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!

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

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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!

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.

Conceived by Dr. Will Connor

The visit was conceived and facilitated by the new faculty member of the SoPVFA Dr. William Connor, a Texas-based scholar and percussionist who is a lecturer and currently teaching Performance in World Cultures (PERF 301), Electronic Music Composition (PERF 318) and as well as supporting an Independent Study (PERF 685). In addition to his teaching, in the fall of 2022, Dr. William Connor was able to garner resources and funds to develop of Analog Music lab. This lab has proven to be popular with the students and faculty a like. The Media & Gaming Lab visited the Analog Music Lab at the beginning of the Spring 2023 semester and it was a good time.

In an effort to further build out the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Art’s public facing activities, Dr. Connor applied for one of the schools Interdisciplinary Collaboration Grants. He pitched Zoe Nowak coming to Texas A&M where she would give workshops and put on a show incorporating students from multiple disciplines. The application was accepted and the Media & Gaming Lab is proud to say we were chosen to be part of this collaborative interdisciplinary effort!

The Artist: Zoe Nowak

Artist Zoe Nowak is a U.S. based electronic music artist. Through out her teenage and early twenties Zoe developed a love for musical performance, performing with bands as a drummer, as well delving into her interests with electronics, specifically, tape looping, sequencing and live electronic performance. Zoe now performs electronic in a wide array of spaces using hardware interfaces that allow her to integrate with other performers. She also creates solo pieces that involve poly rhythms and noise that translates into sound spaces that are known to envelope the listener and audience.

High Impact Visits

In addition to performing, Zoe visited multiple classes such as a graduate communication course about gender and identity, as well as music courses. In addition Zoe gave a talk at the Transcend meeting, a groups whose goals are to:

“Transcend exists to better fit the needs of the growing population of students that identify in the transgender, bi-gender, agender, and gender nonconforming spectrum(s).”

As stated by the title, these visits proved to very high impact and allowed students to directly engage with Zoe and her work.

Media & Gaming Lab Monday Meeting & Interview

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. The interview went very well and when it becomes available we will post it here, until then, here are some behind the scene shots.

After the interview Zoe Nowak and the students jammed on her work and also showed their work. It was a great time and the students really enjoyed the experience.

KAMN Radio Visit

Dr. Connor lined up a KAMN Radio visit for Zoe Nowak and boy was it a cool session. KAMN Radio is TAMU’s radio station and they produce a segment called “KAMN Library Sessions.” Zoe put on a good show, check it out.

Saturday Performance

This section will be broken up into two sections. Professor joey’s reflections and Dr. William Connors, so as to give an attendees view and production.

joey’s reflections

My reflection of Zoe’s Saturday performance was one from the theater’s cat walk as I was charged with making sure we captured a wide angle with our Sony A7iii. This position gave me a super unique view and one that I loved as I not only got to see Zoe and the students performance from a unique view but also the dancers.

The unique position I was in also allowed me to use my iPhone 14 pro to capture both photos and video of the performance.

The performance itself was amazing. Zoe and Dr. Connor’s students performance was integrated very well and as a quasi audience member I found it to be seamless. I will admit that I am a huge fan of Zoe’s genre, industrial electronica/noise music. The dancing added depth to the performance as well and gave the space an aura that exuded a human experience of body, sound and vision. The length of the piece also worked well for me as I have a short attention span and felt that the works has a progression that allowed for breath in the work while having poly rhythmic features that kept the piece engaging.

Dr. Will Connor’s reflections

Zoe Nowak’s visit to A&M provided an amazing, unique opportunity for everyone involved. The students were given the chance to explore their instruments, experience playing live on stage, and hone their improvisational skills. Dancers imparted that they had not been able to work with music of the style before, citing a mixture of rhythmic and arrhythmic passages, experimental analogue electronic music, and the spontaneous adjustment to varying combinations of other improvising dancers live during a performance. The visual arts graduate student, Emilee Hart, who was responsible for the moving images that accompanied the performance was an inspiration to all the performers, and was guided by the artistic prompts presented by Nowak. Zoe herself also expressed the rareness of the opportunities the performance and engagement throughout the week provided for the her and the students alike.

Furthermore, on a personal note, I am extremely proud of the students involved, who all came together without much or any prior musical or improvisational experience, and embraced Zoe’s visit and their performance with the utmost professionalism and creative vigor. I couldn’t have been any more pleased with the result of the two shows, and I truly hope that the students involved will continue to seek out similar creative endeavors, fulfilling their interests and producing interesting and exciting new works simultaneously.

I also want to thank the audience who attended and supported the event. I received a almost overwhelming amount of positive feedback from the concert goers, colleagues, and the administrators who helped make this opportunity for the students and Zoe a reality. Without the support of people like Joey and all of the fantastic students who are part of his media lab, the student radio station, several student groups and local community members, especially Transcend, who reached out to Zoe during her stay offering outlets for her to express herself in a variety of ways, my fellow teachers and staff at the School of Performance, Visualization, and Fine Arts, and general public, especially the local LGBTQ+ community, the performances and Zoe’s visit as a whole would not have been possible, let alone such an outstanding success.

The biggest thanks, though, goes to Zoe, herself, traveling from Arizona to work with the students and enrich the quality of performative life here at A&M, bring her incredible music and wonderful personality to share with us. We are all better for it and I look forward to when we are able to do it again!

Introduction

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 space, one about video streaming and the other a noise music studio where attendees were able to have hands on experience throughout the conference. Below you will find summaries of each activity with photos, videos and of course written highlights and reflective section at the end with participants accounts and hopes for future collaborative efforts.

Panels

Media Studies

Local BCS Entertainment Landscape

During the Local BCS entertainment panel, local community leaders and entrepreneurs joined Rayane Aboukinane in a student moderated panel. With Joey Lopez and Rayane moderating the talk, we dove deep into how the music scene in Bryan-College Station is developing. Micheal Rodriguez from JMG House band (On the far left), Gustavo from Vision Studios (on the right of Micheal, Rayane Aboukinane known as Zayno Rayne (on the right of Gustavo), and Jeremy Stark of the 101 bar (far right) were in attendance. The panel provided insight in how the BCS landscape is hungry for more music and entertainment. Rayane Aboukinane, who works at the Grand Stafford Theater, speaks about how his music venue seeks to develop local artists/bands and prop up the community. Jeremy Stark who runs the 101 bar provided insight on what obstacles currently stand in the way of development. Gustavo from vision studios is a community leader who has a wide network of artists and producers from the BCS area. He has developed over the last 3 years a network of hungry artists who want to break the mold and bring the city up. Micheal from JMG speaks on his background and how his local band came together. He described it as their version of “Tiny Desk Concerts” that started off with old highschool classmates, and developed into a movement.  The local BCS scene is bubbling, what talents are hidden below the surface waiting to break out?

Filmmaking

The filmmaking panel, organized and moderated by Arden Duffield and Leo Garza (with the help of Joey Lopez) and consisted of a combination of film-makers of different professions and backgrounds. 

The conversation provided a variety of different perspectives which helped paint a picture of the Audio-Visual arts discipline as a whole.

While Haley Cox, Sheyla Hidalgo and Amy Kingston elaborated on their experience running and coordinating A-Line, their student-run fashion magazine at Texas A&M, Lisa Ramon spoke about her experience working in the production industry as a creative manager at the production company PICTURESTART.

To close out the panel, Zach Gentry and Alex Picture, both of whom attend NYU for film production closed the panel off speaking about their creative process and future aspirations, as well as their impressions on the film industry in New York.

Regional Bands and Artists

The TAMU Music and Film conference also held a panel discussion with Regional musicians and bands. The first three musicians (JonoJono on the left, Maxwell from The Working Hours in the middle, and Seth from Gray Falls next to Max) are all based out of Houston. During this panel, Rayane Aboukinane asked about the innerworkings of the minds of these young and talented musicians. JonoJono was asked about his creative process and how he develops his music with prominent studio engineers. Maxwell, a Texas A&M alumn, spoke about his bands latest name change from “Small Talk” to “The Working Hours” and why. Seth from Gray Falls spoke about how is love for music developed his skills and caused him to form his group. These artists embody unique talents and provide insight to any upcoming musicians who want to get started. 

The next three artists that the media lab invited were Jardyn Howelton, Shain, and Dayytona. All of these artists are based out of Houston and are a part of the LIVE collective. Rayane, going with his artist name Zayno Rayne, is a part of this collective and invited his fellow creatives to the panel. During this panel, we dove into what LIVE is and how it came to be. All the artists have different genres and melodies that seem to work well together. Jardyn leans towards gospel and soul music, Shain is streetsmart talented rapper, Dayytona is a groovy club artist, and Zayno Rayne has a spooky melodic flow that reminds people of halloween. Together, these creatives shed light on the struggles and the triumphs of indie musicians. 

Film Showcase

Key Notes

Stan Renard

Gabriel Duran

Workshops/Spaces

Reflections

Arden Duffield –

It was a great pleasure to have been invited by Joey Lopez to organize and moderate this panel alongside Leo Garza. I think it went very smoothly, however I do think it could have benefitted from more industry interviewees. Lisa Ramon gave lots of great insight in her process navigating the film industry in LA, which I found very insightful. 

In the future I would like to invite a wider variety of visual storytellers such as painters, comic book artists, journalists, and actors to contribute to the colorful collage of perspectives I aim to learn about with this panel.

joey lopez –

This event definitely tested me on multiple levels as a facilitator. I learned a ton about what I am physically and mentally capable. In addition to this conference I have had a hand in 3 other conferences in the spring of 2023. This particular one was very collaborative and gave me the chance to work with not only colleagues but students at a very “feet on the ground” level where students were part of all the decision making. I also attempted to be as collaborative with other colleagues at the same time and ultimately failed in many ways, but also had some key successes such as having colleagues William Connor and Mathew Campbell join in on the planning of the conference.

The conference took on many conceptual forms and where it landed was truly a collaborative effort. At one point it was almost going to be hosted in a whole other space. We had a concert planned. There were many ups and downs, but mainly ups.

I feel this specific conference laid the ground work for a much larger event next year that will be in collaboration with many other departments, colleges, universities and industry participants.