Visual Arts Briefs

NBC’s iconic peacock logo received an update from the animation studio Nathan Love, which is headed by faculty member and alumnus Joe Burrascano (BFA 2002 Computer Art) and alumnus Kate Burrascano (BFA 2004 Animation). The Burrascanos and their team—which includes alumni from the BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects Department Sylvia Apostol (2007), Ryan Moran (2007), Anca Risca (2002) and Dan Vislocky (2003)—developed the logo into a humorous character. Joe talked to Motionographer about the project, and both Motionographer and Cartoon Brew shared the video.

Jennifer Phillips, director of the Office of  Career Development, was part of the SVA contingent attending the 2010 edition of SIGGRAPH, the premier international event on computer graphics and interactive technique. She sent this dispatch from the event in Los Angeles:

This week, a team comprised of members of the College’s MFA Computer Art Department; BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects Department; Office of External Relations; and Office of Career Development attended SIGGRAPH 2010, which took place July 25 – 29 in Los Angeles, CA.

One of the conference’s many appeals is the annual “SpaceTime” exhibition and competition, which features some of the best creative computer-based work from students around the globe. Recent graduate Anis Haron (MFA 2010 Computer Art) was one of the few chosen to participate this year. Elsewhere at the conference, alumnus Isaac Kerlow (BFA 1981 Media Arts) directed this year’s Computer Animation Festival (CAF), and MFA Computer Art Department faculty member Steve Rittler was on the CAF jury.

In addition to the vibrant exhibition and festival scenes, the SVA team was part of an exclusive group of colleges and universities invited to partake in education symposiums at DreamWorks Animation Studios, Sony Pictures Imageworks and Walt Disney Animation Studios. These events allowed us to learn directly from top industry figures about new trends and technological developments that may affect the skills students need to ensure optimal success as professionals. Overall, the SIGGRAPH conference also gives the College an opportunity to promote the talent of its recent graduates to hiring managers throughout the digital arts industry.

Visit siggraph.org/s2010 for more information about SIGGRAPH, and watch videos from the event on SIGGRAPH’s YouTube channel.

Video: Anis Haron, Relations

Fans of computer art and digital animation have a number of opportunities in May to see new work from undergraduate and graduate students at SVA. The Westside Gallery is running “Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects Senior Thesis Projects,” an exhibition of still images from thesis projects by students in the BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects Department, through Saturday, May 22. The exhibition is curated by Department Chair John McIntosh, and the full works will be screened on Wednesday, May 12, 7pm, at the SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street.

The SVA Theatre will also be the site of the MFA Computer Art Department’s thesis presentations. Screenings take place Friday, May 7, 7 – 10pm (reception: 10 – 11pm) and Saturday, May 8, 2 – 7pm (reception: 7 – 8:30pm). The presentations will begin with a performance by artist/percussionist Meret Koehler followed by thesis projects that reflect the multidisciplinary nature of the program, including 3D animation, video/motion graphics, interactive media, performance, installation and digital fine art. (A full schedule of screenings will be posted on the department’s Web site, mfaca.sva.edu.) The graduate department will follow up two week later when the “MFA Computer Art Department Thesis Exhibition,” curated by Charley Lewis, opens at the Visual Arts Gallery, 601 West 26th Street, 15th floor. The show will run May 21 – June 5, with an opening reception on Tuesday, May 25, 6 – 8pm, and a special “meet the artists” event on Thursday, June 3, 6 – 8pm.

Images: (top) Jerry Chow, still from Boys Will Be Bears, 2010, from “Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects Senior Thesis Projects”; (bottom) Anis Haron, video from Audio Palimpsest, 2010, from “MFA Computer Art Department Thesis Exhibition.”

• The 21st Annual Dusty Film and Animation Festival and Awards are happening May 2 – 7, featuring work by students from the BFA Film, Video and Animation Department and awards presented by famed industry professionals. Various publications have promoted the week-long festival, including Animation Magazine, IMDb.com and WCBS Channel 2’s Web site.
• Department Chairs Bruce Wands (MFA Computer Art Department) and Liz Danzico (MFA Interaction Design Department), along with BFA Fine Arts faculty member David Ross, were interviewed by The Wall Street Journal for an article about the TVs in New York City taxis. The three instructors made suggestions for backseat improvements such as interactive screens for shopping, ports for charging electronic equipment or simply, more likable personalities on the TV screens.
• Alumnus Mark Pernice (BFA 2000 Computer Art) was recently profiled in Wired. In addition to other projects for his design studio Matic Art, Pernice creates rubber masks based on images created using Apple’s Photo Booth software.
• Fast Company featured an infographic created by current MFA Interaction Design Department student Russ Maschmeyer. Maschmeyer created a graphic to map out and rank “die hard” baseball fans in various U.S. cities for a project in the department’s Information Visualization course.

Image: Animation Magazine Web site.

As part of the yearly season of film and television awards, the Visual Effects Society (VES) presents an annual slate of prizes for the best effects artistry in more than 20 categories of film, animation, television, commercials and video games. This year’s VES nominees have been announced, and seven SVA alumni and faculty members have been singled out.

For their work on Pepsi’s The Flight of the Penguin commercial, James Dick (BFA 2007 Computer Art), Seth Gollub (BFA 2005 Computer Art), Spencer Leuders, (Faculty, BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects Department) and Andy Walker (Faculty, BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects Department) are up for Outstanding Animated Character in a Broadcast Program or Commercial; Golub and Walker are also nominees for the same Pepsi ad in the Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial category.

In the category of Outstanding Matte Paintings in a Feature Motion Picture, Brenton Cottman (BFA 2003 Illustration) is nominated for his work as lead matte painter for the hit film Avatar.

The 8th Annual VES Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 28, in Los Angeles. Visit visualeffectssociety.com for more information.

A recent article in The New York Times turned a spotlight on a new exhibition called “Decode: Digital Design Sensations” at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. One of the digital artists included in the show is Joshua Davis—who is on the faculty of both the graduate and undergraduate computer art programs at SVA—and the museum has also included MFA Computer Art Department Chair Bruce Wands’ book Art of the Digital Age in its selection of related reading. “I have been helping with the ‘Digital Pioneers’ exhibition, says Wands, “and of the artists included, Paul Brown, Charles Csuri, Barbara Nessim, Lillian Schwartz and Roman Verostko are in my book.”

Wands will be keeping his UK connection going through the new year, when he travels to London for a British Computer Society conference titled Ideas Before Their Time: Connecting the Past and Present in Computer Art, taking place Wednesday, February 3, 2010. He will be presenting a paper—“Creating Continuity Between Computer Art History and Contemporary Art”—that traces more than half a century of computer art history, focusing as much on the organizations that have supported digital work over the year as the artists themselves. “The responsibility for the development, support and archiving of this art form [historically], and until now, has fallen primarily to visionary computer art organizations and galleries,” says Wands in the paper. For a taste of his expertise on the topic, read an interview Wands gave to the Web site Flavorwire earlier this year, in conjunction with his department’s event, Technocultures: The History of Digital Art: A Conversation.

Image: Art of the Digital Age (Thames & Hudson, 2006).

• MFA Design Department faculty member Stefan Sagmeister is the winner of the 2009 Lucky Strike Designer Award. This international design award from the Raymond Loewy Foundation recognizes a designer whose work has helped improve the social and cultural conditions of everyday life. The jury said of Sagmeister, “His work is highly creative, bold and innovative. It combines philosophy, politics and socially relevant subjects with avant-garde design; it’s democratic and accessible to everyone.”
• Critics at The Onion’s A.V. Club compiled their list of the 25 Best Comics of the ‘00s, and three members of the SVA community made the cut: alumnus Michael Kupperman (BFA 1998 Fine Arts) for Tales Designed to Thrizzle (Fantagraphics, 2005–present); BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department faculty member David Mazzucchelli for his graphic novel Asterios Polyp (Pantheon, 2009); and alumnus James Sturm (MFA 1991 Illustration as Visual Essay) for The Golem’s Mighty Swing (D&Q, 2000).
• At this fall’s NYC Metropolitan Area College Computer Animation Festival (MetroCAF), 10 of the 26 digital animations selected for the festival came from the BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects and MFA Computer Art Departments. The 2009 MetroCAF continues a multi-year run for the College as one of the festival’s top contributors. Click here for the complete list of 26 honorees.
• The Art Directors Club (ADC) recently announced the recipients of its 2009 National Scholarships, and three of the eight winners were students in the BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department: Yumi Nakamura won the $2,500 ADC Scholarship in Graphic Design; Kaya Ono won the $2,500 Sahre, Victore, Wilker Scholarship in Graphic Design; and Youngbum Kim won the $500 Jeffrey Metzner and Carin Goldberg Scholarship.

Image: Stefan Sagmeister with his Lucky Strike Design Award; photo by Elias Wessel.

Apple’s iTunes App Store recently reported more than two-billion downloads of the 100,000 programs available in its collection of digital applications for the iPhone. One new app appearing in the store comes from the imagination of alumnus Jung-mi Lee (BFA 2007 Computer Art), who worked with other artists and programmers at Strategic Design Lab to create the game Rat Busters. The game is a point-of-view adventure that puts the player in the sewers and subway tunnels of Gotham City (loosely based on NYC), which is infested with giant rats engineered by the evil Dr. Wasabi. After choosing one of three different characters—Hans, Luke or Mia—gamers then start shooting the irradiated rats and making their way through 12 levels of action. Rat Busters is available through the iTunes Store for $1.99, and gamers can click here to read more or purchase the app.

In addition, students in MFA Interaction Design Department faculty member Christopher Fahey’s Interaction Design Fundamentals course have completed a class project that generated new apps specifically for use in New York City. The resulting apps ranged from Book ‘Em, a GPS-powered program that locates the nearest branch of the New York Public Library, to New Green City, which gives updated details on the city progress toward its goal to reduce carbon emissions 30% by 2030. For more on this project, visit the MFA Interaction Design Department blog.

Image: Screen shot from Rat Busters.

• Lynda Benglis (faculty member, BFA Fine Arts Department) is the subject of two feature articles in the December issue of Art in America, which also has her work on the cover.  One of the articles, “Shape Shifter,” focuses on her 40-year traveling retrospective exhibition currently at the Irish Museum of Modern Art and her influence on young artists today. Benglis’ work is included in the exhibition “Octet: Codes and Contexts in Recent Art,” currently on view at the Visual Arts Gallery, 601 West 26 Street, 15th floor.
• Recent graduate Sean Hannon (BFA 2009 Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects) was featured in Arts & Leisure. After working as an actor for many years, Hannon enrolled at SVA in his early 50s to study animation. He was also one of the student speakers at the College’s Commencement exercises this past May, and he currently works as a freelance 3D animator and modeler.
• The 2010 Arts Abroad program at SVA was just featured in the January issue of surfer magazine. Faculty member and surfer staff photographer Art Brewer will lead an eight-day course on action surf photography in Rincon, Puerto Rico, March 6 – 14, 2010.  Click here for more information about the course.
• Robot 6, a blog of Comic Book Resources, recently interviewed alumnus Dash Shaw (BFA 2005 Illustration) about his forthcoming book The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D. (Fantagraphics, 2009). The book is a collection of short stories Shaw did for the quarterly Mome anthology as well as storyboards and drawings for an animation project he created for the Independent Film Channel (IFC).

Image: Art in America, December 2009 issue.

During the last week of October, three SVA department chairs traveled to China to attend the Adobe Design Achievement Awards (ADAA). This prestigious annual competition recognizes the best work in a dozen disciplines, including animation, interactive design, motion graphics and photography, with over 3,200 entrants from around the world. Katrin Eismann (MPS Digital Photography Department), John McIntosh (BFA Computer Art, Computer Animation and Visual Effects Department) and Alice Twemlow (MFA Design Criticism Department) were at the ADAA exhibition and ceremony in Bejing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts in support of SVA’s two competition finalists, alumnus Daniel Bolliger (MPS 2009 Digital Photography) and current student James Kyungmo Yang (MFA Design Department). In addition, two SVA students were ADAA semifinalists: Juhee Cho (BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department) and Nathan Friese (MFA Computer Art Department).

According to Eismann, “This was the first time that the ADAA was held outside of North America. The high point of the event was the opening ceremony of the Icograda World Design Congress, which featured many high-profile speakers (including Twemlow) and of course the ADAA announcements. All of this took place in the fabulous National Centre for the Performing Arts—a truly stunning building in the center of Beijing.” As is fitting for the chair of a graduate photography program, Eismann had her camera with her in Beijing and shared several of her photos with the Briefs:

Images: Katrin Eismann, 2009: (top to bottom) the 2009 ADAA ceremony; the award finalists in Beijing; alumnus Daniel Bolliger and his work at the ADAA exhibition; the National Centre for the Performing Arts.