CMS News Archives

CMS Undergraduate Coordinator Gene Fierro sends along the following report from the CMS Media Spectacle 2006:

Last night, a great crowd turned out for the CMS Media Spectacle in honor of Chris Pomiecko, the former program administrator here at CMS. The Media Spectacle was held at Stata and was a huge success both in the quality of submissions and in audience response. Cathy Pomiecko, Chris' sister and his mother were in attendance, and Cathy served as one of the judges. The other judges were Professor Junot Diaz, Dr. Laura Ceia-Minjares, Dr. Doris Rusch, Dr. Joern Ahrens, and myself. The event was filmed and aired on MIT cable.

There were two awards given last night, one for the best undergraduate submission (The Chris Pomiecko Award) and another for the best graduate submission.

The winning undergraduate submission was A Piece of Cake, by Anna Wexler (Brain & Cog Sci) and Nadja Oertelt (Brain & Cog Sci), who were awarded the Chris Pomiecko Prize for their work. Both Anna and Nadja were unable to attend as they are in the Cambridge-MIT Program. Cake is a very funny film with monotone dialogue showing a very mismatched date.

The winning graduate film submission was Amnion, by Rajesh Kottamasu (Urban Planning). Amnion was an ambitious experimental film set within a womb, where a pair of twins was recreated using a light table and fabric. A voice-over narrative chronicles the experiences they would share in their lifetimes.

CMS congratulates the winners on their excellent work, and everyone who attended for coming together to make the Media Spectacle 2006 a memorable experience.

We hope to make streaming versions of the award-winning videos available here on the CMS website in the next few weeks, so check back soon!

Posted by CMS Webmaster at 9:49 AM in Announcements, Events | Permalink

Graduate student Sam Ford (2007) was a member of the panel "The Perils and Promise of Interdisciplinarity" on Friday, April 14, at the National Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Annual Conference in Atlanta.

His presentation, entitled "Break the Walls Down: Trumpeting a Desire to Blur Disciplinary Lines in Academia," was part of a four-member discussion about the current status of interdisciplinary studies in American academic institutions. He was joined by Dr. Ted Hovet, head of the film studies minor and member of the English faculty at Western Kentucky University; Dr. Dale Rigby, writing professor at Western Kentucky University; and Amanda Ford, independent scholar.

The panel members were joined by about 30 audience members who actively participated in the discussion, which turned into a brainstorming session about the place of interdisciplinary studies in the current academic structure. All four panel members and most of the audience members have multiple interests that do not fit clearly into a traditional academic field, making the carving of an academic niche difficult, especially at schools and in programs more tied to a traditional academic structure.

Ford presented MIT's Comparative Media Studies program as a potential alternative, where the department has most of its faculty spread across the university. The discussion included debates about costs of attending graduate school and doctoral programs for students not entirely happy with the structuring of most academic programs; the debate of looking outside academia, where interest in multiple areas may be, in some ways, better received and even celebrated; and a look at the positive moves toward embracing and effectively utilizing interdisciplinary studies. The group also looked at the potential reasons why universities are so invested in guarding against interdisciplinary studies and the misconceptions many people have with blurring or breaking some of the barriers built up between various strands of academia.

Posted by CMS Webmaster at 1:16 PM in Accomplishments, Announcements | Permalink

Ravi Purushotma ('06) and Dan Roy ('07) flew out to San Jose recently for the Game Developers Conference where they presented their work modding the LucasArts adventure game Grim Fandango to teach Spanish. The original game is an undisputed classic in the industry, and its focus on the Mexican Day of the Dead makes it a good choice for teaching Spanish.

They also showed updates of their Sims 2 project, providing students with a modified version The Sims 2 suited for learning a foreign language.

Purushotma and Roy plan to continue conceptualizing the most effective ways of marrying entertaining technology with the best language learning theory to engage students in a new way around language.

Posted by CMS Webmaster at 2:11 PM in Accomplishments, Announcements | Permalink