Six Expert Panels Over Two Days:

Reality and Hyper Reality: Envisioning New Design Paradigms in CG Animation

This panel examines the future of environment and character in design-based entertainment. What happens when the audience’s age-old “willing suspension of disbelief” is challenged by extremely varied digital interpretations of reality? What new opportunities exist for designers when the audience is prepared to accept everything from representational depictions of known environments, to video-game based aesthetics of form, texture and character design in “blended cinema,” to completely imagined artwork worlds and characters of CG animated movies? What will they accept tomorrow? How can entertainment designers stay ahead of the curve?

Panelists (additional speakers TBD):
Evan Douglis—chair of undergraduate School of Architecture, Pratt Institute;
Scott Robertson—entertainment design consultant, teacher at Art Center College of Design;
Gore Verbinski—director (Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy).

Narrating Space

This panel contemplates the science and fiction of where virtual and material environments meet. The panelists will explore what happens to the experience of architectural form, volume, navigation, materials, urban context, authorship and the communities that they create when they are projected into a digital world. When architecture no longer has to be concerned with physical, financial and geographic constraints it looks to film-making, story telling and other forms of media for its limitations and context. Questions arise about visualization, aesthetics, vernacular, plasticity, audience and interaction. Narrating Space hopes to answer some of these and ask a lot more.

Moderator: Peter Frankfurt—co-founder/co-director, Imaginary Forces.

Panelists (additional speakers TBD):
Joseph Kosinski—commercial and feature film director; "TR2N," TV spots for "Gears of War" and "Halo";
Greg Lynn—innovative architect, philosopher and teacher at UCLA School of Architecture and Urban Design; named one of the Ten Most Influential Living Architects by Forbes;
Dr. Jerry Schubel—director, Aquarium of the Pacific

New Television: The Media Blender

From the plasma screen in your media room, to the portable device in your pocket, to the side of a high-rise in Manhattan, savvy broadcasters are creating comprehensive “ecosystems” for rich media content with multiple consumer touch-points and immersive interactivity, blending television, web, movies and gaming to redefine the experience of television now and for the next generation. This panel will explore the intersection of design and technology in the creation of “new television”, the experience in front of the screen and the experience in the screen created by the blending of media and the interaction of the consumer.

Moderator: Anne White—VP Programming & Creative, PRN by Thomson

Panelists (additional speakers TBD):
Mike Benson—Executive Vice President, Marketing, ABC Entertainment;
Kevin Slavin—Managing Director of Area/Code, creator of cross-media games and entertainment;
Robert Tercek—faculty member, USC School of Cinema-TV, and founding chairman of the Game Developer Conference's mobile game summit.

Bigger Bang: Colliding Science & Design

The depiction of science and technology in film, novels, television, games, and other media directly informs and affects the work of real-world scientists; while the authors of these narrative forms are driven to incorporate the ideas and artifacts of modern and projected technology. It’s an ever-tighter feedback loop, and each side is sprinting to keep up with the other. Through it all runs a new generation of digital tools that is inexorably changing the creative process — of media author and scientist alike. This panel discusses what it means for science and design in narrative to embrace, incorporate, mutate, pervert, extrapolate, and refine each other.

Moderator: John Underkoffler—chief scientist, Oblong Industries; science advisor, (Minority Report, The Hulk)

Panelists (additional speakers TBD):
Paola Antonelli—design curator, The Museum of Modern Art;
Chuck Hoberman—inventor known for "transformable structures";
David Kung—vice president, creative director, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Online

Building Worlds – Designing for The New Frontier

The design of cinematic worlds has greatly informed -- and also been informed by -- the evolution of narratively rich interactive experiences. Whether it is the translation of cinematic genres and stories to games, the extension of narrative experiences into pervasive real world playing fields, or the exploration of the boundaries between video and virtual worlds, this panel will investigate the integral connection between these varied traditions of both storytelling and world building.

Moderator: Scott Fisher—media artist and interaction designer, chair of Interactive Media, School of Cinema and TV, at USC

Panelists (additional speakers TBD):
Doug Church—Electronic Arts;
Tracy Fullerton—director of the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab;
Qingyun Ma—Dean, USC School of Architecture;
Jordan Weisman—game designer; founder, Smith and Tinker; 42 Entertainment

Design in Flux: Immersive Design and the New Visual Narrative

Immersive design addresses the character, architecture, content, surface and texture of any environment that triggers and drives narrative. Whether that space is proactive or passive, inhabited, or in transition, this cross-media design process uses a multi-dimensional workspace that liberates the creators from traditional linear constraints. How should the new breed of designers establish and understand the complexity of their central role in narrative media? What is this dynamic creative process demanding from new technology? What has changed? What worlds can we now (not) build?

Moderator: Alex McDowell—production designer (Minority Report, Fight Club, Watchmen)

Panelists:
Rick Carter—production designer (A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, War of the Worlds, Avatar);
Tino Schaedler—architect, art director (Harry Potter);
Sebastian Sylwan—senior industry manager for film, Autodesk; and
Habib Zargarpour—senior art director, EA, Los Angeles.

Additional Conference Programming

Art/Tapes/22

All attendees of the 5D conference are invited to the University Art Museum for a cocktail reception to view the newly restored, early works of pioneers in video and new media, many of which have never been seen in the U.S. Attendees and presenters can enjoy an opportunity to view groundbreaking artwork and network with colleagues.

University Art Museum
Cocktail Reception/Exhibition
Saturday, October 4, 5:45 – 7:30 PM

In 1975 David A. Ross, then Deputy Director for Program Development and Television at the Long Beach Museum of Art, presented the Exhibition Americans in Florence: Europeans in Florence, a selection of video work produced at Maria Gloria Bicocchi’s pioneering media art center Art/Tapes/22 in Florence, Italy, one of the first video art studios in Europe. Upon the dissolution of Art/Tapes/22 as an organization, the original tapes and the entire Art/ Tapes/22 collection were acquired by the Venice Biennale, and have been in storage for three decades, inaccessible even to many of the artists.

Thanks to a relationship between the UAM Curator of Exhibitions Alice Hutchison and the Venice Biennale staff, selections from this outstanding video collection will be presented at the museum. Some of the best-known video artists will be showcased including Bill Viola, Vito Acconci, Colette, John Baldessari, Joseph Beuys, Chris Burden, Daniel Buren, Frank Gilette, Joan Jonas, Allan Kaprow, Steina and Woody Vasulka, and Nancy Kitchell Wilson.

Future of Sound

Conceived and presented by Martyn Ware of Illustrious Company, the Future of Sound concert will be a groundbreaking immersive experience using state-of-the-art sound technology showcasing leading practitioners in the fields of music and audio design.