of the summer heat and into a little oddity and a lot of creativity by checking out Flowers' films while you still can. Admission is free to UTD students with an ID. For more information contact the box office at 972-883-2552.


35mm
Date/Time: Every week Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday from Sat., June 20 until Mon., July 6, 12:00pm-5:00pm
Price: Free

Venue
Centraltrak
800 Exposition Ave.
Dallas, TX 75226
972-UTD-ARTS
Website

Tales from Multimedia - Lago Vista Gallery

Artwork on view from these Richland Digital Artists, April 2009.

The CSI teaser in Second Life

Check out the teaser from last October.

Second Life Articles

One of our faculty, Melissa Martinez, sent me some Second Life articles

This one is from Educause Quarterly -

Virtual World Learning Spaces: Developing a Second Life Operating Room Simulation.


From CNN.com -

Artists visit virtual Second Life for real-world cash

Call for Entries!

We want to celebrate your talent and hard work!

Students from the Richland College Multimedia Learning Center are encouraged to enter recent art.

Categories include: Animation, Digital Art, Web Comics, Video and uncategorizable art.

Entry Forms will be available March 10. Work will be accepted March 23-26.

Videos and Animations will be shown on the department blog and on You Tube.

Digital Art Prints must be matted or mounted on black or white. Students can also enter Digital Image Files. A selection of these files will be used on the web site. Others will be chosen for large format printing and exhibited in the Lago Vista Gallery, lower floor Library.

Large files should be no larger than 18 x 24 at 200 or 300 dpi. (exceptions can be made based on merit)

Awards and Prizes will be announced during the Festival. Works must be original and property of the person submitting.

More details and Entry Forms available in March. Bring submissions to the front desk in the Multimedia Learning Center (T246)

Patti Jennings sent this video about Second Life's creator

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/410

Tales of Multimedia: Call for Entries: Details TBA; Submissions March 21-26

The 17th Richland College Computer Arts Festival will take place March 31 and April 1.

Students are encouraged to enter recent Animations, Digital Art, Videos and other works. Entry Forms will be available March 10. Work will be accepted March 21-26.

Videos and Animations will be shown on the department blog and on You Tube.

Digital Art Prints must be matted or mounted on black or white. Students can also enter Digital Image Files. A selection of these files will be used on the website. Others will be chosen for large format printing and exhibited in the Lago Vista Gallery, lower floor Library.

Large files should be no larger than 18 x 24 at 200 or 300 dpi. (exceptions can be made based on merit)

Awards and Prizes will be announced during the Festival. Works must be original and property of the person submitting.

More details and Entry Forms available in March.

http://www.mmlab2.rlc.dcccd.edu/sideshow/

Georgeann Moss, Second Life team member, shared this article with the rest of the time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Real-Life Teaching in a Virtual World
By Denise Harrison

Few technologies have been subject to more hype and subsequent disappointment than Second Life. Corporations from shoe manufactures to cruise lines to news services set up shop with hopes this new frontier would bring soaring profits. Most evacuated shortly thereafter when the effort resulted in spaces devoid of audiences and buyers. A notable exception, though, is education.

Education is thriving in Second Life. This enthusiastic subculture is abuzz within the Second Life realm, constantly interacting inside and outside Second Life. Educators are exploring every possible tool the 3D virtual world offers and establishing best practices along the way.

Linden Lab, the creator of Second Life, reports on the company's Web site that universities such as Harvard, Texas State, and Stanford have Second Life campuses. While Linden Lab states that more than 200 educators and about as many universities are using Second Life, all signs point to a far larger community.

The Second Life Educators (SLED) community is an e-mail list that includes more than 4,700 working in or interested in education in Second Life. SLED was created in October 2005 to help newcomers adjust to Second Life, exchange resources, network, collaborate on projects, and share best practices.

Real Life Education in Second Life is a group inside the 3D realm that boasts 3,500 members. It is for sharing information, asking questions, and getting notices of in-world and "real life" events.
CC International is a group of 4,200 that promotes the use of virtual reality for education. The goal is to provide training seminars and certificates in building, scripting, furniture making, and more, offering college-level classes for credit, possibly toward a degree.

Thousands are involved in these three groups alone. There are many more groups, some of which focus on fields of study, such as architecture, music, and business.

How Educators Use Second Life

Some universities and colleges use the tools provided in Second Life to build exact replicas of their campuses. The virtual recreations can be used as recruiting tools to reach students and teachers and to showcase the institutions to other important audiences, such as donors.

The more active educational uses of Second Life take advantage of the immersive experience. Some faculty teach classes within Second Life, and others use Second Life as a supplement to traditional classroom environments and for enriching an existing curriculum. Educators say the immersion facilitates experiential learning, simulation, roleplay, collaboration, co-creation, experimentation with new ideas, and learning from teachers and from each other. One professor even teaches education students how to use Second Life in their lesson planning.

"My job is to look at emerging technologies and see how they can be used," said Sandra Sutton Andrews, an educational researcher at Arizona State University College of Education. "Good use of technology is not using bells and whistles for their bells and whistles. Good use of technology has research that backs it up."

Andrews said she takes education students into Second Life to teach them how to use the technology appropriately. She is currently introducing science students to the 3D realm.

"The virtual world gives a greater sense of presence than discussion boards," said Andrews. "The students get a better feel for the teacher, and it is more fun."

And there is another, simpler use for Second Life: office hours. Instructors and their students can communicate in text or by speaking over a microphone in Second Life while at home or in an office, eliminating the need to travel.

(For more uses of Second Life, go to sleducation.wikispaces.com/educationaluses.)

The Appeal

The immersive environment is unlike any other teaching venue. Astronomy can be taught using virtual planetariums with stars you can click on to learn their temperatures. Literature can be taught within buildings designed to replicate structures described in a novel, and in the era they existed. Chemistry students can walk inside a molecule. Even emergency responders learn by 3D simulations complete with timed events to which they must react.

Real-time meetings and collaboration, in contrast to Web pages, are far more engaging. A 3D virtual environment is believed to increase participation and improve retention. It also allows students to meet and learn from each other no matter their geographical location.

The fun factor can't be ignored, either. While some people think Second Life is too much fun for a serious endeavor, many teachers will retort that learning sould be fun. A learning environment such as Second Life can make students eager to join the classes or projects.

Another significant benefit to using Second Life is the availability of multimedia presentation tools. An instructor can load a PowerPoint presentation onto a virtual screen, play a video on a virtual monitor, and type Web site URLs students can launch immediately within the program. Teachers hand out class notes or other literature on note cards that can be copied into Word documents, and can make graphics that are clickable to reveal more information.

Finally, you can't beat the price. Second Life is free to join, so both teachers and students pay nothing to get started. Virtual land--the meeting space--has a fee, but Linden Lab gives a discount to educational institution.s (See secondlife.com/land/privatepricing.php).

In further cost savings, instructors can load a PowerPoint presentation or a video without investing in expensive projectors or screens. This can mean a huge financial savings--less wear and tear on hardware and in some cases, even elimination of the equipment.

Getting Started

It's important to note that Second Life requires a computer with hefty specs to run properly, which could be a barrier to entry for some. Fortunately, computers sold today are adequate.

In the coming weeks, we will delve in to take a look at specific ways universities and colleges are using Second Life.

Meanwhile, you can check it out at secondlife.com.

Call for Entries!

Tales of Multimedia
Call for Entries
Details TBA
Submissions - March 23-27

Richland Student is Runner-Up for 4th Annual Photoshop User Awards

Richland College student Phat Du was a runner-up in the 4th Annual Photoshop User Awards Student Work category with the following entry:

From Announcements, Winners, Students, Student Work

Congratulations, Phat!