ACM Multimedia 2008

There will be following two panels:

Panel 1: Connecting Artists and Scientists in Multimedia Research.

(October 29, 2008, 9:00 - 10:00; Hall: Christal Pavilion)

Panel 2: Multimedia Education — Can we find unity in diversity?

(October 30, 2008, 16:00 - 17:30; Hall: Christal Pavilion)

Panel 1: Connecting Artists and Scientists in Multimedia Research

Given that more than ten times as many people will see the ACM Multimedia Interactive Arts program this year, in comparison with the technical program, the Art Program has come of age. Yet a "semantic gap" between disciplines remains. This panel will create a space in which ACM Multimedia scientists learn from artists, and the arts from sciences. We need to discover new connections between modalities of research. In order to create the most exciting and powerful future forms of interactive multimedia systems, the ones that will create the most beneficial broader impact on humanity, we need to foster new collaborations between artists and scientists. This panel will work to bridge the great divide of language and communities that has fragmented us, creating a new space for developing connections between the arts and sciences of multimedia research, as embodied through the artists and scientists of ACM Multimedia.

Juxtaposing differences in methodologies and epistemologies is a method for provoking thought and identifying connections, which can lead to the development of new knowledge [1]. The goal of the panel is to catalyze discussions that build a foundation of mutual understanding and respect, and from this foundation, to build new ideas and human relationships that can lead to fruitful collaborations in the cycles to come.

The panel will begin by asking each participant to characterize their approach to research, and to consider connections between the arts and sciences.

Artists will address:

How can multimedia content analysis, processing, retrieval, networking, applications, and human-centered systems contribute to your art?
How can your art contribute to multimedia research in content analysis, processing, retrieval, networking, applications, and human-centered systems?

Scientists will address:

How can conceptual and embodied components of interactive multimedia artworks, creativity support tools, and art-based media collections contribute to your research?
How can your research contribute to interactive multimedia art?

References

[1] Kerne, A., doing interface ecology: the practice of metadisciplinarity, Proc SIGGRAPH 2005, Art and Animation, 181-185.

Organizers

Andruid Kerne

Andruid Kerne is ACM Multimedia 2008 Program Co-Chair (Interactive Art), associate professor of computer science, Texas A&M University, and director, Interface Ecology Lab [http://ecologylab.net]. His research addresses human computer interaction, multimedia, creativity support tools, digital games, and education. National Science Foundation (NSF) awards are from the CAREER, Advanced Learning Technologies, and Human-Centered Computing (IIS) programs. He has published over 60 articles. Art work has been presented in the Guggenheim Museum (New York), New York Digital Salon (New York, Spain, London, Beijing), ISEA (Paris, San Jose), Ars Electronica Center (Linz), Boston Cyber Arts Festival, and Pan-African Theater Festival. Kerne holds a B.A. Harvard, Applied Mathematics / Electronic Media, an M.A. Music / Composition, Wesleyan, and a Ph.D. Computer Science, NYU. He is the PI of the mixed-initiative information composition tool, combinFormation.

Ron Wakkary

Ron Wakkary is ACM Multimedia 2008 Program Co-Chair (Interactive Art), and Associate Professor, School of Interactive Arts & Technology, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia. His primary research is in interaction design, with a focus on tangible computing and responsive environment, and the study of "everyday design." Wakkary has led the Am-I-able Network for Responsive and Mobile Environments, a research network in the design of wearable and ambient intelligence computing. He was the co-leader of the Interactivity Theme in the Canadian Design Research Network and is currently a lead researcher in the Team North Solar Decathlon 2009 project and CATGames, a leading Canadian research network in tools for digital games. Wakkary has published over fifty refereed articles and book chapters.

Frank Nack

Frank Nack is ACM Multimedia 2008 Program Co-Chair (Interactive Art), and associate professor, Human-Computer Studies Group (HCS), Informatics Institute, University of Amsterdam (UvA). The main thrust of his research is on the representation, retrieval and reuse of media in distributed hypermedia systems, systems that enhance human communication and creativity, computational applications of media theory & semiotics, automated video editing, interactive storytelling, and computational humor theory. He has published more than 60 papers on these topics.

Panel Members

Alberto del Bimbo	Alberto del Bimbo is ACM Multimedia 2008 Program Co-Chair (Content). At the University of Florence, he is full professor, Computer Engineering, Director, Masters in Multimedia, and Director, Media Integration and Communication Center. His scientific interests are pattern recognition, image databases, human computer interaction and multimedia. He published over 230 publications in scientific journals and international conferences. He is fellow of IAPR and was President of the IAPR Italian Chapter and Member at Large of the IEEE Pubs Board. He was General Chair of IAPR ICIAP’97, IEEE ICMCS’99, and IEEE ISM2008. He is Associate Editor of Pattern Recognition, Journal of Visual Languages and Computing, Multimedia Tools and Applications, Pattern Analysis and Applications, and International Journal of Image and Video Processing, and was Associate Editor of IEEE Trans. on Multimedia and IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence.
Selcuk Candan	Selcuk Candan is ACM Multimedia 2008 Program Co-Chair (Applications), associate professor, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, Arizona State University, and visiting research scientist, NEC Laboratories. He is associate director of the Arts, Media, and Engineering (AME) program at ASU and as a founding member for the Center for the Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing. He holds a Ph.D., computer science, from University of Maryland. Candan's primary research interest is the area of management of multimedia, web, and scientific data. His research is funded by the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, and DES/RSA. He has published over 100 articles and many book chapters. He has authored 9 patents.
Aleksandra Dulic	Aleksandra Dulic is an artist exhibiting in ACM Multimedia 2008 and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Media and Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre, University of British Columbia. She is an award-winning media artist and theorist working at the intersections of multimedia installation and live performance with research foci in computational poetics and media across cultures. Her work includes animated media performances, interactive computer installations; software tools for interactive animation, and interdisciplinary collaborations with composers and artists in music, dance, theatre, and poetry. She received a Ph.D., School of Interactive Art and Technology, Simon Fraser University in 2006. She is working on a research project entitled, “An intelligent instrument: composition, structure and improvisation in visual music.” She has received research funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Alejandro Jaimes	Alejandro Jaimes is ACM Multimedia 2008 Program Co-Chair (Human-Centered Multimedia), and Senior Research Scientist and Manager, Telefonica Research in Madrid, Spain, where he leads the Data Mining and User Modeling research group, focusing on human-centered data mining approaches for personalization, and decision support. Dr. Jaimes is founder of the ACM Multimedia Interactive Arts Program, Human-Centered Computing area chair of IEEE Computer Magazine, and a founding member of the IEEE Computer Society Taskforce on Human-Centered Computing. He is a media artist working in interactive, photo, and video. His art, which has been exhibited internationally, explores cultural differences and similarities. Jaimes received a Ph.D., Electrical Engineering (2003) and M.S., Computer Science (1997) from Columbia University. He has published over 60 articles, and been granted several patents.
Pamela Jennings	Pamela Jennings is an artist exhibiting in ACM Multimedia 2008, the Research Manager of the Advanced Research Technology Lab, and Visiting Professor at the Banff New Media Institute. She has exhibited at Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; FE Gallery and Future Tenant Gallery, Pittsburgh; Parsons School of Design, New York; MIT List Center for Visual Arts,; 707 Contemporary Gallery, Santa Fe; and Studio Museum of Harlem; Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa. She is a MacDowell Artists Colony fellow and has received funding from Alberta Informatics Circle of Research Excellence, National Science Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Jennings received a Ph.D. in Human Centered Systems Design from the University of Plymouth, United Kingdom; M.F.A. Computer Art from School of Visual Arts; M.A. in Studio Art from Intl. Center of Photography and NYU; and B.A., Psychology, Oberlin.
Amanda Steggell	Amanda Steggell is an independent artist exhibiting in ACM Multimedia 2008. She is, in principle, a choreographer, exploring the body as it engages with media inventions - and the hopes, dreams and fears that occur therein. Fresh out of the National College of Dance in Oslo, in 1996, she co-founded the Motherboard project [www.liveart.org] with Per Platou to explore the materiality of the internet as a mediating, modulating influence in performance, installations, social and sites-specific settings. Through a research scholarship (2003-06), she conducted a practical and theoretical investigation of synaesthetic phenomena as they have appeared in art and science over the centuries, and in relation to contemporary live art practices. The Emotion Organ is the artistic result of this work.

Panel 2: "Multimedia Education — Can we find unity in diversity?"

"... MultiMedia as a field does not get the respect it deserves. In most departments in the country, there are no required courses on MultiMedia and when people try to hire faculty members, Multimedia is not listed as a field."

Ramesh Jain, UC Irvine, USA [source]

Multimedia education is not in a good state - a situation which is not only critical for students and teachers but for the entire community. For example, how can we expect respect from colleagues working in other fields of computer science and engineering if we don't even have a generally accepted curriculum or share a common terminology? Multimedia is composed of a variety of research areas. This diversity makes it such a special and interesting research field. However, the different vocabularies, methods, and cultures of the involved communities also introduce barriers that make it difficult to teach and also recognize the field as a unified subject.

In a related panel at the ACM EMME 2007 workshop at last year's ACM Multimedia, several problems of today's multimedia education and their relevance for the whole multimedia community have been identified and summarized in a position statement [1]. Based on this and the organizers' statement [2], we will discuss with experts from education, research, and industry what the community should do and how we should deal with these problems. Establishing multimedia as a unified, single subject is a challenging task, of course, that raises many questions, including:

What is the critical mass that belongs into a multimedia curriculum?
What can we do to improve education, e.g. how can ACM SIGMM help to foster a unified and accepted curriculum?
How can we be specialists and yet be broad, in other words: How can we find unity in diversity?

The answers to these questions are of high relevance for everyone in the community because the way in which we teach our students (who will be tomorrows researchers and developers) also influences how our field develops in the future and how it is recognized among other disciplines. We encourage everyone to participate, join the discussion, and be inspired!