Personal Statement:  Annette Barbier uses new technologies to address issues of home, domesticity, and the ways in which identity is bound up with one's environment. It has moved from an emphasis on the personal to a consideration of the global, looking at ways in which home has come to be defined more broadly as populations shift, and as our interdependence becomes increasingly clear.

Barbier graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with an MFA. She chairs the Interactive Arts and Media Department at Columbia College Chicago, where she teaches new media theory and practice. She came to Columbia from Northwestern University, where she directed the Center for Art and Technology.

She has exhibited in the International Society for Electronic Arts (ISEA), Ars Electronica, the International Digital Media Art Association (IDMAA) and has shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago) and screened work in numerous festivals and on public television and cable. More detail may be found at: http://iam.colum.edu/abarbier

Personal URL:  http://www.unreal-estates.com
Courses: 
Keywords: 

Personal Statement:  Janell Baxter is currently Associate Chair of the Interactive Arts and Media Department (IAM), School of Media Arts at Columbia College Chicago. She teaches simulation and serious game design, programming, teamwork, interactive media development, and the capstone courses Indie Game Studio, and IAM Team. Janell was part of the team that created the Game Design major in IAM, and has been instrumental in curriculum development across all of the majors in the department; she has served as coordinators of the Game Development concentration, Game Art concentration, and Web Development minor, as well as part of the team that recently redesigned the Interactive Arts and Media BA.

Her professional work includes engineering bots and building simulations and software. She’s been involved in a range of development projects, from commercial work to simulations and serious game-like experiences funded by grants. Her primary interest in building interactive work is to create experiences that are meaningful and relevant to those who use them, and that embody traits on the higher end of the interactive spectrum: participant-centered, responsive, adaptive, dynamic, and immersive.

She holds a MS in Computer Science from the University of Chicago, and a BFA from University of Illinois at Chicago, and her work often combines art and technology in an innovative manner.


Personal URL:  http://www.janellbaxter.com
Courses: 
Keywords: Programming, Simulation Design, Teamwork, Collaboration, Interaction Design, Algorithmic Art, Generative Art

Personal Statement:  Matthew Board is an Independent game developer, digital sculptor and media artist. Matthew has a BFA from Northern Kentucky University and an MFA from the University of Cincinnati. Matthew has exhibited his work nationally and Internationally including exhibits at Cal State Long Beach, The Hungarian Multi-Cultural Center and Around the Coyote, Chicago and The Gnomon School of Visual Effects. Some of Matthew’s work has also been accepted to the Rhizome ARTbase.

Matthew has also done work for Hasbro, Vermont Digital Arts, Great Eastern Technology and GT Productions.

Personal URL:  www.mattboard.com
Courses: 
Keywords: 3D, Digital Sculpting, Rapid Prototyping, Game Development, Texture Painting, Rigging, Serious Games, Mobile Games

Personal Statement:  Dr. Cancellaro is an accomplished composer and sound designer. He received a Bachelor's Degree in Composition and Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music in Boston, a Master's Degree in Composition from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, and a Ph.D. in Music Composition from Edinburgh University in Scotland. His music has been performed around the world and he has written many film scores. Interactive audio and sound sculptures are also a significant part of his output.

While in Europe he worked for the BBC and ECAT in Great Britain as well as the Warsaw Electro-acoustic Music Studio in Poland. Dr. Cancellaro has taught at the University of Edinburgh, The I.M Paderwski Poznan Academy of Music in Poland, the Polytechnical Institute in Poland, and was the senior sound designer at the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center also in Poland. Recently he has published a book on sound design: 'Sound Design for Interactive Audio' published by Thompson Delmar Learning. Current projects include three film scores, the sound design for a feature film, a cello concerto, 12 pieces for piano, and a chamber ensemble piece. In October, Joseph will give a live interview regarding his compositions on a local Seattle radio station.

Along with his musical and sound design accomplishments Dr. Cancellaro also works as a 3D designer and teaches the subject as well. Joseph has been faculty at Columbia College since 2000.



Personal URL: 
Courses: 
Keywords: 

Personal Statement:  Tom Dowd is a 25-year veteran of the game industry, having been first published while still in high-school. He is one of the co-creators of the award-winning Shadowrun role-playing game, as well as writer/contributor to other role-playing titles and two novels. While at FASA Corporation, he worked on the Shadowurn, BattleTech, and EarthDawn game lines and joined the Microprose-FASA Corp joint venture FASA Interactive in the mid-90’s where he was senior designer on the RTS computer game MechCommander. In 1999 he was the lead designed on the Microsoft/Day:1:Studios Xbox/Xbox-Live million+ selling release, MechAssault. His other video game credits include Shadowrun games for the NES and Sega consoles, the MechWarrior 2 (Activision; PC) and MechWarrior 3 (Microprose; PC) game series, Axis & Allies: Iron Blitz (Hasbro; PC), Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (Vivendi Universal; PC, Xbox, PS2), and DuelMasters (Atari; PS2). He is currently the lead of the online multiplayer text-based social/rpg game Castle Marrach. Tom has a BFA (Communication Arts) and an MA (Communication) from the New York Institute of Technology. He has edited an edition of the journal of the International Digital Media Arts Association (iDMAa) and will be presenting at their conference in November 2010. Tom was a featured guest at the inaugural Game Forum of the Animation School of the Beijing Film Academy in Beijing, China, at which time he also addressed the game development students of the Communication University of China. He is a member of Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS), the Science Fiction Writers of America (SWA), the International Digital Media Arts Association (iDMAa), and the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and acts as the co-leader of the Chicago IGDA chapter as well as a member of the IGDA Education Special Interest Group where he helped form the 2007 Game Curriculum Framework.
Personal URL:  http://storybydesign.wordpress.com
Courses: 
Keywords: Video Games, Game Development, Interactive Narrative, Transmedia Storytelling, Game Production

Personal Statement:  Dave Gerding is a researcher, futurist and inventor. His ongoing “Construct” research project is investigating the application of sensor fusion and machine learning to small group and personal interaction. Gerding has presented related papers at Savannah College of Art and Design, the Future and Reality of Games Conference at the University of Vienna, and at the International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation in Madrid.
Personal URL:  www.davidgerding.com
Courses: 
Keywords: Research, Sensor Fusion, Machine Learning, Data Visualization, Social Technology

Personal Statement:  Andrew received his BA from Columbia College Chicago in Interactive Media, and an MFA in Art & Technology from the School of the Art Institute Chicago. Andrew has taught at Columbia College Chicago and SAIC for 11 years. He has shown interactive work in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Tallinn, Estonia. Hicks has curated interactive art shows as well as film fests and workshops revolving around digital media. As a commercial designer and programmer he has worked with large multinational firms building web presences, as well as crafting innumerable websites for musicians and artists. He spent 3 years working for Emmi Solutions, where he animated surgical procedures using Adobe Flash. To balance out the digital realm, Andrew finds time to paint in oils and watercolors. His artwork resides in corporate spaces and private collections in Chicago.

Personal URL:  http://www.andrewhicks.net
Courses: 
Keywords: Interactive Art, Video Games, Web Development

Personal Statement:  Patrick Lichty (b.1962) is a technologically-based conceptual artist, writer, independent curator, animator for the activist group, The Yes Men, and Executive Editor of Intelligent Agent Magazine. He began showing technological media art in 1989, and deals with works and writing that explore the social relations between us and media. Venues in which Lichty has been involved with solo and collaborative works include the Whitney & Turin Biennials, Maribor Triennial, Performa Performance Biennial, Ars Electronica, and the International Symposium on the Electronic Arts (ISEA).

He also works extensively with virtual worlds, including Second Life, and his work, both solo and with his performance art group, Second Front, has been featured in Flash Art, Eikon Milan, and ArtNews.

He holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Digital Arts from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, and a Bachelor’s in Electronic Engineering from The University of Akron. He is also a member of the Phi Kappa Phi graduate honors organization.

Personal URL:  http://www.voyd.com
Courses: 
Keywords: 3D, Yes Men, Machinima, Lichty, Second Front, Second Life, RTMark, Tactical Media, Activism

Personal Statement:  Niki Nolin is a media artist who works to blend painting, drawing and poetry with motion, interaction, installation and performance. Working collaboratively with artists and poets, her focus is to arouse in the viewer the conviction of a reality which exists in the spaces between words and images; intuitive gaps and leaps of faith, text and voice over time, and the disassociations and non-linearities of thought-play and choice - a digital rendering of mind and universe. The work describes, primarily, the choices, circumstances and attributes of women.

Niki looks for projects and collaborators that allow for a lot of creative freedom. Artists that have integrity and a passion and commitment to their art, that are flexible and good listeners –collaborators that know, recognize, perceive, feel, show, teach, and inspire.

Collaborative projects include work for Art Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, UCLA, Chicago Cultural Center, International Digital Media Arts Association, International Calligraphy Organization, eNarrative Roundtable Boston, the College Art Association, SIGGRAPH and many others. Niki works with poet/artist Sherry Antonini and sculptor Suzanne Cohan-Lange, (A Look at Chaos Shows This to be True, Here Lies Truth, Little Black Dress), with poet Maureen Seaton, (Drought, CHAOSity and Literal Drift), and poet Nancy Gaziano, (Volatile Memories, Point Normal: Pipe Dreams of Sink Women). Recently finished INK with Brody Nuenshwander, Sherry Antonini, Basil Abbott, Nana Shineflug and the Chicago Moving Company for the International Calligraphy Organization.

Celebrating 18 years at Columbia College Chicago Niki received the Distinguished Teaching Fellowship in 2010 and teaches imaging, time-based media, installation and experimental website design and is currently associate professor in the Interactive Arts and Media Department. She holds an MFA in art and technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BFA in painting from Rockford College.

Our Columbia Story Profile
Personal URL:  http://Venuscouncil.com
Courses: 
Keywords: Collaborative, Bird, Woman, Poetry, Journey, Dark, Motion, Image, Intuition, Risk, Courage, Growth, Change, Silence, Acoustic Ecology, Experimental Film

Personal Statement:  Previously, in her 30 year career in Information Systems, Ms. Shannon was the Vice President of Institutional Operations for the New York City investment management firm Neuberger Berman, a senior executive for SEI Corporation, and the president of her own management consulting firm which she started in 1996. Before joining the faculty of Columbia College in 2003, Ms. Shannon served two years as an Information Technology Peace Corps Volunteer in Belize, Central America and taught in the Computer Science Department at the University of Belize.

Her current research focuses on finding new and innovative ways to attract women and minorities to careers in computer science by developing new ideas on the use of technology and new forms of serious gaming. She has published and presented several papers on the subject and has received two grants to further her work. She is committed to public service as evidenced by her volunteer work in Belize for the Peace Corps and Namibia for World Teach.

Ms. Shannon holds an M.A. from New York University and a B.A. from DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois.


Personal URL: 
Courses: 
Keywords: Serious Gaming, Applied Programming, Information Literacy, Women in Computer Science, Emerging Technologies