New Media
From Print Culture to Immersive Knowing: Embodiment and Consciousness in Robert Lepage's "The Library at Night"
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Cordula Quint
For a quarter century Canadian film and theatre director Robert Lepage has explored the nature of visual-spatial communication and reinvented theatricality through the lens of contemporary technologies and new media. His recent adaptation of Canadian author Alberto Manguel’s “The Library at Night” (2016) is of particular interest for a discussion of the unfolding global transition from late print culture to the electronic/digital age. Manguel’s contemplations focus on the philosophical, architectural, and social implications that have underpinned the existence of libraries and archives throughout the print era and investigate their role for the development of culture and human knowledge. Lepage’s “adaptation” transposes his poignant insights to a three-dimensional immersive environment which juxtaposes real and online spaces by means of 360° immersion video technology. This environment takes the spectator-participant on “a fantastic online-reality voyage to the depths of ten of the world's most fabulous and amazing libraries,” and, at the same time, invites us to focus and refocus our attention on questions of media, representation, embodiment, and -- most provocatively -- the intersection of different media and consciousness. The installation currently tours internationally.
Perception versus Reality : The Use of Video in Talent Acquisition
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Amy M. Huber
When job seeking, students in creative domains often lack the benefit of experience and a well-connected professional network, so they must carefully consider what qualities and attributes are most often sought by employers and, in turn, how to convey these attributes early in the screening process. This quest may be especially critical for those vying for positions against the likes of 30-75 similarly qualified candidates—which is often the case for those pursuing careers in design. This study sought to explore an area where practice has outpaced research by ascertaining the responses of hiring practitioners to candidate-generated videos and the relationship between such videos and the decision-making strategies of those screening candidates. More specifically, it sought to determine if hiring practitioners were more apt to prefer soft skills, hard skills, or specific experiences, how these attributes are assessed, and did the videos support positive or negative perceptions of the hypothetical candidate.
Being Present: The Art of Collaborative Research and Discourse on Teaching
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jill Ware, John Henry Blatter
In an era of increasing pressures to be interdisciplinary, Blatter and Ware examine the intersection of faculty research in the collaborative classroom and its impact on student learning and discourse. Through collaborative coursework, students learn to build infrastructures for their own partnerships, processes, explorations, and discourses. Using emerging technologies, new media, and online cultures as impetus, they examine three courses where faculty research and technology overlap: RVArts Cultural Passport (John Freyer, Photo/Film & Jill Ware, Dance) is an experiential learning course that is part art appreciation and part community engagement. Built around a student curated online public calendar and the RVArts artist in conversation speaker series, the course is designed to help students understand discourse, discipline specific language, and context. Beyond the Rectangle (John Henry Blatter, Sculpture & Matt Wallin, Communication Arts), is a course where students expand their understanding and experience of the moving image beyond the traditional rectangular screen. Through a series of studies, experimentation and lectures, students investigate new technologies in various immersive multimedia experiences through the use of technology including: 360 degree projection, Oculus Rift, Google Cardboard, multi-channel audio and others. Media + Movement (John Henry Blatter, Sculpture & Jill Ware, Dance), is a collaborative course between an installation and a movement artist exploring the melding of performing and visual practices through a series of studies, experimentations, and lectures. Students investigate the refinement of human motion, light, and sound through video and animation using 3D motion capture, sound design, light design, movement performance and movement generation.
