DANM TUESDAYS 4-6 allow the DANM community to come together each week to listen, learn and share our work and play. During the upcoming winter quarter the series will focus on professional development. We welcome DANM alumni back to present about their experiences with PhD programs, developing an art practice, exhibiting their work, writing grants, applying for teaching positions, teaching at all levels, working with youth, developing a business, working in industry, and more. Each week will have a focus, but because we are all about interdisciplinarity here at DANM, these informal discussions will be wide ranging. Come – and meet your future! Full series here.
DANM TUESDAYS 4-6 :: COME – and meet your future!
Pursuing a PhD
Tuesday, January 8 (4-6)
DARC 206
Next Tuesday, January 8, we will hear from three alumni who have gone on to PhD programs: Karl Baumann ('10), Aaron Reed ('11), and Laila Sakr ('09). Karl and Aaron will attend in person and Laila will participate via skype.
Karl Baumann is a digital artist, filmmaker, and scholar. His current work explores immersive and mobile cinema to navigate the complex layers of urban spaces. After completing an MFA in Digital Arts and New Media (DANM) at UC Santa Cruz in 2010, Karl taught media literacy with the Boys and Girls Club and participated heavily in Occupy Oakland. In addition to his locative and playable media projects, Karl has produced multiple feature documentaries and experimental videos, within the US and internationally. He is currently an Annenberg Fellow in the Interdivisional Media Arts Practice (iMAP) PhD program at the University of Southern California.
Aaron A. Reed is a writer, programmer, student, and teacher of interactive narrative. His work has been featured in the Electronic Literature Collection, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and at indie game venues from Slamdance, IndieCade, and IGF (Independent Games Festival). Aaron graduated from the Digital Arts & New Media MFA program at UC Santa Cruz in 2011, and is currently pursuing a PhD in computer science with the Expressive Intelligence Studio, also at UCSC. Aaron was lead writer on Prom Week, a groundbreaking social AI narrative from the EIS lab.
Laila Sakr aka VJ Um Amel is a media artist, PhD candidate, and the creator of R-Shief – a virtual lab that collects and analyzes content from the Internet using swarm computing generated analytics. Her practices include live video performance, visual art, digital art, and network analysis. Focused on the Arab world, her doctoral work maps the Arab revolutions through semantic analysis of social media feeds in Arabic, Persian, French, English, Spanish, German, and (soon) Urdhu. She has shown at the San Francisco MoMA, National Gallery of Art in Jordan, Camera Austria, Cultura Digital in Brazil, DC Fridge Art Gallery, Tech@State, +. With an MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University and an MFA in Digital Arts and New Media from University of California, Santa Cruz in 2009, this VJ is currently pursuing a PhD in Media Arts and Practice at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. There, she has been awarded an Annenberg Fellowship and nominated as a MacArthur Foundation HASTAC scholar.