Category: Texas A&M Media & Gaming Lab

Lorefest 2023

Introduction

Conceived by Professor Matthew Campbell and William Connor of the Texas A&M School of Performing, Visualization, and Fine Arts, Lorefest 2023 was pitched as a Fall performance event that would:

“The first annual Lorefest will bring together students, faculty and visiting artists for a weekend of spooky storytelling. Featuring “B” movies, puppets, red carpet monsters, and an historical ghost walk, the festival will immerse visitors in creative presentations centering stories drawn from local folklore.”
-Lorefest Team

Professor joey of the Media & Gaming Lab would join their team to help with documentation and planning. Together the team would apply for multiple grants and funding, securing grants and funding from:

TAMU Performance Visualization and Fine Arts
TAMU Institute of Data Science
TAMU Race, Ethnicity Studies Institute

Lorefest Events

Thursday

Story Telling Sessions – Frame Gallery

The Story Telling Sessions was held at the Frame Gallery in Downtown Bryan, a frame shop and gallery that also hosts art happenings. We cannot thank the Frame Gallery enough for all their help and accommodations. The story telling was performed by PERF 301 students in both Professor Connor and Campbells sections. Additional support with puppetry was by guest artist Victoria Snaith, who hosted puppetry workshops with students. The puppets were then integrated into the story telling pieces and also featured during the Saturday event. The stories themselves were developed by the students with the facilitation of Professor Campbell and Connor providing prompts for them to spring board from, as well as letting the students choose their own stories. The students then conducted ethnographic interviews for their stories in order to obtain further insight into them. The stories could be regional or from their own places they call home. The results were amazing and very entertaining, while informative about various cultures.

Friday

Film Festival – The Village Cafe Downtown

The Film Festival was slated to take place at the Queen Theater, but once it was discovered our crowd was much larger than their capacity, we were very lucky to have Kristy, the owner of the Village Cafe Downtown facilitate us in her space. The results were amazing with student’s films being exhibited along with live music accompaniment. The films featured included works from guest film maker Shun Lee Fong, Aggie SWAMP Club, and PERF301 students from both Professor Connor and Campbell sections. In addition to the films featured, live musical accompaniment was composed and performed by the PERF 318 electronic composition music class, taught by Professor Connor.

Saturday

Ghost Walk, Gala & Puppetry

Held at the Village Cafe and Vino Boheme, Saturday’s festivities included a Gala with a student cultural food event, movie screenings, puppetry theatre, guided Ghost Walk and Puppetry Parade. The food event was integrated into the PERF301 courses where students pitched and brought various dishes with cultural contextualization for attendees to enjoy. The Ghost Walk was developed in the PERF301 courses by teams of students who would develop a ghost story based off prompts or their own ideas and then perform the story on locations throughout downtown Bryan. The attendees would then go on a docent led Ghost Walk hosted by Victoria Snaith. Film screens and puppetry were also included in the nights festivities, again developed by students in the PERF301 sections Professors Connor & Campbell teach. Lastly a Puppetry Parade was performed. guest puppetry maker Victoria Snaith and students who created puppets paraded their creations throughout the space.

Conclusion & Take Aways

Lorefest 2023 was a huge success and it wouldn’t have been possible with so many different points of support, Kristy of the Village Cafe, Missy of the Frame Gallery, Dr. Connor and Dr. Campbell for putting envisioning the event, the production crew of PVFA (Jeff Watson and Jam Martinez) and the Media & Gaming Lab crew, plus all the students who put their heart and soul into their projects and production.

Lorefest Website

Stay tuned for the full project documentation on the official Lorefest website that will document all the projects, their origins and much more through text, photo, video and mapping. This website is something we hope to reach the general academic and lore enthusiast communities alike.

News Texas A&M Media & Gaming Lab

Media & Gaming Lab Launch Podcasts

Post author By ludwigvan968
Post date November 10, 2023
No Comments on Media & Gaming Lab Launch Podcasts

The Media & Gaming Lab is proud to announce we have started producing student run podcasts. Under the guidance of Professor Jonathan Guajardo, Media & Gaming Lab students have launched two podcasts so far. Professors Joey Lopez and Jonathan Guajardo have garnered full support from the Department of Communication & Journalism and have secured a dedicated room for podcasting. The room is located on campus in the basement of Bolton Hall. The response to the podcasts have been very good and as we expand the topics of podcasts we are excited to see where the students take it.

The Pass-Back Podcast

Description:

Made by Texas A&M University students, The Pass-Back is a sports podcast for Aggies by Aggies. From Midnight Yell and tailgating, to breaking down stats & injuries. The Pass-Back Podcast dives into every topic that you, the 12th Man, want to hear about. It is a student-run podcast that attempts to engage fellow students with the current news and contentions. The hosts of the podcast are Juniors Cade Young and Jackson Moss. The podcast consists of a game preview for the week, SEC storylines, recap of last week’s game, players of the week, and it holds many other ambitions for the future. Diego Valle and Tori Hillis help edit the video and sound, as well as run the cameras and lighting. The podcast may be small, but it’s very enticing to be a part of. The entire premise is for students to have another Aggie sports outlet, and hopefully it continues far past graduation for everyone who is part of the podcast currently.

Podcast Links:

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@ThePass-BackPodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepassbackpodcast/

People Involved:

Cade Young – Host
Jackson Moss – Host
Tori Hillis – Producer
Diego Valle – Editor/Technical Director

12th Woman Sports Podcast

Description:

Our names are Jordan and Sophie, and we are both students at Texas A&M University. Whoop! We are running a women’s perspective sports podcast called the “12th Woman” where we discuss multiple topics every week with each other as well as our special guests. Check us out on YouTube and Instagram!

People Involved:

Sophie Sheets – Host/Producer
Jordan Harsh – Host/Producer/Editor
Diego Valle – Technical Director

Podcast Links:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@12thWomanPodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/12thwomanpodcast/

JOUR 359 Reporting Sports

Jonathan Guajardo and joey had the pleasure of hosting Angelique Gammon’s JOUR 359 Reporting Sports class at the Media & Gaming Lab Podcast Studio in Bolton 010. Before coming to the Lab the students were given a hands on overview of general video production equipment. Then in the lab the video and audio boards were explained and within minutes the students were doing podcasting and really getting into it. Having this turn key space has been great and within just two months we have built a community that is expanding at a rapid rate.

The future of the Media & Gaming Lab Podcasts

It is our hope to facilitate more programming and expand our reach so that more students can engage with the lab as they look to enter the world of podcasting. Currently we plan on adding the following podcasts:

Popular Culture
Skateboarding
eSports Gaming
Cozy and Casual Gaming
Media & Gaming Lab

If you are interested in being a part of a podcast or have an idea for one not listed, feel free to reach out to us and we can talk more about making your dream a reality! We look forward to building new collaborations and growing this endeavor within the lab.

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SUMMER 2023 ReCap

Flyer promoting Ardens Talks and Workshops

Arden visits us again!

The summer of 2023 was a crazy time. We had a lot going on. Arden Duffield was able to make his way back from NYC and we hosted multiple meet ups and workshops, we put a whole series together and Arden’s spirit really carried the lab forward. Arden also joined us on multiple collaborative meetings, such as when we met with the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts Faculty and Grand Stafford manager Rob Hitchcock to talk about future projects.

In addition we had visits from Kaye Cruz where he and Arden were able to go do some local news coverage. Elizabeth Holmes made international news going to federal prison here in Bryan/College Station. It was great getting to see Arden get some hands on experience.

Also we would all like to congradulate Arden for getting into NYU! Well deserved in our book.

Lab expansion and resources

Additionally joey worked on the lab on multiple fronts. We are currently in talks with the department to physically expand the lab, we are fortunate to have Andy Castillo (Paper Street Studios), a CMC member who does 3D renderings; he created a full fly through of the future space and gave the idea “life.”

In parallel the lab proposed a whole equipment budget for more audio and video equipment for production and the lab space in general. So stay tuned as more develops.

Rick Pulos preparing our DJI Ronin for his documentary.

Rick Pulos lend technical skills to local theater

Ph.D. student Rick Pulos worked with the Bryan Theatre Company of BCS and their production of Cabaret over the summer. Specifically Rick Pulos was charged with developing sets, lighting and other tasks, such as developing video promotions. Rick has been developing a documentary about the BTC of BCS and we all look forward to seeing his film once it is completed.

Will loves to make noise! We love to Document it!

joey also got to cover Media & Gaming Lab collaborator and mentor William Connor Ph.D. of the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts as he worked on creating multiple physical instruments to be used to create a sound track for a filmmaker working on a documentary about space for NASA.

Will is a musician, musicologists and instrument builder, amongst many other talents, a polymath for sure! Watching Will problem solve and create his instruments with minimal materials has been an education for sure. Not only did joey follow him on campus, but went on multiple “music store” runs, where Will would thrift for “things” he could incorporate into his instruments.

Will’s kind character is very intoxicating, everyone who would walk by that had questions about what he was up to would get a full explanation and often demonstrations! We cannot thank Will for being part of our lab and all he contributes.

Media Lab Visits Synth Makers, Developers & Players in Austin, TX

Durning the summer, joey, Will and Corina went and visited Brandon Wiley and Jeremy Zunker, two synthesizer enthusiasts based out of Austin, TX. It was great seeing some of their designs, talk shop and ideate on future collaborations. One collaboration we walked away with is hosting a Symposium aka “Synthposium,” in downtown Bryan, TX at Tavo coffee.

Turning up the Volume at the Media & Gaming Lab

joey built some Dayton Audio C-Note speakers and added a small amp to drive them with the Rega P1 Turntable

joey also worked on making the Media & Gaming Lab feel more welcoming, building a customer speaker system for the turntable, adding more vinyl, more posters and Nintendo Switch docking station.

Grants & Collaborations

We made headway on all the Fall 2023 grants and collaborations including

Lorefest Fall 2023
BIPOC Poetry & Recital Workshop
Communication & Journalism Broadcast Facilitative Learning Workshop
LatinX Critical Creative Consortium Fall 2023, UT Austin

So stay tuned for more blogs about all that we are up to!