This weekend, Mark and I ventured to Vancouver, Canada. My thesis was accepted as a paper presentation in the one day SAME Workshop (Semantic Ambient Media Experience) a part of the ACM Multimedia Conference. The workshop was set up a little differently as the focus wasn’t on presentations of the papers, but more so discussion of ambient media - I found it to be a pretty interesting day. Once the workshop was over, Mark and I spent the rest of the weekend exploring Vancouver. Check out the pics on flickr!
Posted in: Blog, Personal, Thesis
During the Fringe Festival, I volunteered at the How Philly Moves photo shoot run by photographer and friend JJ Tiziou. While I was there, I participated in the shoot - awesome photo JJ!
Posted in: Blog, Philly
This weekend, Information Overload was back for a second showing at Drexel University’s Mandell Theater for the 2008 Philly Fringe Festival. Philadelphia Inquirer’s Merilyn Jackson wrote a review about the piece for Monday, September 9, 2008 paper saying:
Lauren Mandilian choreographed Information Overload to first-rate music by John Avarese and Matthew Baker. She also created splendid animation with letters falling like rain down the screen and architecturally dissecting lines. Five dancers did their turns nicely until a fatal error message appeared on the screen. In this dance there were no errors.
Be sure to check out the full article.
Posted in: Blog, Thesis, Philly
Information Overload will be performed at Drexel University’s Mandell Theater for the 2008 Philly Fringe Festival! I will be partnering with Indigenous Pitch in the show we’ve name Manic Swell. Witness the perfect storm of Hip/Hop Theater, Motion Capture Animation, Multimedia Dance and Aerial Stuntwork. You can purchase tickets for Manic Swell on the Fringe website.
p.s. I am also designing visuals for one of the pieces in Sharp Dance Company’s Fringe performance. You can also purchase tickets for Four on 2 on the Fringe website.
Posted in: Blog, Thesis, Philly
I just got back from the 2008 Siggraph conference in Los Angeles, California. I attended this year’s conference as a Posters Contributor, presenting my thesis, Information Overload. I love my poster design- I used images from the performance to create something beautiful. I figured the other posters would be more technical looking so I wanted to design something that was ascetically pleasing to the eye and would stand out from the other posters. I think my plan succeeded because I got a lot of good feedback from conference attendees about my my poster and work.
My favorite presenter at the conference was hands down Artistic Director for U23D, Catherine Owens. Her talk was not so much technical as it was artistic. She talked about what inspires her work, then showed some of her work, and concluded the presentation with U23D. It really allowed the audience to see where she was coming from when she was working on U23D. Overall her talk was really refreshing to hear at a Siggraph conference just because of the fact that it wasn’t so ‘techy’.
Posted in: Blog, Thesis
You’ll never believe what happened to me this week-
It all started when one of my professors put me in contact with a friend of his from high school, Jodi Kaplan. Jodi, received her M.F.A in Film from Columbia and owns a dance booking company. I met with her last week and she asked me if I was interested in editing footage for dance photographer, Lois Greenfield! The footage was for an upcoming project called “Projected,” a dance performance that will project Lois’s images on dancers and fabric. The short film would be on display in a theater lobby in China during the time that the Olympics were going on. Naturally, I said yes- this would be a great opportunity for me! Since I would be going between my internship and this project, Jodi arranged for me to stay in a hostel for the week.
During the week I worked side by side with Lois in her studio editing the footage. She is an extremely nice woman and was a pleasure to work with. I worked really hard on the project and I’m so proud of the final piece. Lois and Jodi were impressed with my work and asked me to work on the project with them in the fall as they create the performance!
Posted in: Blog, Work
The first preview for “Fela!” is fast approaching. The show is amazing and I strongly recommend you see it. Make sure to check out the show’s website and buy tickets!
Posted in: Blog, Work
My internship in NYC is just over half-way done and boy has it been an awesome experience thus far! The two main shows I’m helping with are “Fela! ~Music is the Weapon~” (directed by Bill T. Jones) and “9 to 5″ (music by Dolly Parton). I spent the month of June in the studio conducting research and building content for both shows (as well as helping out with a couple smaller shows). Now, we spend most days in the theater (37 Arts) finishing content and teching Fela. In between working on Fela I am able to observe Bill at work (which is very interesting). I was even introduced to Bill by Peter and got to shake is hand!
More importantly is that I’ve learned a lot from this experience. The great thing about being an intern is that everyone knows you are there to learn so they are more then willing to answer any of my questions. From simple After Effects questions to something more in depth like how a concept is presented to a client. In the theater, I am able to see the back-end process of setting the equipment up and programing the projectors.
I’ve been keeping a video blog about the experience so feel free to check it regularly.
Posted in: Blog, Work
I started my internship in NYC this week and decided that I would keep a video blog about the experience. Be sure to check my youtube page regularly to see all my posts throughout the summer.
Posted in: Blog, Work
My summer continues to get better and better as more and more opportunities keep popping up. I received notice today that my poster submission for the Student Research Competition at the 2008 Siggraph Conference was accepted! Los Angeles, here I come (again).
Posted in: Blog, Thesis
