NSF awards $300,000 grant to Experimental Game Lab and Software Studies Initiative

A project proposal submitted by Sheldon Brown (Director, Experimental Game Lab, UCSD) and Lev Manovich (Director, Software Studies Initiative, UCSD) was awarded $300,000 two year EAGER grant by National Science Foundation (NSF).

The title of the proposal: A Cultural Analytics Framework for Identifying and Integrating Creative Patterns of User Behavior and Experience in the Scalable City Multi-User Virtual World.

EAGER grants aim to support "high-risk, exploratory, and potentially transformative research."



Scalable City rendered in real time by world engine developed at Experimental Game Lab

Alexander Avrorin joins Software Studies Initiative

We are pleased to welcome the new member of Software Studies Initiative: Alexander Avrorin.

Alexander is a student at Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute (MIFI) - one of three top science universities in Russia. His fields of research is AI. During the summer 2010 he is working with Software Studies Initiative on developing new clustering and visualization techniques for Manga project and other cultural data sets.

Wikipedia article about MIFI








Scatter plot matrix of 4 clusters produced by running fuzzy k-means algorithm over visual features extracted from 13,000 pages of Naruto Manga (1999-2009). The colors show pages cluster membership.

new Software Studies' visualizations @ Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

HERE NOT THERE: SAN DIEGO ART NOW
Jun 06, 2010–Sep 19, 2010 at MCASD La Jolla.

New visualizations created by William Huber, Tara Zappel and Lev Manovich are currently on display at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.

We are grateful to MCASD Associate Curator Lucía Sanromán who helped us in conceptualizing and making possible creation of this work.

The two wall-size visualizations compare the evolution of Science iourmal (1880-1906) and Popular Science magazine (1872-1922).



Science 1880-1906


Popular Science 1872-1922


A sketch showing evolution of Science 1872-2009 using selected journal issues

Software Studies Brazil @ Laboratório de Cultura Viva (ECO/UFRJ)

The Software Studies Brazil coordinator, Cicero Silva, will talk at the Laboratório de Cultura Viva at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) on July 8, 2010.

The topics that the lecture will address are the new interface systems for video, text and animation and the culture of visualization that is coming from new methodologies related to the structure of software and content distribution.

The seminar is coordinated by Ivana Bentes (Chair of the Communication School and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro)

More at http://laboratorioculturaviva.pontaodaeco.org/#programacao

O coordenador do grupo de Software Studies no Brasil, Cicero Silva, será um dos palestrantes no Laboratório de Cultura Viva da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) no dia 08 de julho de 2010.

O seminário abordará as novas configurações e interfaces para sistemas de distribuição de vídeo, texto, animações e imagens e apresentará novas metodologias relacionadas às estruturas de funcionamento dos softwares e distribuição de conteúdo.

O seminário é coordenado por Ivana Bentes (diretora da Escola de Comunicação da UFRJ)

+ em http://laboratorioculturaviva.pontaodaeco.org/#programacao

new display wall at CRCA

In addition to 70 screen HIPerSpace supervisualization system we have been working with since 2008, we now have access to a smaller 15 tiled display wall located in the same space where we work - CRCA (Center for Research in Computing and the Arts). The new wall is running the same interactive visualization software as the big wall.

The tiled display is on generous loan to CRCA from Scripps.

Its amazing to have this system right in our working area and be able to use it anytime.

Image: a visualization of 50,000 Manga pages on the new display wall.

Playpower no Brasil | Playpower project in Brazil

O projeto Playpower esteve no Brasil nos dias 17 e 19 de maio de 2010 para palestras na Universidade Mackenzie e na Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF). Os pesquisadores Jeremy Douglass e Don Miller participaram de inúmeras atividades envolvendo palestras e workshops para produção de jogos educacionais em 8 bits.

The Playpower project team was in Brazil for a serie of lectures and workshops on May 2010. Jeremy Douglass and Don Miller spent almost one week in Brazil lecturing in São Paulo, Juiz de Fora and Rio de Janeiro.

Veja os vídeos

Take a look at the videos