Introduction
To say we had an action packed semester would be an understatement. We had a slew of activities going on within and beyond the lab. So many faculty, students and community members collaborated with the lab and have taken us on so many new trajectories and journeys. We cannot thank everyone who participated enough.
Fall 2023 Grant Projects
Lorefest 2023
Lorefest 2023 was a huge success with 3 nights of local lore programing performed by Dr. William Connor and Dr. Matthew Campbell’s students. Held in downtown Bryan, Krisy of the Village Cafe and Vino Boheme and Misty of the Frame Gallery hosted Lorefest for the 3 evenings. It was amazing to have their support. In addition to their support we would like to thank the following sponsors:
- TAMU Performance Visualization and Fine Arts
- TAMU Institute of Data Science
- TAMU Race, Ethnicity Studies Institute
You can check out a full write up here: https://www.thecmcollective.org/lorefest-2023/
High Impact Instructional Innovation Grant – Sports Multimedia Skills
The High Impact Instructional Innovation Grant – Sports Multimedia Skills is a collaborative project headed by Professor Angelique Gammon to garner hands on sports broadcast skills. Professor Jonathan Guajardo Professor Lopez would collaborate with Profesor Gammon to purchase, secure and use new video broadcast and digital narrative equipment. Specifically in Professor Gammon’s journalism 359 Reporting Sports Professor Guajardo and Professor Lopez provided hands-on workshops with both Broadcast and Digital narrative equipment. In addition to this experience, Professor Guajardo and Lopez provided a hands-on workshop with the podcasting studio recently setup by the Media & Gaming Lab. The Media & Gaming Lab hope to continue with hands-on workshops with an emphasis on Sports Reporting. We hope to bring Kaye Cruz to campus in the Spring to give hands-on workshops where the students gain interviewing and general narrative sports reporting skill sets.
AVPA Grant – Afro Latinx Life and Writing
The Afro Latinx Life and Writing symposium was developed by Professor Regina Mills & graduate student AJ Baginski made possible by an AVPA Grant. The Media & Gaming Lab’s role in the grant was to help provide documentation of the event and give support for the development of a website. We were able to provide photos and videos of the event. This spring the Media & Gaming Lab will help with any web development and assets needed to help finish the web documentation.
Lab Projects/Events
Skateboard Art
At the beginning of the Fall semester joey pitched an idea of having local and student artists create Skateboard deck art. Throughout the fall semester and going into the spring 2024 semester, joey has distributed boards out to interested artists. The goal of the Skateboard deck art is to create an art show locally at the Vortex, a creative space in Bryan, TX where the TAMU Skaters, local skaters and art patrons will come together and celebrate skateboard culture and beyond. Here is a sample of one deck created by Clayton Bever, a current A&M student.
Dia De Los Muertos Shoebox Altar
Held on October 23rd, the Dia De Los Muertos Shoebox Altar was hosted by joey and his wife Dr. Corina Zavala who gave a presentation on the history of Dia De Los Muertos. joey then gave a presentation on building shoe box altars and the attendees created shoe box altars exuding their own lived realities and experiences. The Media and Gaming Lab provided printing capabilities so that attendees would be able to size and print photos of their loved ones for their altar, the results were great and the event is something we plan to host yearly.
Music Recording Workshop
One of the student requests for the fall 2023 semester was to host music recording workshops. Dr. William Connor offered to lead the workshops and over two weeks students learned about recordings in the classroom as well as in the studio getting hands-on experience with microphone techniques as well as the recording process.
Podcast Studio
joey had made it a priority for the Media & Gaming Lab to begin podcasting, Professor Jonathan Guajardo volunteered to head up the effort and together they began building recruiting people to create podcasts and also learn technical skills. A full write up of the effort can be round here:
Kang & Co – CSTAT Collage
Kang & Diego of the Media & Gaming Lab further developed content for CSTAT Collage focusing on a story about the student led Texas A&M Bonfire. Their work included multiple on site shoots, interviews and research about the history of the Texas A&M Bonfire. Stay tuned for their publication of the story on their youtube channel.
- 2AM Productions
- Guest Lectures
Media & Gaming Lab Member Projects/Accomplishments
Rick Pulos
Rick Pulos survived the last semester of coursework in the CMJR doctoral program! It was a super productive fall that included an exciting trip to see Madonna in concert in Antwerp, Belgium. During that trip, he collected data for use in an autoethnographic account of what being a diehard fan is really like. He also partnered with the Parks & Recreation Department of the City of College Station to conduct research at their senior community centers. He came into conversation with all sorts of older folks who take Line Dancing classes at the centers for exercising and socializing. As a PhD student, exploring potential avenues for his dissertation has gobbled up a lot of his focus but he also managed to create some new media centered works. On September 21 as part of the “Landscapes of Belonging” recital, he performed an excerpt from his longer autobiographical theatre piece Mixing Ingredients or How to Make an American by Checking Off Boxes. He took elements of that performance and incorporated it into a media piece entitled “The ABCs of Trying to Belong.” These are his ruminations on his failures and success throughout his life of trying to belong. Watch it at the link below.
Rick also continued his work with The Theatre Company of Bryan-College Station. He took the footage he shot of every performance in 2023 and created a 15-minute video Celebration of the Season. It was shown on a huge scrim screen during the company’s 2024 season reveal party and it was unanimously loved by everyone in attendance. Check it out at the link below!
Zayno Rayne
Zayno Rayne has been a major contributor to the Media & Gaming Lab on multiple fronts. This semester he played a major role in immersing the Media & Gaming Lab into the local music scene. Zayno is now the talent scout for the Grand Stafford Theater, his work there has enabled all of the Media & Gaming Lab students and faculty the opportunity to be part of the local music scene, here is a full write up about it: