Associate Professor Reece Auguiste听is co-editing a book tentatively titled听African Cinema: Modernity and Moving Image Culture, which is in the final stages of chapter revisions before submitting the manuscript to peer reviewers in January and then to press in summer 2020. He also submitted an article titled 鈥淰isible Things Unseen: Co-creation and Its Philosophical Turn,鈥� which will appear in听AfterImage: The Journal of听Media听Arts and Cultural Criticism, Vol.47. No.1 this March. He peer-reviewed an article for听Feminist听Media听Histories: An International Journal听and another article for听The Journal of听Media听Practice听and Education. Auguiste presented a paper titled 鈥淐an the Archive Speak? In Search of the Interior Life of Archives鈥� at the Reframing Africa: Future Archives conference hosted by the University of Witwatersrand, and at The Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg, in October 2019.
Assistant Professor Betsey Biggs听is continuing work on听MELT. She also held a laptop performance as part of the Musical Ecologies series in New York City. 听She has a soundtrack coming out in April for her music film,听MELT: The Memory of Ice.
Instructor Pat Clark听recently presented听Pathways to Mixed Reality: Oral History, the i-Doc, and the Archive听at the 2019 Oral History Association鈥檚 Annual Meeting. This multi-dimensional immersive听media听project highlights landscape photography and the environment. He was also awarded a grant through OpenCU Boulder to adopt Online Educational Resources (OER) as an alternative to high-cost course materials.
Instructor Eric Coombs Esmail, director of the Center for Documentary and Ethnographic Media, along with the center's associate director,听Instructor Christian Hammons,听completed a short film,听Rumor, which will premiere at a major festival this year. They also completed principal photography on their grant-funded documentary feature,听American Refuge, about homelessness in the national forests of the American West. The project received the Audience Award at the Society for Visual Anthropology Pitch Fest at the annual conference of the American Anthropological Association in Vancouver. As director and associate director of the Center for Documentary and Ethnographic听Media, the pair launched Mimesis, a grant-funded program to transform the center into a hub of documentary听media听production on campus, in the Western U.S., and beyond. The center now offers masterclasses, microgrants and support for project development, fundraising, production, distribution, and outreach, and it will debut the Mimesis Documentary Festival later this year.
Assistant Professor Erin Espelie听had a solo show in Los Angeles at the Egyptian Theater with the L.A. Film Forum, where she premiered her new film听Tenebrio molitor听and a night of short films at the Regulator Gallery in Norman, Oklahoma. In August she was invited to install her film听Silent Springs听on site at the Sagehen Creek Field Station in northern California. She recently published in the听, and she plans to chair a panel at the 2020 Society for Cinema and听Media听Studies Conference entitled,听Deep Horizons: Examining the Spectrum of Uneven Ecocide & Enduring Futures.
Associate Professor Tara Knight鈥檚听short animation film Unsettled听continued to be presented in a wide array of venues in 2019 - from the top animation festival in the world (Annecy, the "Cannes of Animation"), to a program on the history of "Animation and the Fine Arts" (Zagreb), to a US tour with Black Maria Film Festival (Director's Choice Award). Current iterations of her collaborative Sound Planetarium VR project were invited to be presented at conferences for art and technologists (Museum of Science Boston), for live performance designers (Live Design International), and for astrophysicists (University of Liege, Belgium). The animated video projection Knight created for the theatrical performance The Great Wave听at the Berkeley Rep was reviewed as "handsome," "intricate," "stunning," "breathtakingly immersive," and "bone-rattling, eye-popping." Knight also received the 2019 William R. Payden Award for Faculty Teaching and Research Excellence.
Professor and Department Chair Teri Rueb听published a chapter in the听Routledge Companion to Mobile听Media听Art听(Routledge, June 2020). 听This month, she鈥檚 attending a gathering of听Critical听Media听Study program heads at the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University, along with DCMP doctoral student Toma Peiu. The universities represented will include University of the Arts, London; Universite虂 Paris Sciences et Lettres; and Goldsmiths, University of London. This month she鈥檒l also be presenting as part of the Harvard Graduate School of Design鈥檚 alumni talks. She is currently collaborating with Roberto Azaretto, a DCMP doctoral student, and Jiffer Harriman, lecturer out of ATLAS, on a commission from the Fiske Planetarium to create a sonic mobile experience based on the scaled solar system model installed on campus. And, she is exhibiting work in the group show,听Charting the World: Subjective Map Making听at Suffolk University in Boston, which runs from Jan. 30 through Feb. 27.听
Instructor Jason Sanford听recently finished composing an album鈥檚 worth of material, tentatively titled听Complications听on a label based in Prague called听, which will be forthcoming in May. He will tour Europe this coming summer. He is also working on a Black Box project in collaboration with ATLAS Professor Ellen Yi-Luen Do, and is doing the sound design for a dance performance featuring Helanius Wilkins, who will perform as part of the show听MULTISCAPES听at the Black Box on March 6 and 7.
Assistant Professor Stephanie Spray听has been invited to present work at a retreat hosted by Science Sandbox at the National Academy of Sciences. She is also one of 16 directors invited to present nonfiction work in the 2020 Sundance Talent Forum and has been invited to CPH:DOX in Copenhagen to pitch her feature film,听Patagonia Park. Her chapter for the听Routledge Handbook for Ethnographic Film and Video听will be published this April. She continues to work on both of her feature films:听Edge of Time听and听Patagonia Park.
Instructor Andrew Young听is currently in the review phase on his article 鈥溾�橠ark Tourism and Rwandan听Media听Industries: Promoting Nation and the Mythology of Memory鈥� in the听Journal of Genocide Research. He is teaching a new video game theory class this semester, which he鈥檒l likely adapt into an article about a听critical听media听practices听approach to teaching game theory. Additionally, his research on Rwandan film and nationalism was accepted for presentation at the 2020 Society for Cinema and听Media听Studies Conference, and his paper on Religion and Rwandan print听media听was accepted to the 2020 American Cultural Association/Popular Culture Association Conference.