The World is Down: 10 Works by Eddo Stern

Opening this Thursday, May 17th at Young Projects, The World is Down will present some of UCLA Professor and 2011 TEDxUCLA presenter Eddo Stern’s most important projects from the past two decades.  Stern’s work explores the uneasy and otherwise unconscious connections between physical existence and electronic simulation, surrounding the subject matters of violence, memory and identification.  He works with various media including computer software & hardware, game design, live performance, digital video, and kinetic sculpture. He is a strong advocate for independent game development, and the inherent potential of game design as a medium for artistic expression and cultural impact.

In addition to past work, The World is Down will present three recently completed projects, including the interactive game Goldstation (2012), a new sculptural version of Portal, Wormhole, Flythrough (2008-2012) and the 3D sensory deprivation game, Darkgame (v3.0) (2012), footage of which you can see below.

The exhibition will run through July 27, 2012 at Young Projects @ Pacific Design Center #B230, 8687 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood, CA 90069.  For more information and to view additional game footage and projects, please visit Eddo Stern’s site. 

October 27th, 2012

Save the date!  This year’s TEDxUCLA will take place on Saturday, October 27th 2012. 

Following the success of 2011′s event, this year promises to be an exciting and engaging day full of ideas worth spreading.  TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event.

Stay tuned for information on speakers, tours, and more in the coming months.

Rebeca Méndez receives 2012 National Design Award

Yesterday, the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt Director Bill Moggridge announced the winners of the 2012 National Design Awards, which recognize excellence across a variety of disciplines.  The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum convened a  jury of design leaders and educators from across the country, who then selected the winners based on the level of excellence, innovation and public impact of their body of work.

MOCA SUPRASENSORIAL Catalogue Design by Rebeca Méndez Design

2011 TEDx presenter, designer, and educator Rebeca Méndez received this year’s National Design Award in Communication Design.  The multidisciplinary studio she runs here in Los Angeles has designed materials for art and architecture clients, including Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne and Bill Viola.  She has also worked on exhibition catalogues for MOCA, and is currently contributing in-kind creative services to the ‘Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women’. 

You can currently see video works  by Rebeca Méndez on display at the Hammer Café until May 30, 2012.

Michael Newman at Maker Faire

Billed as ”part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new”, the 7th annual Maker Faire will take place May 19 & 20 in the Bay Area, bringing together a panoply of tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, authors, artists, students, and commercial exhibitors.  

Our own 2011 TEDxUCLA Presenter Michael Newman will be in attendance, presenting a hands-free, physical computing game called Super Skee Ball Shooter, which uses motion control to target and launch projectiles at a distant, carnivalesque contraption.  To join the excitement, visit the Maker Faire site for more information and to get tickets.

TED-Ed is Launched

Yesterday, we were excited to learn of the launch of TED’s new educational platform, TED-Ed.  TED-Ed provides educators access to TED’s growing library of carefully curated educational videos, and the ability to build unique lessons around ideas.  These lessons can then be tracked through unique URLs, allowing educators to individually measure the efficacy of their teaching.  The TED-Ed site is an engaging new component in an educator’s tool box, and represents a forward thinking development in the continually evolving world of education.

TED-Ed has already garnered glowing praise from The Washington Post, The Atlantic, GOOD, and The Chronicle of Higher Education among others.  The Atlantic calls the new platform “big” and maybe even “revolutionary.”  While The Washington Post remarks that TED-Ed uses “sophisticated animation, professional editing and high-quality production values to produce online lessons that are hard to forget.”

Give Mr. Byrom a hand… or a “Y”

At the AIGA Y-Conference in San Diego this past weekend, 2011 TEDx speaker Andrew Byrom joined other dynamic and creative professionals to speak about what drives them.  The conference also played host to a range of small workshops, called “Thinkshops,” on topics ranging from studio management and design inspirations, to bent wire sculptures and screen printing.

Mr. Byrom concluded with some charismatic typography of his own, Y not take a look?

Azure Antoinette at Mount St. Mary’s College

On Thursday, March 29, Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles will host the public release of the groundbreaking Report on the Status of Women and Girls in California.  In partnership with the California Commission on the Status of Women, this one day event will present the report, in addition to guest speakers and a panel discussion on the future of women and the issues they face in California.

Concluding with an original poetry performance from spoken word artist, advocate, and 2011 TED presenter Azure Antoinette, this event will also feature speakers and panelists including Geena Davis, Academy Award-winning actor and founder, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media; Maria Contreras-Sweet, executive chair and founder of ProAmérica Bank; Maria Blanco, vice president for civic engagement, California Community Foundation; Helen Boutrous, chair, department of history and political science, Mount St. Mary’s College; Ann McElaney-Johnson, president, Mount St. Mary’s College; Judy Patrick, president, Women’s Foundation of California, Linda J. Sax, professor and author, The Gender Gap in College: Maximizing the Developmental Potential of Women and Men; and Val Zavala, vice president, news and public affairs, KCET.

Women have made great strides in the last 100 years, but they remain vastly underrepresented in elective office, scientific fields and the boardrooms of California. The Report on the Status of Women and Girls in California focuses on key areas crucial to the advancement of women, including poverty, education, technology, employment, leadership, physical and mental health, and violence and incarceration.

Complimentary admission and parking are provided.  You can learn more and reserve your spot here.

Omar Yaghi named Director of Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry

“I went into chemistry, really, for the beauty of molecules,” said Yaghi in this recent profile of his work and career in Environment & Energy News.

This past January, Omar Yaghi was appointed the new director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Molecular Foundry. His early work with new molecular structures called MOFs (Metal-organic frameworks) has developed into groundbreaking research affecting a range of real-world applications.  Much of his research involves energy technologies (natural gas, hydrogen fuel cells, carbon capture) and how we store them.  At the Molecular Foundry, Yaghi will oversee a research team that is looking for the answers to many of our future energy challenges at the molecular level.

”The Molecular Foundry is uniquely positioned to address some of the most pressing challenges in the important field of nanoscience because of its relevance to many areas, not the least of which are energy and environment,” Yaghi said. “This is because of the dedicated and brilliant researchers with whom I shall have the pleasure and honor to work side-by-side. Indeed, very few places around the world combine so many brilliant researchers and state-of-the-art facilities in one spot. The Molecular Foundry represents how I have always imagined science should be organized and carried out. I am fortunate to take part of what was originally a great idea and then became an experiment. Within a short period of time we can already see how that experiment is working out beautifully.”

DIY: Physical Computing at Play

“No boring lectures,” proclaimed interactive developer, teacher, and event co-presenter Michael Newman. 

And indeed, last Friday’s DIY: Physical Computing at Play event at Cal Poly was far from dull.  Michael Newman, TEDxUCLA 2011 speaker, teamed up with Scott Hutchinson, designer and TEDxUCLA organizer, to present an immersive interdisclipinary workshop that extended computing into the everyday space around us.  Utilizing both Arduinos (an open-source electronics platform) and breadboards (reusable electronic test boards analogous to circuit boards), participants in this one-day workshop learned how to design and build a game which eventually played out in the main stairwell of the Kennedy Library.

DIY: Physical Computing at Play was the latest in the Science Cafe series of informal talks and workshops that explore scientific topics with an expert.  Sponsored by the Cal Poly Robotics Club, this hands-on workshop involved making, strategizing and play.

You can read more about this unique event in the Cal Poly Report, and check out more photos on the Kennedy Library flickr page.

Harry Hellenbrand named CSUN interim president

Congratulations to Dr. Harry Hellenbrand who has been named interim president of Cal State University Northridge.

Hellenbrand’s 2011 TEDxUCLA talk was titled Mapping and Mending the American Mind.