Tag: pennefather
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The known unknowns of an improv session
I admit that I tend to over plan improv sessions. It’s not really an intended strategy. It’s not because I don’t want to integrate the spontaneous into a course structure, nor because i’m afraid to go with the unplanned, which, is usually what happens. It’s because letting participants know a little of what they are…
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A Modular VR Instructional Design
Upcoming posts will mainly consist of course overviews and the reasoning behind each. Their iterative design has been motivated by having to guide and mentor learners through the choppy, foggy, disorienting and at times nausea-inducing waters of VR productions. Areas covered will include VR production pipelines, VR UX, prototyping, user-testing, and more. I insist that…
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Case Studies: Interactive Digital Media Artifacts
In the past 15 years I have mentored over 35 projects and 205 graduate students on various virtual productions leading to interactive digital prototypes (game, mobile, installation, video and web apps) for real-world clients. Documentation generally consisted of a problem statement, problem(s) to solve, research, executive summary, methods, and applying a user-centered methodology. The documents…
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Sound Design for Interactive Mini-Theatre
The challenge to reinvent the stage for theatrical design has resulted in more interactive and immersive experiences. The selections below represent a wide range of work and these examples, part of a body of work presented at Hive in Vancouver (a unique offering of mini-pieces in the same warehouse space and rotating small audiences) represent one future…
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Music for Dance Film Series 1
This was one of the first Dance for Film projects I collaborated on. Alving Erasga Tolentino transposed his live performances to the small screen for what was once Bravo Television.
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Live Music and Songs
The productions below highlight some of my ongoing exploration of integrating live and pre-recorded songs into the design using text from the script and coaching actors to deliver. Many productions I’ve been involved in have demanded some kind of live element and/or live, mixed with recorded. This has been a worthwhile challenge and one of balance,…
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Dancers Dancing
Dancers Dancing/Various selections/2005-2015. I’ve created many compositions working with choreographer and educator Judith Garay. A trailer for Fine Line: Twisted Angels can be seen here. Hypersonic speakers directing music to specific locations in the space, infrared triggering of projection and lighting. Playful, dynamic, and evocative, the track below is one of several to accompany dancers…
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Studies in Motion
Studies in Motion/Electric Company Theatre/2006-2010. Five separate productions based on the life of Edweard Muybridge. 120 Cues. Over 75 originally composed works. Video highlights here. Compositional highlights available here on iTunes:
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Teaching Prototypically
As a teacher, embracing the values of prototyping has meant a solid commitment, understanding and breakdown of its underlying components that I renew through continuing my professional practice. From that practice, I believe that underlying assumptions of prototyping need to be reviewed and re-constructed with learners each time any prototyping process is facilitated. How else…
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Rapid Prototyping Techniques @ the CDM
The videos below represent two different ways that I’ve attempted to capture typical rapid prototyping processes that I’ve facilitated in my Interdisciplinary Improvisation course and in real-world Projects courses at the Master of Digital Media Program in Vancouver. In my first prototype, the photo and video documentation attempt to show more of a collage of…
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Rapid Prototyping & the Performing Arts
Facilitating a rapid prototyping process at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts with Small Stage this past week has been a rewarding and challenging experience. The varied talents of dancers, choreographers, musicians, composers, songwriters, actors, triple threats, and teachers brought the lab to life in unexpected and brilliant extemporaneous works. The wondrous Cori Caulfied &…
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Reflections on Mentoring Projects 2015: V. 23
As the last semester came to a close, I too decided to perform the painful but rewarding activity that I’ve asked my students to do many times before: document a reflection of what I learned through mentoring projects. The more challenging part that I took on, is that I also wanted to make the reflection public. I’m balancing…
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Disrupting the Assumption of Collaboration
Why should we assume that collaboration means the same thing to different people? Is it enough to say that I’m a good collaborator without really defining what that means. We’ve all had different experiences so will likely define a good collaboration differently. One Solution One of the strategic exercises that I facilitate at the Master…
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Crowd Surfing Love @ the Centre for Digital Media
What better way for a brave group of Chinese students from the Communication University of China to start our fifth IDEA-X @ the Centre for Digital Media Program in Vancouver. Crowd Surfing is a fun and engaging way for learners to embody trust—to know what it feels like to support others who depend on you, and in turn to…
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Work with New Others…Often
It’s difficult advocating the unknown joys and perils of collaborating with others when I’d rather talk about the steady times I continue to have with familiar and aligned collaborators. The truth is we never know what the outcome of a collaboration is going to be. Some of us have the luxury of developing collaborative partnerships that last…
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Let Learners Influence the Design
If we are not in the classroom for the learners then should we be in there at all? The answer may seem obvious. And yet, what does it mean to be fully present and engaged for the learner? From my experience teaching for the past 15 years across learning environments, it means that you need…
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Assume Learners Are Not Empty Headed
I’ve seen so many teachers think that learners need to be broken down. In order to understand what you are teaching they have to be re-trained from scratch and moulded afresh. This is not only dangerous since it assumes that you have the authority and the wisdom of a guru to do so, but I’ll…
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Disrupting the Classroom
This video shot at the Masters of Digital Media Program by learners who over the years have contributed to the disruption of teaching and learning. The video gives you a taste of different methods of engaging learners in order to promote a teaching and learning environment that is collaborative and self-reflexive. A free download of an excerpt of…
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Improvisation & Communication
A short video detailing the advantages improvisation has to support communication in collaborative activities. Shot with the 8th cohort at the Master of Digital Media Program in Vancouver, Canada. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFKbdLVjOLI
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Reverse Engineering a Class
I’m trying something new for my class this first week of November. I’m going to reverse engineer the next Interdisciplinary Improvisation class that I teach for the Master of Digital Media Program—one that disassembles and analyzes the inner workings of what I’m going to teach in a reckless (and likely impossible) attempt to answer, “Why would you teach…