So what happened this summer? You would think we would have taken a break right? Nope! The meetings continued almost every Wednesday this summer. Hosted through Zoom we had meetups almost every week. When COVID numbers were down we even visited the lab a couple times to ideate out the space for the fall.

The Zoom Meetups!

So what came from the zoom meetups? Well lots of great discussion. We had different participants throughout the summer with some great presentations that ranged from Chris Peter showing us The Wild Side, a show he and a colleague have been working on in their free time:

We also had Mark Solis of I Love Marketing give us a full rundown on the latest AR/VR marketing landscape as well as run downs on various social media platform summits. We also had many impromtu discussion about popular culture, film making and other personal/professional projects people are working on.

Take aways from the Meetings!

• STUDENT FILM PROJECT: We also had student Kali J. pitch a narrative film project and have since turned it into a full production project with professor Jonathan Guajardo offering to be lead producer. Crew meetings and times will be released in the early fall, so stay tuned!

• RESOCIAL: ReSocial is a project developed by Anthony Rameriez and workshopped throughout the summer in during the Media Lab Meetups. ReSocial is a research media group of social media and will be launching soon, so stay tuned. More information can be found at their website: re-socialmedia.com

• LAB EQUIPMENT & RESOURCES: Durning our meetings we also discussed equipment updates and purchases for the lab and made a list. As of right now we plan to order music production software, narrative film making equipment and some lighting and podcasting equipment. The hope is to facilitate a creative space feel for the lab where students can come and work on projects and have project meetings/presentations.

• SHOWING TRAJECTORY: We worked on ideas for curating the Showing Trajectory group and creating an equitable selection committee, so we will be reaching out to have more people join the group.

IN SUMMARY

What a great summer of meetups, we are super excited about the fall and putting into motion the plans and ideas that came out of our summer meetup’s, so stay tuned!

Downtown Bryan Outdoor Meetup

The New Media Lab hosted its first in-person event of 2021 in downtown Bryan on March 30^th. Led by Dr. Lopez, this meetup was joined by current and former students from COMM 230/250. Like our previous ones in downtown Bryan, this meetup welcomed students interested in asking questions and getting hands-on experience with video/photography. The meetup began with Dr. Lopez’s briefing and an introduction to the cameras and photography techniques. Then everyone walked around the historical downtown Bryan with cameras to discover different types of photography they could create with their surroundings and the golden hour lighting. The meetup wrapped with some night photography outside The Queen Theatre.

Showing Trajectory Talk Series

Created by Professors Joey Lopez and Jonathan Guajardo, Showing Trajectory is a lecture-based talk series highlighting the success of individuals and the paths taken to reach their success. On April 21^st, 2021, Showing Trajectory hosted an online presentation “(Trans)parency in Academia” with guest speakers Dr. Sandy Stone, and Dr. Lucy Miller, whose talks brought a light to the experiences and struggles of trans individuals in academia. You can watch this talk and others on the Showing Trajectory YouTube Channel.

Curated Student Projects

COMM 230 (Communication Technology Skills) and COMM 250 (New Media and Independent Voice) are two of the communication technology classes taught by Professors Jonathan Guajardo, Joey Lopez, and Xiaofei Song.  We also regularly have graduate students interested in teaching technical courses teach sections.  We had the pleasure of Luna Wu teach this past year and Paige Jennings will be joining us this Fall 2021. 

Driven by the belief that the possibilities of new media and its related skills are infinite, the project-based media technology classes survey a variety of new media and media production skill topics, and foster passion-oriented learning. Considered non-conventional for some, the two classes aim to encourage students to explore new media skills based on their passion, and learn the skills through the creation of what interest them the most. Since 2019, COMM 230 and 250 have seen many new media enthusiasts from various major backgrounds joining the classes and experimenting with different media platforms, equipment, and skills. 

Each semester, instructors of COMM 230 and 250 create a collection of curated projects from the classes to be highlighted on The Convergent Media Collective’s playlist. Here are some of the most popular student projects from professor joey & Professor Song’s Spring 2021 classes: