Category Archives: Texas A&M Media & Gaming Lab Semester Write Up

Spring 2023 Write Up

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Introduction

The Media & Gaming Lab in the Department of Communication & Journalism at Texas A&M University is excited to share with you all our activities and collaborations from Spring 2023. We worked on student projects, collaborated across the university with amazing folks in the Department of Performance Studies, and offered two conferences to the community, including one that showcased the Data Justice Lab’s aim “to address the role of data sciences in social issues in various domains such as health, education, built environments, crisis management, and finance.” (https://www.datajustice.tamids.tamu.edu). The Media & Gaming Lab is a community of folks with various interests that come together to create art and knowledge that encourages and supports students, faculty, and staff at the university and in the BCS community. Join us!

William Connor & Matthew Cambell

At the beginning of the spring semester William Connor Ph.D. contacted joey about some possible collaborations (which you will see below), within days they hit it off and William introduced joey to Matthew Campbell Ph.D. Dr. Connor and Dr. Campbell are professor in the music department. Dr. Connor specializes in the Music Ethnology, audio engineering and all things gothic. Dr. Campbell is a media studies specialist, his work spans from popular culture to being a music technologist looking at machine learning, artificial intelligence and he has an affinity for studying mix tape culture and other medium cultural phenomenon.

Together they are sponsoring the FM student organization, which joey got to check out first hang when Zoe visited. It is a great group we hope to collaborate with in the future.

Dr. Campbell also sponsors the Album of the Week club, it is an amazing group where students (typically 40-60) meet up each week and listen to an album and then discuss it. Joey was able to attend one of the meet ups and said it was amazing.

We are so excited to have Dr. Connor and Dr. Campbell as part of our group, they have attended so many events and meet ups of ours, their support has been invaluable. We cannot thank them enough for all their support!

Zayno on the left, Dr. Campbell on the right
Zoe on the left, Dr. Connor on the right

Activities & Weekly Meet Ups

“Dog Love” Short Video Shoot

Rick Pulos brought his dog, Muffin (a.k.a. Scout), in for an impromptu video shoot. The Media & Gaming Lab worked collaboratively to come up with a simple story. Lab member Ananya stars along with Muffin. Muffin sits peacefully atop the stairs of Bolton Hall until Ananya approaches with a guitar in hand. As Ananya serenades her, Muffin is frightened away. Later, they reconnect and become BFFs. Alazar filmed and edited the short film. Below is a “ruff” cut of the video.

The Media & Gaming Lab faciltates Graduate Student Rick Pulos on his Documentary

PhD student Rick Pulos started filming his episodic documentary Once Upon a Time in Community Theatre in February. His film focussed on The Theatre Company of Bryan-College Station (https://www.theatrecompany.com) where he serves on the Board of Directors. The Media & Gaming Lab facilitated Rick’s production by loaning him key film equipment including a camera, lighting kit, and a professional level tripod. In addition, the Lab coordinated with Rick to help film a dress rehearsal of the production of the Tony winning musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Dr. Joey, Professor Guajardo, graduate student Nate Car, undergraduate students Sophie Villarreal, Zayno Rayne, Kali Johnson, and Faelen took pictures and operated cameras to cover the performance. The documentary is still in production but below are some behind the scenes video and images.

Musical by Robert L. Freedman

Zayno Film Noir

The amazing and talented Zayno (a.k.a The Pumpkin King), an undergraduate in the School of Public Health, had a vibrant vision of a film noir series of music videos and the Media & Gaming Lab jumped right in to collaborate with him and his creative team. Zayno, along with Media & Gaming Lab member Alazar A as the co-director, cinematographer, and editor, brought us together in downtown Bryan at The Village Cafe for an evening of filming. Graduate student Rick Pulos secured the location from a contact through The Theatre Company (TTC) and also borrowed masks for the film shoot from TTC. The legend known as Scruffy D. McLightning made a guest appearance! The music is by Zayno and he and Alazar will continue to produce the short film noirs in the future. Below is an image of Media & Gaming Lab students all dressed up in costume after the film shoot at The Village Cafe. Photo by Joey Lopez.

From left to right: Rick Pulos, Falen, Ananya Amar, The Pumpkin King, Scruffy D. McLightning (a.k.a. Johnny Guajardo), Katie, Keldan, Alazar A., and Grace Barr.

Check out Film Noir [Unto the Nyte Kingdom] by Zayno now!

Kaye Cruz Visit

Kaye Cruz paid us a visit this semester and delivered some great story telling tips, the current media landscape of traditional and new media spaces. His work always inspires all who attend his talks. Thank you Kaye for coming and giving some great lectures!

Exploring AI & Data Science’s Impact on Society:  A Social Justice Perspective

Joey and Dr. Lu Tang along with the Texas A&M Institute of Data Science collaborated on this symposiums that was held on March 3. The symposium featured speakers from academia, government, and nonprofit sectors discussing the ethical and social implications of data science and AI. Topics covered included ontological models of culture, race, and ethnicity in health data, media bias analysis, visual misinformation, hardware and data justice, and public health data analysis.

Joey’s sister Dr. Tina Lopez delivered an amazing talk on using public health data to understand and research issues of health inequality. Dr. Yunkang Yang was also a presenter. Many graduate and undergraduate students attended the all day symposium!  

Artist Zoe Nowak Visits Texas A&M

From March 25th to April 2nd Artist Zoe Nowak visited Texas A&M giving workshops, interviews and ended with a night of performances along with students of the Texas A&M School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Art. The visit was conceived and facilitated by Dr. William Connor, a Texas-based scholar and percussionist and a new faculty member in the School of The School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts. Zoe performs electronic in a wide array of spaces using hardware interfaces that allow her to integrate with other performers through tape looping, sequencing and live electronic performance. Zoe’s live performance was a collaboration with faculty and students and included a dance performance choreographed by Professor Ben Howard. In addition, students from the Department of Visualization created media that was projected onto a large screen during the performance.

On March 27th, Zoe Nowak met with the Media & Gaming Lab for an interview and then discussion. Rick Pulos of the Media & Gaming Lab volunteered to head up the weeks worth of on location shooting. For the interview, Rick produced and shot the video and Rolf Rydahl was the boom operator. Director of the media lab, joey, interviewed Zoe Nowak. Media & Gaming members Nate Carr, Latifah Adesina, and Ananya Amar, among others were involved with the capture of video and photos from Zoe’s live perfomances. Below are some behind the seem images from the week. For more information visit: https://www.thecmcollective.org/artist-zoe-nowak-visits-texas-am/

Texas Music and Movie Making Conference 2023

Conceived and implemented by students, the Music & Movie Making in Texas Conference 2023 was held on April 15th, 2023 at the Liberal Arts and Humanities building located at Texas A&M in College Station, TX. The conference had over 60 attendees and was lived streamed. The concept of the conference was to bring regional talents ranging from students, faculty and industry together to discuss music and movie making in Texas. The efforts by the students resulted in 5 panels and two open ended spaces, one about video streaming and the other a noise music studio where attendees were able to have hands on experience throughout the conference. Check out the full write up here: https://www.thecmcollective.org/music-movie-making-in-texas-conference-2023/.

End of Semester BBQ

As is a tradition started last year, we hosted an end of semester BBQ. It was a good time and it’s always great to build community. One student came by and wanted to learn to cook Fajita’s so we handed the grill over and next thing they knew they had made a great skirt steak for some tacos!

FALL 2022 Write Up

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FALL 2022 Write Up

Introduction

This semester proved to be a busy one with a lot of projects, collaborations, media & gaming lab participant personal accomplishments and we even hosted a conference!  This was our first semester going full steam, with full in person and online meet ups plus hosting events.  

As many know, our goal at the Media & Gaming Lab and the Convergent Media Collective is to facilitate others’ ideas and help bring them into reality.  Rather than being a directive lab the Media & Gaming Lab focuses on maintaining a space and group of creatives that can help each other build out innovative ideas, concepts, prototyping and artistic endeavors. 

This semester we had an array group and personal achievements and in this post we will be sharing and celebrating those as well as giving you a preview of what is in store for the Spring of 2023.

Fall 2023 Latinx Critical Creative Consortium 

On October 15th the Texas A&M Communication and Journalism Department’s Media & Gaming hosted the Latinx Critical Creative Consortium.  Texas A&M Professor Regina Mills Ph.D. of English also helped plan and implement the conference.  The results were amazing and are fully documented in its separate write up here on the site.  The consortium inspired the students so much that we have a spring 2023 Consortium on the books (see below).

Fall 2022 Critical Creative Consortium

Fall 2023 Guest Speakers

The semester proved very active in terms of guest speakers.  We had people from all over Texas giving lectures to our students in our courses, both joey and Professor Jonathan Guajardo hosted many guest lectures. The aim of our in-class guest speakers is to provide students with highly engaging workshops and lectures where students feel enabled to speak up and dialog with the guest.  Another intention is for the students to have direct connections with the professional industries we study and creatively develop work for, as well as academia.  

Kaye Cruz is an international freelance media producer based out of Central Texas.  He has regularly given guest lectures at A&M since 2018.  His experiences shared have had a huge impact on the students.  This semester he spoke about his work in Uvalde covering Robb Elementary, coverage of the Queens passing in London as well as his work locally with storm coverage for national agencies.  

Rebecca Macias & Luis Vazquez from the Express News & MySA.com, a Hurst news agency based out of San Antonio, Texas. Rebecca is the social media editor and Luis Vazquez is a multimedia producer for the Express news. They presented on current trends and issues in social media and news reporting.

Andrew Valdez is the Director of Creative Communications for the Alamo Colleges District in San Antonio, TX. Andrew presented to COMM 476, Advanced Social Media about higher education and social media from both an institutional perspective and also sharing his own trajectory in the field.

Rick Pulos visited Joey’s Popular Culture class and delivered a lecture on Fan Studies. He focused on fan culture and community across music and sports. He also introduced students to the psychology of fanaticism. Ever wonder why you love your favorite sports team even when they lose? Rick was able to slip in a few references to the object of his fanaticism: Madonna!

Anthony Ramirez Ph.D. is a professor of Communication at the University of Houston Downtown and alumni of the Media & Gaming Lab here at Texas A&M. He gave a guest a lecture about Fandom and Comics to joey’s COMM 340 Popular Culture. His talk always spurs students interest in the topics to the point of creating mid term and final projects based around his lecture.

Elena Foulis is an Associate Professor at Texas A&M San Antonio, she gave a guest lecture to joey’s COMM 250 New Media and Narrative Voice. Her lecture was about performing oral histories and the work that goes into it. The students loved the lecture and the next class we did mini oral history projects.

Kali Johnson a Communication senior and longtime member of the Media & Gaming Lab gave 4 class lectures to Jonathan Guajardo discussing Narrative approaches and other media making topics.

In Person Meet Ups

Durning the fall of 2022 we were able to host multiple workshops durning our in person meet ups. Some were professor led and some student lead. It was amazing to see so many talented people lend their time to train and teach others.

Interview Skills and Lighting Tutorial

Many of us who create content often find ourselves conducting interviews. This tutorial was a collaborative effort with multiple Media & Gaming Lab members. We used Lab equipment to successfully light and capture audio of members talking about their lives and passions. Joey expertly demonstrated the Q&A process while Rick and Leo collaborated on the technical aspects. 

Screen Printing Workshop

In a fun switch from digital  to analog, the Lab supported a workshop on Screen Printing. We learned a lot about how to work with the tools of this artistic medium and what sorts of tricks were important to successfully producing a beautiful image on various items including shirts and canvas tote bags. Later, we offered Screen Printing at the Latinx Critical Creative Consortium as a family friendly activity for our younger attendees. 

Audio Production Workshop

Maxwell Burgess, lead singer of the band Small Talk, a former Aggie, visited the Lab and offered a tutorial session on audio production. Several students got the chance to sit with him and learn more about creating music. One of the highlights was when Joey asked him to grab one of our guitars and sing us a song which he did with amazing skill and talent!

Small Talk Concert 

A team of Media & Gaming Lab members (Zayno, Nate, Rick, and Joey)  got together to capture video and photos of Small Talk’s live concert at the Grand Stafford Theater in downtown Bryan.  Zayno expertly operated our gimbal to capture smooth footage and Nate took amazing photos using one of our Sony cameras with a new telephoto lens. The venue gave us a backstage tour of their recording studio which was amazing to see. Small Talk played an impressive set to a crowded theater.  

Media & Gaming Lab Personal Project Highlights

Rhett Brady, an undergraduate Communication & Journalism Major in the New Media and Gaming Lab wrote and published an academic paper entitled Ang Lee’s Hulk: Unique and Overlooked Colorful Cinema Amongst Superhero Homogeny for an independent study course with Professor Jonathan Guajardo. In this paper, he analyzed the movie from three perspectives: color theory, video-editing techniques, and 35mm filmmaking. Rhett argued that, even though the film received mixed reviews upon its release, it deserves revisiting in the age of commercially sucessful superhero movies due to its unique stylistic nature and its dedication to storytelling. Rhett published his paper in the Bryan-College Station Chronicle and will be presenting it at the 2023 Pop Culture Association Conference in April in San Antonio, Texas. He also graduated in December 2022 and has his sights set upon continuing his education in a Master’s program as well as working in the media industry.

Grace Barr is multimodal artist and for her COMM 250 New Media course created an animation called “Permanence” which explores existential themes.

Kali Johnson Legally Blonde Paper

Nathan Carr “Racial Stereotype Perpetuation in Grand Theft Auto V”

Professor joey lopez developed a short youtube series about Tavo Coffee, a local coffee shop in Bryan Texas who’s coffee is sourced through the owners family in Guatemala.

Rick Pulos began to develop a documentary on volunteer community theatre. He plans to buy some equipment and also utilize Media & Gaming equipment to capture the story of the Theatre Company of Brian College Station. He will go into production in January.  

Media & Gaming Lab Personal Announcements 

Alazar Asrat was one of the first Media & Gaming Lab members, his participation with the lab has played a large role in terms of recruiting new members and participation. He graduated this past Fall 2022 with a degree from Texas A&M’s Department of Communication & Journalism. He has taken on a full time job working for KAMU the local public television station in Brazos county.

Anthony Ramirez Ph.D. graduated from the Texas A&M department Communication & Journalism this fall. He also started his job at the University of Houston Downtown this past fall as an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies in their Department of Arts & Communication.

Jonathan Guajardo, a lecturer in the Communication & Journalism department and faculty of the Media & Gaming Lab began his Ph.D. journey with Texas Tech University working towards a degree in Leadership and Higher Education.

Rhett Brady graduated this Fall 2022 from Texas A&M’s Department of Communication & Journalism and is now applying to graduate programs for the Fall. He has seen great success throughout his application process and is already fielding multiple offers.

 

Summer 2022 Media Lab ReCap

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The summer started early for us, aka right as the spring semester ended.

  • The Arden Effect
  • Anthony Defends Ph.D.
  • Leo Interns at the Institute of Data Science as a Media Specialist
  • The Media Lab Goes Social Media Media Lab
  • Capirotada Collective – Group & Meet Up
  • Latinx Critical Creative Consortium Planning
  • Lab Upgrades
  • Lab Collaborations (UHDT & TAMU SA Latinx Oral Histories)

The Arden Effect

Arden giving a guest lecture to joey’s COMM 230 Technology and Skills Course

Arden Duffield is a Media Lab enigma, someone who professor joey met at a coffee shop in downtown Bryan when he was shooting a student film in high school. Professor joey loved seeing a hungry film maker out doing the work, along with Professor Jonathan Guajardo, they let Arden know if he was ever interested in working with the lab in the future to feel free to reach out.

Fast forward to late April 2022 and professor joey was surprised to receive an email from Arden inquiring about summer plans for the lab and any possible projects. Arden had just finished up his Freshman year at the School of Visual Arts in New York city and spoke of a film he was finishing up and wanted to show us. Next thing the lab knew, Arden became a pillar at the lab working for weeks straight on color correcting his short film and then working on the scoring and sound. His presence brought so much to the lab, everyone who came through he interacted with such enthusiasm and empathy, it was simply amazing having him in the lab.

Throughout the summer Arden would end collaborating with multiple lab members, like Anthony Ramirez, Leo, Kali, joey, Johnny (they played a lot of chess), Rick. He even guest lectured at professor joey’s class which was amazing!

Arden embodies the spirit of the Media Lab, a place where students can come from all over and learn, collaborate and ideate.

Arden’s Short Film he edited and color graded at the Media & Gaming Lab

Dr. Anthony Ramirez Defends His Dissertation

Dr. Anthony Ramirez defended his dissertation on August 10th, 2022. The title of his dissertation is Historias de la Frontera: Using Critical Latinx Border – Cultural Studies Theory To Explore The Latinx Identity of The U.S.-Mexico Border in Comic Books. His defense committee consisted of:

  • Dr. Srividya Ramasubramanian – Co-Advisor
  • Dr. Antonio La Pastina – Co-Advisor
  • Dr. Robin Means Coleman – Committee Member
  • Dr. Juan Alonzo – Committee Member

Anthony spent four years at Texas A&M as a fully funded Ph.D. student where he performed 2 years of course work and 2 years of dissertation research and publishing. In addition to being an amazing scholar, Anthony proved himself as an amazing teaching, being awarded the Texas A&M University Association Distinguished Graduate Student Award for Teaching. In addition to his preparing for his dissertation defense this summer, he also fielded a number of job offers and we are proud to say he accepted a Assistant Professorship, tenure track position at the University of Houston Downtown in the Department of Art & Communication, go Gators! He plans to start a lab there and we cannot wait to be co-hosting events and experiential learning opportunities.

Leo Interns at Institute of Data Science as a Media Specialist

Arden and Leo look over Leo’s cut of an Institute of Data Science video.

Through our collaboration with Annie Ortiz and her “Painting Praxis: Artistry, Identity and Decolonial Sensibilities,” we had last spring, Media Lab member Leo Garza ended up meeting Diego Rodriguez, TAMU’s Assistant Director for Education Programs. Leo became the Institute of Data Science Media Specialist and through a collaboration we provided production equipment for his internship to create documentation of the Institute of Data Science’s summer initiatives. You can see a video he worked on below:

The Media Lab Goes Social Media

We are proud to announce we have developed and now maintain a social media presence on Instagram and TikTok. Please like and subscribe!

@tamumediagaminglab

Capirotada Collective – Group and Meet Up

The Capirotada Collective was founded by then graduate students Samantha Ceballos Sosa, Ana Gutierrez, Hector Garza, and Dr. Anthony Ramirez. It has since grown to include many others such as professor joey, Dr. Corina Zavala, James Yu, and Valentina Auden.

The collective is planning on various projects, but for now, you can follow them here:

Latinx Critical Creative Consortium Planning

Taking place in the Fall of 2022, the Latinx Critical Consortium is a continuation of the 1st Latinx CCC held in the Fall of 2021 at UT Austin. Durning the summer, joey lopez, Regina Mills, Anthony Ramirez began collaborating with professors from all over Texas to ideate the Consortium and it’s themes. Latinxccc.org was established and the framework of the consortium has been developed there since.

Lab Upgrades

Johnny showing off some of the equipment we got in.

The lab saw many upgrades over the summer with a full podcasting setup developed. We also had professor Jonathan Guajardo provide additional equipment with a new Sony A6400, 70-200 G series lens, Black Magic Atom video switcher and other production equipment to help us further develop multi-modal media production capabilities.