Sebek Fall 08 Thesis

Interview with Andrew Stanton for Wall-E

anezkasebek — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:38:09 +0000

Check this out for great examples of creative process:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92400669

Helpful research hints

anezkasebek — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:57:05 +0000

More inspiration for Thesis topics

anezkasebek — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:13:49 +0000

http://www.asci.org/artikel72.html

Many of you are wondering how to make a difference with your thesis ideas. Sometimes, it takes a bit of looking into the work of your peers to see how your ideas can be more inspired.

Here’s an organization (ASCI) that dedicates itself strictly to the intersection of art and science. This is where the MFA DT design discourse dwells as well. Check out ASCI member, Camille Seaman’s photo exhibit at: http://www.camilleseaman.com/Artist.asp?ArtistID=3258&Akey=WX679BJN. A stunning reportage of icebergs that are melting away as global warning takes its toll. Or…http://www.devorahsperber.com/ where Deborah Sperber analyzed the way that we see pixels and reproduced Master works with spools of colored thread. A revealing method for the way that human beings interpret the world through vision.

The late Robert Rauschenberg–a true pioneer in art/technology/science, for example, pioneered a relationship between artists and the engineers as Bell Labs. E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology) The crossing of disciplines sparked innovation among the engineers as well as the artists. This is why looking at the intersection between design, technology and the human condition is a fertile field for innovation.

Check out:

http://www.asci.org/BellLabs/

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2000/03/34840

As you are mining the world around your for thesis inspirations, check out what your MFA thesis peers are doing at other schools around the world. Try to get in touch with them and begin a conversation (email is OK) with them.

For those of you who want to be challenged in the world of interaction, check out the topics for the call for papers of the ACM Multimedia Information Retrieval conference. Perhaps your thesis could be presented there in 2009.
Check out: http://press.liacs.nl/mir2008/…perhaps you will want to attend this year’s MIR to get a dose of inspiration in the fall.

Remember to begin with the end in mind.

Best,

Anezka

Anezka Sebek Bio

anezkasebek — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:08:37 +0000

Anezka Sebek, Director of the Parsons MFA in Design and Technology Program (Associate Professor)
Indonesian-born Anezka Sebek has been fulltime faculty with Parsons The New School for Design’s MFA in Design and Technology since 1999. She coordinates the BFA Animation and Motion Graphics Sequence of electives and teaches in the Motion Research Collaboration and Thesis studios.

Her extensive professional career in the film industry includes projects for television, advertising, documentaries and feature films for such companies as R/Greenberg Associates, HBO, Curious Pictures. She is best known as a Visual Effects and Computer Animation Producer for technologically complex projects that combine live-action with digital effects. She has written, produced, and directed music videos and short films and is currently pursuing a PhD in Sociology and Media at The New School for Social Research. Ms. Sebek has served on several ACM Siggraph Electronic and Animation Theater juries (www.siggraph.org), Ars Electronica, and also helped create UNESCO’s Africa Animated! http://www.africa-animated.org program in Nairobi, Kenya.

Ms. Sebek’s life’s work has focused on the environment, feminism, queer activism, and media literacy for youth.

STEVE BALLMER

anezkasebek — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 20:52:21 +0000

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=205807-1

If you haven’t decided on your thesis topic or focus yet, consider what Steve Ballmer talks about in his keynote speech at the Technology for Government Dinner a week ago. It’s a fun and rather elementary speech about the importance of all of the issues that we address in the MFA DT. Whatever you decide to do for your Master’s thesis, consider the importance of the thesis in your life and of course in your career. The fact is that there is a very large world in Media Technologies out there in which you will all hopefully be innovators. The immediate next decade that Steve Ballmer talks about is “more animated, more energetic, more innovation in technology….and also a world that will belong to media technologists.

His speech chronicles his past 28 years having lived through 4 major innovation shifts:

1980-personal computer was born

1983 – 84 -graphical user interfaces were invented (at Apple–but he doesn’t say that!!)

1980s in general-The Internet with commodity internet in the early nineties-(shopping by the 1997)

1990s-Web 2.0

Continuing now the established trends of:

Processing Power — still twice as much power every 18 months (Moore’s law) faster, smaller, cheaper that shifted 5 years ago to multiple core computers. Every shift has mandated software transformation

Storage-capture (video/sound) of everything-cheaper, faster

WI-FI-ubiquitous computing everywhere.

Paper thin screens and computers

The implications of technology on society and the way we live are vast. The time line is swift (next 10-20 years).

Remember that there are several shifts that we, as current MFA DT citizens are witnessing just in the time that you have been here:

1. The new paradigm of natural user interfaces – using every sense in the human body for interface applications (vision response, natural speech, touch, habits response etc.)

2. Web 3.0/Cloud Computing – essentially delivered by a group of powerful servers that contains massive databases in a distributed network. Turning the one way street of Yahoo, Google and Amazon scooping our data and flipping it into services (and tracking your life and subsequent purchases) is something that all of you should be interested in.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_52/b4064048925836.htm

Not only because most of you will be ending up in this industry but also because it is transforming the way that we think about data, IP and access to information. Bottom line: Software and all information will be have to available dynamically.

3. Data visualization and simulation

4. Personal customization of data organization.

5. Media/Advertising will be digitized at higher and better resolutions. Distribution of media will be on many platforms–if you’re doing an animated film, for example, it is even more important for you to be aware of how your assets are prepared and delivered.

Hope that you’re all engaged in your explorations. Remember that your process is discovery through iteration. You should be making small projects–TESTING them on your targeted communities–ANALYZING the results and continuing on to the next project.

REMEMBER ALSO: Your summer homework is going to be graded and will count as part of your fall semester grade.

Anezka