Chris Joseph

PLAYABLE MEDIA — A NEW RESEARCH FOCUS AT UC SANTA CRUZ DIGITAL ARTS AND NEW MEDIA MFA PROGRAM

UC Santa Cruz is pleased to announce an MFA for artists working with computer games, software toys, interactive fictions, rhetorical simulations, and related playable forms. The university’s Digital Arts and New Media (DANM) MFA program has added “Playable Media” as a research focus for its collaborative faculty-student projects. Applications to the DANM MFA program for Fall 2009 are being accepted through February 15, and are encouraged from the broad diversity of artists who create work that invites and structures play.

The Digital Arts and New Media MFA Program at UC Santa Cruz brings together faculty and students from across the academic spectrum to pursue interdisciplinary artistic and scholarly research. At the core of the diverse DANM curriculum are collaborative research projects, in which small clusters of students work with professors on artistic, technical and theoretical research. Over the course of three quarters, these groups engage in the development of faculty-initiated research in one of four focused areas: Mechatronics, Participatory Culture, Performative Technologies, and Playable Media. These collaborations result in publications and exhibitions. In this intensive two-year program, students also take core and elective courses in the theory and practice of digital media arts, culminating in the development of individual thesis projects. These works are premiered in the program’s annual MFA exhibition. The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) is the terminal degree in the field of digital media arts, qualifying graduates for a variety of career paths including university-level teaching and research.

In the Playable Media collaborative research group, MFA students will work with UCSC’s strong faculty in this area to understand and create new ways for computer games and related forms to engage audiences, make arguments, tell stories, and shape social space. Ongoing Playable Media work combines game design and artificial intelligence research with writing, art, and media authoring.

The Playable Media-focused Digital Arts and New Media MFA joins UCSC’s two previous degree options in this area. UCSC currently hosts the first computer game undergraduate major in the University of California system: a B.S. in computer game design through the Computer Science department. Active PhD research is also taking place in Computer Science, where students are developing underlying technologies for new genres of computer game play. It is expected that some DANM Playable Media students will collaborate with students in the existing programs in order to create projects more ambitious than would otherwise be possible.

The first Playable Media collaborative research group will be launched in 2009 under the direction of Noah Wardrip-Fruin (co-creator of the virtual reality literary game Screen, co-editor of MIT Press books such as Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media). Other UCSC faculty in this area include Michael Mateas (co-creator of Independent Games Festival finalist Facade and the interactive film generator Terminal Time), Warren Sack (creator of the argumentation game Agonistics and the social technology Conversation Map), and Jim Whitehead (founder of the UC system’s first game degree, developer of novel techniques for game level generation).

More about DANM:
http://danm.ucsc.edu/

More about Playable Media:
http://danm.ucsc.edu/web/PlayableMedia

Application information:
http://danm.ucsc.edu/web/ApplicationInfo

Temporary Art Show http://temporaryartspace.co.uk/TAS2.html - deadline Friday 13th February 2009

North http://temporaryartspace.co.uk/north.html - deadline 13th March 2009

Call for work on/with beer mats http://temporaryartspace.co.uk/beer.html - deadline 10th April 2009

DIY http://temporaryartspace.co.uk/DIY.html - deadline 12th June 2009

Salon Show http://temporaryartspace.co.uk/salon.html - deadline 10th July 2009

Changeover http://temporaryartspace.co.uk/changeover.html - deadline ongoing

Please also see information for exhibiting artists: http://temporaryartspace.co.uk/info.html

Temporary Art Space is an unfunded, artist-run project with a lifespan of six months, situated in the magnificent Grade 1 listed Piece Hall in Halifax and co-directed by Alice Bradshaw, Bob Milner, Tom Senior, Kevin Boniface & Georgia Boniface.

We are also looking for volunteer Temporary Art Space Assistants: http://temporaryartspace.co.uk/jobs.html

For information about the space, the building & the location see http://www.temporaryartspace.co.uk/

INTERACTIVOS? Lima’09: Magic and Technology
International Project Development Workshop

Deadline for entries: February 15, 2009
Call for collaborators: March 6, 2009

Medialab-Prado and the Cultural Center of Spain in Lima (Peru) issue a call for the presentation of projects to be developed within the INTERACTIVOS?’ Lima’09: Magic and Technology workshop, to be carried out in Lima from April 13 through 28, 2009.

The aim is the selection of a maximum of 8 proposals for the development of software pieces and interactive installations that propose a rethinking of the usual scenario in magic tricks. The workshop proposes to explore the use of open hardware and software tools in a collective and interdisciplinary manner in order to create technological prototypes with success in the Media from different perspectives: playful, creative and critical. The call is aimed at artists, magicians, engineers, musicians, programmers, designers, architects, hackers, psychologists, etc.

Contact: interactivos (at) medialab-prado.es
More information: http://medialab-prado.es/article/interactivos_lima08_magia_y_tecnologia

Organizers: Cultural Center of Spain in Lima (AECID) and Medialab-Prado (Madrid City Council)

PhD studentship

Edinburgh College of Art (eca) invites applications for a PhD Studentship to be taken up from October 2009. Applications are welcome that address one or more of the following themes:

Digital Arts
Edinburgh College of Art undertakes research in augmented environments and performance, interactive systems, digital poetics, animation and geo-locative media. Extensive collaborative work is taking place in these areas with colleagues at the University of Edinburgh.

Jewellery
Edinburgh College of Art hosts one of the UK’s leading jewellery departments. Practice based research focuses on the investigation of novel materials and new technologies. Researched materials are as diverse as silicon, steel and enamel. Technologies include haptic systems, rapid prototyping and digital print.

Intermedia
Edinburgh College of Art has recently initiated a new undergraduate and postgraduate program in Intermedia. Such work critically engages diverse creative media and seeks to challenge artistic conventions.

Landscape Architecture
Edinburgh College of Art hosts OPENspace, an internationally leading centre researching inclusive access to the outdoor environment. There is a focus on engaging with diverse groups and their needs in the design of public space.

Art and Nature
Edinburgh College of Art researchers explore discourses concerning people’s relation with nature, the delineation between organic and inorganic, human and animal and the social issues that arise from this.

Edinburgh College of Art is one of the UK’s premiere institutions for the study of and research into art, design, architecture and landscape architecture. Students on programmes at the College graduate with an award from the University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh College of Art hosts a thriving community of approximately 50 research students who work within and are supported by eca’s Graduate Research School. Go to http://www.eca.ac.uk/index.php?id=371 for information on graduate research provision.

Studentship awards will cover fees (UK rate) and provide a 36 month stipend at the AHRC rate (currently £12,940pa). For an informal discussion applicants may contact Dr. Sophia Lycouris, Director of the Graduate Research School:
Email: grs [at] eca.ac.uk. Telephone: +44(0)131 221 6291

Guidelines and application forms for applicants can be downloaded at http://www.eca.ac.uk/index.php?id=379 . All applications should be sent to the Academic Registry (http://www.eca.acuk/registry-and-admissions/) by Monday 16 February 2009. Edinburgh College of Art is an accredited institution of the University of Edinburgh and a charity registered in Scotland No: SC009021.

Following up on “The Los Wikiless Timespedia,” Bunk Magazine (http://www.bunkmag.com) is seeking submissions for an upcoming issue of new media art.

Spring-Summer 2009 “The Mad Bunkers Mash” (Humor and Literary)
A mash-up of two stately magazines, the literary giant Mad Hatters review and Bunk Magazine. The mash up issue seeks mashups, mashers, and works to be mashed.

See the full call here: http://www.madhattersreview.com/submit.shtml

Please contact with questions:
Mark C. Marino, Editor, Bunk Magazine.
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Writing Program
University of Southern California
http://WriterResponseTheory.org
http://CriticalCodeStudies.com