ISPR Presence News

Monthly Archives: August 2012

Call: Performance Art and Digital Media – special issue of Digital Creativity

First call for Digital Creativity Vol 24 No 2 (spring 2013) Special issue: Performance Art and Digital Media

Call for Papers:

This special edition of Digital Creativity will investigate the role of Performance Art and Performance Studies for the development of new forms of interaction. There has been a lively debate on the role of media in performances and how new technology has affected live and recorded performances. However, we are interested in the reverse perspective: how are fields such as HCI, video games, and social media platforms shaped by performance practices and theories? The focus will be on performance art as it evolved in the 20th century and asked new questions about the role of the body, context, and process – among many other things. This includes topics such as:

  • theoretical frameworks connecting established theater and performance approaches to digital media
  • historical overviews on the development of interaction as performance
  • critical views analyzing the overlaps and disconnects between these two domains
  • reviews of design-based and technological developments that support this merger
  • examples of practice-based research and evaluation (for short papers)

The goal is to trace frameworks, projects, and practices to relate the two disciplines in a productive way and provide a stepping stone for future discussion.… read more. “Call: Performance Art and Digital Media – special issue of Digital Creativity”

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Leila Takayama applies tools of social science to make robots easier to live and work with

[From MIT’s Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35 series, which features an additional image and a 3:24 minute video]

Leila Takayama, 31

Applying the tools of social science to make robots easier to live and work with

Jessica Leber
August 2012

People often find robots baffling and even frightening. Leila Takayama, a social scientist, has found ways to smooth out their rough edges. Through numerous studies and experiments that look at how people react to every aspect of robots, from their height to their posture, Takayama has come up with key insights into how robots should look and act to gain acceptance and become more useful to people.… read more. “Leila Takayama applies tools of social science to make robots easier to live and work with”

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Job: Faculty position in Communication and Information Technology at University of California at Davis

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS
Department of Communication
2012­-2013

Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track), Associate Professor
Communication and Information Technology

Seeking an individual with research interests concerned with the social and/or psychological impact of communication and information technologies. Examples of research programs in this area include, but are not limited to, psychological and/or social effects of new communication technologies, social interaction through computers, social media, and virtual reality and identity. The contexts for this research may include formal organizations, health or political systems or global society at large. Applicants must be willing to teach undergraduate and graduate courses in Communication, Technology and Society, and Computer‐Mediated Communication. The applicant’s research program must be consistent with the Department’s quantitative behavior science orientation and affiliation with the Division of Social Sciences. A doctorate degree is required. Demonstrated research and teaching competence are required. Applicants must have a history of securing external funding.… read more. “Job: Faculty position in Communication and Information Technology at University of California at Davis”

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Next generation 3-D theater: Optical science makes glasses a thing of the past

[From Phys.Org, where the story includes an additional image]

[Image: Actual experimental results demonstrate the promise of a glasses-free 3-D theater experience. Two cars, one red and one blue, are projected onto a screen through a parallax barrier. As the light shines back through the polarizer, two offset images are created, which creates the visual cues that the brain interprets as depth. Credit: Optics Express]

Next generation 3-D theater: Optical science makes glasses a thing of the past

Even with current digital technology, the latest Hollywood blockbusters still rely on clunky glasses to achieve a convincing 3-D effect. New optics research by a team of South Korean investigators offers the prospect of glasses-free, 3-D display technology for commercial theaters. Their new technique, described in a paper published today in the Optical Society’s open-access journal Optics Express, uses space more efficiently and is cheaper than current 3-D projection technology.read more. “Next generation 3-D theater: Optical science makes glasses a thing of the past”

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Call: Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2013)

CALL FOR PAPERS
12th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems
(AAMAS 2013)

Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA
May 6-10, 2013

http://aamas2013.cs.umn.edu/

ABOUT AAMAS

AAMAS is the leading scientific conference for research in autonomous agents and multiagent systems. The AAMAS conference series was initiated in 2002 by merging three highly respected meetings: the International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems (ICMAS); the International Workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages (ATAL); and the International Conference on Autonomous Agents (AA). The aim of the joint conference is to provide a single, high-profile, internationally respected archival forum for scientific research in the theory and practice of autonomous agents and multiagent systems.

AAMAS 2013 is the twelfth conference in the AAMAS series, following enormously successful previous conferences, and will be held at the Crowne Plaza, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, May 6-10, 2013.

See http://www.ifaamas.org for more information on the AAMAS conference series.… read more. “Call: Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2013)”

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Character breaks out of virtual world in ad for Toyota GT86

[From CarAdvice; the ad (in HD) is available on YouTube]

Toyota 86 gets a reality check

By David Zalstein | August 17th, 2012

A new multi-million dollar Toyota 86 ‘Real Deal’ advertising campaign launches today in the UK.

The Toyota 86 (GT86 in the UK) Real Deal campaign focuses on a 60-second TV spot, and 90-second internet version, that depicts the life of a virtual man stuck in a virtual world, whose hunger for something real sees him end up in Toyota’s latest sports car.

Styled in the vein of a computer game, the clip’s animated main character breaks the shackles of his pixelated realm by using the 86 to escape into the real world.

The animated clip, put together by Digital Domain – founded by Hollywood heavyweight James Cameron – will also feature in cinema advertising spots. [T]he film is soundtracked by the classic Edith Piaf song, Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien – No, I don’t regret anything.… read more. “Character breaks out of virtual world in ad for Toyota GT86”

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Call: Game Studies at 2013 National Popular Culture Assoc./American Culture Assoc. Conference

The Game Studies area of the National Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association Conference invites proposals for papers, panels and completed papers on games and game studies for the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference to be held Wednesday, March 27, through Saturday March 30, 2013 in Washington, DC.

Below, please find:

I. Topics of Interest
II. Submission Process
III. Information about the Conference
IV. Contact Information

I. Topics of Interest

The organizers seek proposals and papers covering all aspects of gaming, gaming culture and game studies. Proposals can address any game medium (computer, social, console, tabletop, etc) and all theoretical and methodological approaches are welcome.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

  • new game mediums and platforms (Facebook, iPhone/iPad/iPod, etc)
  • representation or performance of race, class, gender and sexuality in games
  • gaming culture, game specific cultures, and multicultural and cross-cultural issues
  • game development, design, authorship and other industry issues
  • game advertising, reviews, packaging, promotion, integrated marketing and other commercial concerns
  • political and legal entailments such as regulation, censorship, intellectual property
  • ludology, textual criticism, media ecology, narratology, etc as paradigms for games studies
  • player generated content in MUDs and MMORPGs, Mods, maps and machinima
  • game genres, platforms, consoles, console wars and connections to other media
  • serious games for education, business, healthcare, (military) training, etc
  • space and place in games, play spaces, virtual/physical communities, mobile gaming and localization
  • digital literacy, discourse practices, social norms and norming, the politics of play
  • public discourse/controversy over violence, militarism, sex, criminality, racism, etc in games
read more. “Call: Game Studies at 2013 National Popular Culture Assoc./American Culture Assoc. Conference”
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Spielberg on IMAX rerelease of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’

[From The New York Times’ Arts Beat blog]

That’s a Big Boulder, Indy: Steven Spielberg on the Imax Rerelease of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’

By Dave Itzkoff
August 14, 2012,

It’s the kind of revelation that would melt the face of any die-hard Indiana Jones fan (this time, with joy): “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” the 1981 adventure film that introduced that globe-trotting archaeologist, will receive a one-week Imax release next month, Lucasfilm said on Tuesday.

“For me, it’s always been the bigger the screen, the better,” Steven Spielberg, who directed “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and the three subsequent “Indiana Jones” sequels, said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “It’s the only marked contrast we have to the generations that are seeing our movies on phones and hand-held platforms. It’s a complete relief to be able to see a film that many people have just experienced on a palm-sized platform technology, suddenly hurled at that them on an Imax-sized screen.”… read more. “Spielberg on IMAX rerelease of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’”

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Call: Body and Technology: Instruments of Somaesthetics (International Conference)

The Center for Body, Mind, and Culture invites proposals for papers to be presented at a 3-day conference, January 24-26, 2013, at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton.

The human body is our basic instrument for life, the basis for the creation and use of all our other tools or technologies. As the body has shaped technology, so technology is increasingly reshaping the body: not only by reshaping our bodily habits through which we experience and act in the world but also through the incorporation of prosthetic devices and drug enhancements. Regarding the body as a sensitive sentient soma, rather than as a merely material machine, this conference rethinks the relationship between body and technology, focusing on such topics as human-computer interaction, robotics, medical and fitness technologies, technology and the environment, and technologies of the arts. We welcome papers from the perspectives of both the sciences and the humanities.… read more. “Call: Body and Technology: Instruments of Somaesthetics (International Conference)”

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Disney develops ‘face cloning’ technique for animatronics

[From Gizmag, where the story includes additional images and a 4:50 minute video; a second, shorter video is available on YouTube]

[Image: Face cloning: Steps in modeling the digital face and the final result in silicone (Image: Disney)]

Disney develops “face cloning” technique for animatronics

By David Szondy
August 15, 2012

Facial cloning sounds rather alarming, but its purpose is very straightforward. Basically, it’s a way of scanning a person’s face in 3D and then using that information to design and fabricate an artificial skin that will move much more realistically – not just in general, but as a close imitation of the original person right down to the wrinkles made while laughing.

The process uses scanning and digital processing techniques already used in the creation of CGI characters. This isn’t surprising, since animatronics and digital animation both have the same goal of creating realistic characters.… read more. “Disney develops ‘face cloning’ technique for animatronics”

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