MIT Graduate Program in Comparative Media Studies

Noir: The Shorthand Guide...
2006-02-02 18:00 (America/New_York) | MIT Building 2, Room 105, 182 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA, 02139, United States
Noir … Hollywood’s response to the breakdown and reworking of longstanding representational codes appeared with the use of anti-heros, inverted narrative structure, gritty urban realism, and stories set at night. This departure from normative cultural practice largely coincided with related developments in music (bebop), painting (abstract expressionism), and other expressive forms. This session will briefly look at Film Noir’s roots in German Romanticism and Expressionism, its relationships with contemporary arts, and its successors in contemporary film culture. This heavily illustrated session will offer a primer to one of the most important moments in America’s film history.

Is This On? (Learn To Be a College DJ)
2006-01-16 18:00 | MIT Building 50, Room 030, 142 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA, 02139, United States
Checking levels, making a segue, cueing vinyl (vinyl-what’s that?)
Get to know your campus radio station (WMBR) as DJ Generoso teaches you various skills of doing a radio show. Then, learn some history of WMBR (the first punk rock radio show in the USA), have a tour of the station and obtain membership information.
Freshly baked cookies and milk will be provided because Andy would’ve wanted it that way.

Innovation in Video Games: A French-American Dialogue
2005-11-11 14:00 - 19:00 | MIT Media Lab, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139, United States

Media in Transition 4: The Work of Stories
2005-05-06 - 2005-05-08 | MIT Media Lab, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139, United States
Some say storytelling is at the heart of social life and personal identity. It is common today to speak of political candidates’ "competing narratives," or of a group or culture’s need to invent "a new narrative" for changing times. Stories are embedded in our commercials and our newscasts. Ancient narratives of humiliation and revenge are said to drive the lives of millions. New and emerging technologies have given global reach to stories old and new.
This fourth Media in Transition conference explores storytelling as a cultural practice, a social and political activity as well as an art form.
We want to talk about why some stories last, how they migrate across media forms within their own societies as well as other cultures and historical eras. We hope to encourage speculation about the ways in which stories are deployed in periods of media in transition, and about the way some stories easily inhabit different media simultaneously while other stories seem less adaptable.
We aim to stimulate a conversation among scholars, journalists and media professionals who may often speak only to their own tribal groups.

LineStorm Animation Exploration
2005-01-18 - 2005-01-25, 2004-01-20 14:00 | MIT Building 56, Room 167, Access via 21 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139, United States
Be a worthy contributor to Animation, the world’s newest artform! We’ll review some short, world-famous animations, then approach the artform the old-fashioned way, creating hand-drawn artwork on lightboxes, scanning it into the computer for looping, sound-sync and final edit. We’ll use dynamic, energetic typography to illustrate one or two essential maxims (in ten words or less, yet to be chosen!), then add color and organic line to give them an unforgettable visual boost! Our finished piece, 2 to 3 minutes long, will screen at the Made-at-MIT Spectacular in May. Limit: 12. Presented by Pell Osborn, award-winning animator, designer, and teacher.

Chicks Make Flicks: Screening of Monkey Dance and Discussion with Julie Mallozzi
2005-01-11 19:00 | MIT Building 32 (Stata Center), Room 124, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139, United States
Monkey Dance subjects Sochenda Uch, Linda Sou, and Samnang Hor. Photo by Andrew Page.
Join us for a screening of the film Monkey Dance followed by a discussion with the film’s director Julie Mallozzi. See the URL below for more information on the film.
Co-Sponsored by the MIT Program in Women’s Studies, Women in Film and Video/New England, McCormick Hall (MIT), Women’s Independent Living Group (MIT), Comparative Media Studies (MIT).
Screenings are free.

Between the Lines: Negotiating South Asian LBGT Identity
2004-04-01 - 2004-04-03
Between the Lines is the first event of its kind to be organized in the Boston/Cambridge area. It is an attempt to explore the diversity of South Asian LBGT creative expression and foster a debate on what constitutes South Asian LBGT identity.

Keitai Cool: The Latest in Mobile Phone Lifestyles in Japan and Beyond
2004-01-28 16:00 - 18:00 | MIT Building 4, Room 231, Cambridge, MA, 02139, United States
Japan’s cell phone (or keitai) culture is the most developed in the world today, with new uses, marketing strategies, and social relationships increasingly transforming the ways people communicate and experience their own identity. Come hear about the latest developments in Japan from an advertising executive with 12-years experience in Hakuhodo, one of Japan’s largest marketing firms and a leader in lifestyle research. In this session, with Yuichi Washida, we examine some latest survey data regarding the media environment in Japan, the US, the Netherlands, and China, and introduce a new conception of marketing called “Situational Marketing.”

"Searching for the Origami Unicorn": The Matrix and Transmedia Storytelling
2004-01-15 19:00 - 21:00 | MIT Building 6, Room 120, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge, MA, 02139, United States
Does The Matrix phenomenon represent the future of entertainment? If so, what will it look like? Drawing on research from his new book, Comparative Media Studies Professor Henry Jenkins offers his insights into the films, the video games, the comics, and the anime as embodying some significant trends in American popular culture, including media convergence, transmedia storytelling, and globalization. Following his lecture, we will screen The Animatrix, a unique collaboration between a western media franchise and Asian animators.

Media in Transition 3: Television
2003-05-02 - 2003-05-04
Media in Transition 3: Television
What is the role of television in specific societies or regions today? How is this role changing? What part are digital technologies and new systems of communication playing in this transition? What are the likely outcomes of present trends? What are the darkest possibilities? What does the history of television in diverse countries and regions tell us about its possible futures? The third Media in Transition conference centers on television’s political and cultural role at the dawn of our new millennium.

Fansubbing
2003-01-27 13:00 | MIT Building 1, Room 150, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, United States
Sean Leonard, Andrew Deschere
Learn fansubbing–the process of adding subtitles to Japanese animation. Topics covered: history and development of American fansubbing, tools and methodology, global culture and media theories, legal and ethical debates. Participants will work in teams (“fansub groups”) to subtitle a short animation, working on translation, timing, typesetting, encoding, and other development tasks. Previous exposure to Japanese language is recommended but not required. The fansubbing tools that we will be using are built for the Win32 platform. Although not required, a laptop that runs Windows applications is highly recommended for practice in class.

AniJam
2003-01-21 13:00 | MIT Building 56, Room 167, Access via 21 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139, United States
Be an animator! Rediscover the magic and pep of this delightfully elastic medium. Work with award-winning animator and designer Pell Osborn (“Piano-Forte”, “Silent E”, “The Creation”) to build a free-for-all AniJam, an Animation Jamboree, in which each participant contributes a freeform sequence to our punchy final two-minute project. We’ll use traditional materials — each animator on a lightbox — then capture our art to the computer for final edit and sync to a pre-recorded track. If all works out, our magnum opus screens at the MIT Media Spectacle this spring.

Comics 2003 -- A Fast-Changing Landscape
2003-01-15 19:00 | MIT Building 10, Room 250, 222 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA, 02139, United States
Cartoonist Scott McCloud discusses recent developments in comics and graphic novels and the recently accelerated evolution of comics on the Web.

Comics: Theory and Practice
2003-01-13 09:00 | MIT Building 1, Room 145, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02319, United States
A visual lecture and intensive hands-on workshop with Scott McCloud in the art of making comics. Strong emphasis will be given to developing clarity, storytelling skills and personal expression. Students will learn and apply a variety of techniques for presenting narratives through comics, as well as a wide arsenal of skills applicable to any form of graphic communication. The course culminates in the creation of original comics short features, written and drawn by each student.

Media in Transition 2: Globalization and Convergence
2002-05-10 - 2002-05-12
Media in Transition 2: Globalization and Convergence
Will globalization reduce or expand the world’s cultural diversity? How do we reconcile the competing forces of media convergence and media fragmentation that are shaping the current communications infrastructure? What patterns can we discern among convergent content and audiences across media forms and international borders? These are among the issues to be explored at the Media in Transition 2 international conference on globalization and convergence.

Race in Digital Space
2001-04-27 - 2001-04-29 | MIT Building E51, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA, 02139, United States
Race in Digital Space: A National Conference on Race and New Media Technologies
Cyberspace has been represented as a race-blind environment, yet our everyday encounters with race have consequences–both “inside and outside the box.” Although most discussions of the “digital divide” have tended to erase the numerous contributions of minority artists, activists, entrepreneurs, journalists, and scholars, this conference celebrates those accomplishments, while situating them against the backdrop of the challenges we still must confront in order to insure equal access to information technologies. What cultural and social baggage do we carry into the digital domain? How does the “race” for connectivity, access, and linkage relate to other races for visibility and equal opportunity? How are communities tackling political and economic inequalities in order to bridge the “digital divide”? How have minority communities deployed digital tools to comment on digital culture, to reconfigure the history of racism, and to claim a more powerful voice in shaping the future? Racism affects all Americans and so we are bringing together speakers of many different races and backgrounds to share their experiences and offer their solutions.

Digital Cinema Conference
2000-11-03 - 2000-11-05 | MIT Building E51, Room 345, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA, 02139, United States
Part of an ongoing series of events focused on creativity in the digital age, the MIT Conference on Digital Cinema brings together filmmakers, critics, and media industry leaders to explore the nature of digital cinema and its cultural significance. The conference will combine screenings of significant works in digital cinema with panel discussions centered on such issues as the political consequence of broadening media access, the shifting status of amateur filmmaking, the aesthetics of this emerging media form, the economics of digital film production and distribution, the historical antecedents of digital cinema, and the ways in which digital cinema may influence our media future.
The MIT Conference on Digital Cinema is sponsored by ALWAYSi.com, the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program, and the MIT Communications Forum.

Computer and Video Games Come of Age Conference
2000-02-10 - 2000-02-11 | MIT Building 26, Room 100, Access Via 60 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139, United States
The computer and video game industry has now completed its first quarter century and has become a strong and vibrant force within the American entertainment industry. There is no question that interactive games are a medium which can already celebrate significant accomplishments and social and cultural contributions. The most exciting developments are surely yet to come.
The time has come to take an inventory of today’s game industry and envision tomorrow’s technological innovations and creative implications, not only from industrial and professional perspectives but from research being explored by cultural and media scholars. In much the same way industry leaders and academics worked together to establish a serious national conversation about the aesthetic and cultural importance of cinema in the 20th century, we believe that academic and industry exchanges can promote the art of digital entertainment media for the 21st century.
As a first step, the Program in Comparative Media Studies and the Communications Forum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in cooperation with the Interactive Digital Software Association, invite you to a national conference to be held in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Thursday, 10 February and Friday, 11 February 2000. Industry insiders and academic researchers will contribute to conversations designed to:

Assess the state of the computer and video game industry;
Evaluate how the industry has made use of the potentials of digital media;
Discuss how it is responding to more diverse consumer tastes and interests;
Speculate where games may go as a genre in the next decade.

Media in Transition Conference
1999-10-08 - 1999-10-10
Media in Transition Conference
To celebrate the launch of the graduate program in Comparative Media Studies at MIT, this final event of the Media in Transition Project aims to establish a broad-gauged discussion of our emerging computer culture in the perspective of ancestor technologies and older media. The conference will include some 75 presentations on many aspects of this subject, a series of multi-media demonstrations and films offered in parallel with the presentations, and three plenary “conversations” in which distinguished panelists will speak briefly and then participate in extended dialogue with the audience. Among the panelists: Phil Agre, Robert Darnton, Henry Jenkins, Elaine Kamarck, Adam Powell, Mitchel Resnick, Paul Starr, Bob Stein, Maria Tatar, Sherry Turkle.
