5 Dollar Milkshake

Student: Portia Danis
Course: Art 618 Advanced Video Art
Instructor: Greg Rosenberg
Medium: Video (4:21)
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Description: This short experimental video explores the boundaries of analog and digital video. I started with a VHS of Pulp Fiction played on an old CRT television, and filmed the screen with a HD digital camera. I manipulated the video output cables to produce a distorted image on the screen. I then uploaded the video from the camera and digitally edited the sequence to further distort the image.  The resulting images produce an abstract painterly quality that, when combined with distorted audio, have a dream-like effect.  The overall effect is a colorful-dreamlike state that stays true to the raw medium of analog video.

Ah, the Great Puzzle

Student: Lorenza Zebell
Course: Inter-LS 106: First Year Seminar in the Social Sciences: Representing the Self Through Media
Instructor: Erica Halverson
Medium: Audio (39:29)
Listen to this audio!
Description: This project gives four different personal perspectives on the process of growing up and creating yourself.  Each contributor concentrates on a time in their life and tries to make sense of how that affected their personality.  Listeners can’t help but relate with these four stories of emerging adulthood.

Featured in "An Afternoon of Aha's & Haha's" April 20 & April 21, 1pm, Atrium - Education Building, UW-Madison

Blessing of the Americans

Student: Amanda Rebello
Course: American Indian Studies Program 450 The Native Creative Process
Instructor: Roberta Hill
Medium: Video (2:29)
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Description: Our reading of Blessing the Americans by Janet McAdams is a poem originally from Sing, Poetry from the Indigenous Americas.  Throughout the reading there are pictures that capture what we experienced while reading the poem.  We discerned the meaning through historical references such as the Columbine shooting and the Red Lake massacre and through Janet McAdam’s emotional response to violence in America to create an illustration of her experiences.

Bring Fractal to Figurative Art

2013 Honorable Mention

Student: Wanyi Chen
Course: Independent
Medium: 2d Images
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Description: Fractal maybe the cutest subjects that captures both science and art's view. Yet most artworks concerning fractal are abstract digital art. In this series of multi-media artworks, I combine photos, digital paintings, fractal fires generated in a software called Apophysis, and also some images produced by me in Mathematica to create a flavor of figurative art that features fractal element.
(Artists' statement:) It's widely observed that the work of nature sometimes follows  fractal rules, such as the structure of plants and texture of landform. If we jump out from this scientific view, and embrace the aesthetic perspective of fractal fires, I find that they seem to convey a much broader image of concrete objects. When I first play around with fractal and generate a picture with some random parameters, I was so amazed that it looked so much like feathers seen under a microscope. And that's the beginning of everything you see here...

Capitol in Black and White Photography

Student: Luana Genot
Course: Independent
Medium: Photography
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Description: Capitol in Black and White from a singular perspective.

Church Clown

Student: Matthew Eggert
Course: Art 341 Sound Design - Performance and Visual Arts
Instructor: Joseph Koykkar
Medium: Video (3:33)
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Description: The video contains an experimental soundtrack accompanied by various, semi-animated images.

Curb 2012: Where Identities Intersect

Student: Emily Connor
Course: Journalism 417 Magazines and Magazine Editing
Instructor: Katy Bartzen Culver
Medium: e-book
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Description: Considering the changing face of journalism today, it was crucial that Curb 2012 explored a unique way to present and share exclusive content. More than the usual iPad app, Curb's iBook allows readers to experience our stories and multimedia pieces in a unique and cohesive package. We decided to go back to the roots and purpose of investigative journalism - to tell engaging stories - when we envisioned what our digital app could be. Our content and creative stories serve as the centerfold of our iBook. 

Cute or Creepy? Watching for Red Flags on a First Date

Student: Abra Bankendorf Vigna
Course: HDFS Relationship Education Practicum
Instructor: Linda Roberts
Medium: Video (8:28)
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Description: This video was created to stimulate conversation in a curriculum about healthy relationship skills. It features two teens out on a first date and each display some behaviors that are endearing and some that are concerning. This video is innovative in that the couple is same-sex and neither can easily be read as a perpetrator or a victim. The audience is invited to note both cute and creepy behaviors without identifying a "bad guy" and therefore open up conversation about common relationship behaviors that sometimes lead to control or violence in a non-stigmatizing manner.

Dak Lua Vietnam

Student: Jessica Halbach
Course: Livestock Production 370 Lab
Medium: Video (11:38)
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Description: Team takes a virtual trip to water shed of the Mekong Rive, Dak Lua, Vietnam.  / Team analyzes challenges farmers face.  / Team offers possible projects that might improve agricultural and livestock production outcomes.

A Day Without Music

Student: John Christianson
Course: English 100: Lecture 031
Instructor: Reuben Casas
Medium: Video essay (5:22)
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Description: This is a video essay in response to the nationwide action of school districts cutting their music education programs. It includes facts, statistics, and personal testimonies as to why music education is beneficial.

Drafting Derby: Forging Personas and Shattering the Mold

Student: Amy Freeberg
Course: Folklore 100: Introduction to Folklore
Instructor: Tim Frandy
Medium:Video (18:34)
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Description: Roller derby had its beginnings as a co-ed skating endurance competition but virtually disappeared at the end of the 1970s after falling prey to the exploitative and outrageous production antics of televised roller derby. Roller derby made a comeback in 2003, which jump-started the formation of roller derby leagues all over the world. Since its revival, roller derby has evolved into a highly athletic and competitive sport. However, shadows of what roller derby once was still linger. Through personal interviews with skaters from the Mad Rollin’ Dolls, the women’s flat-track roller derby league of Madison, Drafting Derby attempts to shed light on the evolution of roller derby as an empowering and athletic sport for women, as well as delve into the creative aspects of the derby culture such as derby names and uniforms.

Dyslexia

2013 Honorable Mention

Student: Maria Swanke
Course: English 100
Instructor: Devin Garofolo
Medium: Comicdoc
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Description: Dyslexia is a common learning disability that so many people do not understand, so when I was making this project, I tried to be informative. Growing up with dyslexia, I struggled with knowing that other people saw me as a child with a disability. Some of my teachers I had in elementary school were supportive, but many of my teachers ignored the signs, got frustrated with me and would embarrass me in front of my peers. It was at an early age that I decided I wanted to be an elementary school teacher, so I could be the compassionate and caring teacher for another student who struggled with school.There are so many better methods for teaching all children (especially dyslexic children) how to read and write using more sensory based learning techniques. My project discusses those techniques and the warning signs of dyslexia.

Ethos and Tech: The Evolving Paradigm of Collective Intelligence

Student: Katie Cullen
Course: C&I 209: Digital Media and Literacy
Instructor: Erica Halverson & TJ Kalaitzidis
Medium: Infographic
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Description: In our visualization, we chose to represent the changes from the classic encyclopedia of Encyclopedia Britannica to our current user-operated system of Wikipedia. We chose to use the data of how many articles were available over the years in the classic print version of the encyclopedia, the online software that Encyclopedia Britannica came out with in 2002, and Wikipedia today to demonstrate how the “new ethos” and “new technical” ideas shape the availability of knowledge.

Evolutionary Network Games

Student: Wanyi Chen
Course: Independent
Medium: Videogame
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Description: This is an extension of continuous action space network game introduced by Ballester C, Calvo, Armengol A, and Zenou Y. / Finite number of players are involved in some group activities while their actions will affect other’s payoff bilaterally. / I extend this one-shot game into a multi-period game.Players start with exogenously given co-effect matrix and sit in a grid (circle) space which define their location and distance to others. / In each stage, players’ initial bilateral influence level is decayed by distance. And they update / their co-effect vectors proportional to other players’ current action levels.
(Artists' statement:) I'm always fascinated by the beauty of mathematical dynamics in their visualized form.

Forty Years Forward: A Look at the Role of Women in Athletics Forty Years Since Title IX Was Passed

Student: Gemma Wilson
Course: Journalism 202
Instructor: Katy Bartzen Culver
Medium: Website
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Description: Having played sports almost my whole life, I was inspired by women who are thriving in athletic professions. College athletic departments have been seen as "boy's clubs," but there are no more signs reading "No Girls Allowed." However, since women took their places in Athletic Departments after Title IX, there has been a dramatic drop in the numbers of female coaches. I made a website using the WordPress platform, to display different pieces of the story which explore unique aspects of the current role of women at the University of Wisconsin. These different pieces include an iMovie, Adobe InDesign print layouts, a podcast, and an infographic. These pieces allowed me to gain a better understanding of the changing relationship of digital media and journalism. 

hidden womyn

Student: Darline Morales
Course: Independent
Medium: Photography
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Description: These works are black and white photographs, with a women-identified subject. (Artists' statement:) These photographs are part of a series depicting the women of color experience. The silhouette is unidentified and silenced, which is a direct correlation to the experiences of women of color in their respective communities and on campus. This, however, doesn't represent all of women of color, however, it is based on the many stories and interactions.

Honolulu, Hawaii

Student: Max Rosenberg
Course: English 100: Intro to College Composition
Instructor: Reuben Casas
Medium:Video (3:14)
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Description: A summary of my trip to Honolulu, Hawaii this past summer. The video showcases the beautiful scenery I was lucky enough to see and the importance of traveling to unknown and unique areas when in a new place.
(Artists' statement:) I had a lot of fun taking the photos from my trip and putting them into this video. I really think it's important to explore the roads less traveled when in a new place; my family and I made an effort to do that when in Honolulu--with the help of our Godfathers it was much easier. I think my project is visually appealing and a good brochure for how great an island Honolulu is.

I don't even know what I mean by that, but I mean it

Student: Amy Cannestra
Course: Independent
Medium: Installation
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Description: Pain — It can be emotional or physical. We relate to it when others are feeling it and we can always want to soothe it. The sciences are constantly trying to figure out what pain is, where it is in our brains, nerves and mind. I want to take these aspects — the science, the physical and the emotional — and create a body of work that investigates them all. How do they relate and influence one another. What happens when pain is turned into a physical object? Do we loose the intimate relationship we have with it or does it become something more people can relate to? “I don’t even know what I mean by that, but I mean it.” (a quote from JD Salingers’ book ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and title of my work) is a small installation made up of the ‘Catcher in the Rye’ book cover and projection of a camera making its way through a ‘field’ of book pages. The pages that create the ‘field’ are all from the same book, and glued to a book shelf to stand as if they were the rye field that the main character, Holden, imagines himself in. Not only does the text itself revolve around depression and an emotional pain, but the installation is supposed to enhance the endless felling of searching, being alone and abandonment. Even though support systems are close by when we experience pain, there is always a sense of being alone with no end in sight. Through this body of work I am gong to challenge how physical pain, emotional pain and the study of pain depend on one another, enhance one another and do not relate at all. Though all three ideas may not be present at all times in each piece, they are always there to influence how each piece will be structured and grow.

An Illustration of Darth Vader

Student: Henry Erdman
Course: Independent
Medium: 2D Images
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Description: An illustration of Darth Vader.

Information Study #6: Emails from Laurel

Student: Paul Lorenz
Course: Independent
Medium: Images
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Description: In my recent work I’ve been interested in investigating ways that humans interact with mediating technologies. Specifically, I’m in interested in technology that can change the ways in which people interact with one another. In the sculptural series I’ve called Information Study #6: Emails from Laurel I’ve created a system that transforms one piece of information into another, radically different form of information. In this case, I’ve taken all of the emails sent to me from my wife during the first two weeks of our relationship and translated them into a series of physical objects: eighteen object from eighteen emails.

It's Kind of a Funny Story

Student: Daniel Schwartz et al
Course: Life Science Communication 360
Instructor: Larry Meiller and Jill Hpke (TA)
Medium: Audio (42:34)
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Description: Our program is about how different events, people, or experiences can help to define one's identity in a funny and interesting way.

The Less We Exist

Student: Celeste Robert
Course:  Comm-Arts 651: Advanced Video Production and Direction, Experimental Filmmaking
Instructor: Bill Brown
Medium: Video (5:07)
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Description: What do relationships mean in the era of the born-digital? This short film explores the topic of friendships online from one young woman's perspective, the elation and alienation of online interactions, and questions the meaning of what it is "to know" and "to be friends" with people in this day and age of digital intimacy, as well as what internet personae are and how they differ from our physical personalities. Who is online? Who is stalking us? This film forces the viewer to question their assumptions about who is a creep, and what message they are sending out with their carefully curated online images to whomever may stumble upon them. / The original score provides a fitting backdrop to this visually and intellectually stimulating short, provoking questions for all of us about the meaning of leading our social lives online. / The film's medium is fitting, as the viewer watches the online interaction in seemingly real time as if they themselves were participating. /  / Field Mountains is a Madison, WI based band who graciously gave permission for this song to be used in this film.

Little Pink Bows

Student: Marcie Waters
Course: Art 107 Intro to Digital Forms
Instructor: Meg Mitchell
Medium: Image
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Description: This work was created by scanning a 3D object, a barette in the shape of a bow, into a 2D scanner, and creating a vector image in Adobe Ilustrator. I then manipulated color and size to create a dynamic composition.

Louis

Student: Rachina Ahuja
Course: Art 660: Art and Technology
Instructor: Stephen Hilyard
Medium: Video (2:20)
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Description: Louis is an attempt to create a CG animation in the style of old retro 2D cartoons but with a darkly comedic twist.

Madison Wisconsin's Dane County Farmer's Market

Student: Henry Erdman
Course: Comm-Arts 355
Instructors: Aaron Granat and Andrea Comiskey
Medium: Video (4:58)
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Description: A short observational documentary on the last outdoor Dane County Farmer's Market of the season.

My Learning Bildungsroman

Student: Virginia Harris
Course: English 381
Instructor: Caroline Levine
Medium: Essay
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Description: I wanted to touch on a lot of different things in this paper. I explore issues about finding my own voice and identity, dealing with the mis-recognition and the dishonesty that can be a part of growing up. My use of different kinds of text sort of parallels my problems with self-expression throughout the paper, but also stands to show how new media changes the way we make art in general. I also wanted to kind of emphasize the disconnect between learning and formal education that I experienced growing up.

Naomi Introduction Video

Student: Abbey Schneider
Course: Comm-Arts 210 Introduction to Media Production
Instructor: Eric Hoyt
Medium: Video (1:00)
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Description: The project was designed to get to know our cohorts in the class and gain experience with video cameras and editing software. However, after I was finished the video I learn that the project opened my eyes to a whole new culture, and introduced me to a brand new friend.

Never a Dull Moment

Student: Brennan Harris
Course: Inter-LS 106: First Year Seminar in the Social Sciences: Representing the Self Through Media
Instructor: Erica Halverson
Medium:Audio (43:41)
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Description: In this piece, four students examine their "defining moments." Haley faces the rigors of the National American Miss Teen pageant, Bridget takes on life after her cancer diagnosis, Sarah braves a slew of death among her family and close friends, and Brennan has a life-changing revelation about looking for the silver lining on every cloud. (Artists' Statement:) Most This American Life episodes are organized into four sequential stories. Our piece breaks away from that norm and interlaces the four stories to emulate the rapid-fire nature of real life and to ensure that for the listener, there is Never a Dull Moment.

Featured in "An Afternoon of Aha's & Haha's" April 20 & April 21, 1pm, Atrium - Education Building, UW-Madison

New Ethos

Students: Rachel Adam and Molly Hanson
Course: Curriculum and Instruction 209
Instructor: Erica Halverson & TJ Kalaitzidis
Medium: Infographic
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Description: Our final product shows how the collaborative and participatory qualities of “new ethos” combined with fluid rules and norms and distributed systems combine and overlap in many applications and web uses of the modern day world. Our visualization portrays this overlap with the branches and leaves located in between the main sections, and the reappearance of some application logos multiple times in various branch locations of “New Ethos”. Now complete, it is interesting to reflect upon the co-evolution of the design and the language we chose to use - a process in itself a representation of the “new ethos” of “new literacy”.

Performing Literacies: A Minecraft Summer Reading Program

Student: James Burling
Course: English 550: Smart Media and Critical Information Design
Instructor: Jon McKenzie
Medium:Website
Visit the artist's website!
Description: Working with Wisconsin libraries, I designed several activities for their summer reading programs using the video game Minecraft. /  / In this example, I lead several activities for middle-schoolers in Janesville on survival-themed literature with books like the Hunger Games and Hatchet, and then dropped them onto a virtual desert island. Once there, they had to work together to survive, explore, build or escape. In the process, they performed their own "Survival" story.
(Artists' statement:) I'm a PhD student in Theatre and Drama, and I'm intensely interested in dramatic performance that utilizes, either partially or wholly, virtual environments. Whether by engaging with video games as performance, or adding a layer augmented reality to live theatre, this kind of intermedial performance opens up new ways to do live performance, and mirror the new layers of technology being added to our lives each day. /  / I'm also currently the instructor of record for a UW–Madison course called Drama in Education, cross-listed between the Department of Theatre and Drama and Curriculum and Instruction. In this course, I teach student teachers how to utilize creative drama in educational lesson for children K-5, and how to foster learning through imaginative, hands on experiences.  "Structured Play" like this is way of using performance to enact and discuss all kinds of issue and subjects, and is a fun learning technique with a great deal of utility for both children and adults. /  / This project combines these two interests. By utilizing a video game to allow a group of children to play, explore ideas, and discuss themes related to their reading material, I'm hoping to find new ways to engage kids in drama and performance. In turn, I hope this can be one small part of the push to redefine live theatrical performance, and bring it into the 21st century.

Photogether Mobile Application

Student: Jennifer Abramsky
Course: Independent
Medium: Application
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Description: We created the mock ups and presentation for the Photogether app because we saw an opportunity in the photo sharing market, and we were interested in learning more about the app environment.

Public Listening

Student: Margaret Pint
Course: English 550: Smart Media
Instructor: Jon McKenzie
Medium: Multi-media
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Description: I created a hypothetical consulting firm, FD|Strategy, and a strategic program, "Public Listening." The project was inspired by slavery abolitionist Frederick Douglass. His ability to create and maintain what I call "public listening" allowed Douglass numerous opportunities to gain enough information that he eventually utilized to gain freedom and the agency to speak. The project consists of a website, Prezi presentation, and abstract describing "Public Listening." The purpose of the project was to create a service inspired from the humanities department and make it applicable to a particular group in society. My objective was to reveal how professionals can enhance their careers by participating in “public listening.” Through this project, I advocate my belief that one cannot successfully master public speaking until mastering public listening.

Additional materials:
Website: http://publiclisteningg.wordpress.com/
Prezi presentation: http://prezi.com/f1gku_le_y5j/fdstrategy-public-listening/

A Remix About Remix

Student: Olivia Conti
Course: Comm-Arts 609
Instructor: Eric Hoyt
Medium: Video (7:17)
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Description: A remix that I made about my research interest: political remix video. In this video, I use samples from various sources as well as illustrative examples to explain what remix is, what enables it, and what makes it an interesting object of study.

Sex Conversations: Promoting Conversations About Bodies, Sex, and Sexuality Between Parents and Children

Student: Gowshing Xiong
Course: English 550: Smart Media and Critical Information Design
Medium:
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Description: This project utilizes computer game graphic snapshots to help illustrate a narrative text of a young girl learning about pregnancy and sex. This project proposes an interactive approach to initiating parent-child conversations about bodies, sex, and sexuality. Prezi presentation here.

Synthesis & Fragmentation in Poetry

Student: Elizabeth Delaquess
Course: Course # 18488 American Literature
Instructor: Monique Allewaert and David Plastrick (TA)
Medium: Video (2:41)
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Description: Using iMovie software, I created a video comparing the narrative structure of 'This Compost' by Walt Whitman and 'A Carafe That Is A Blind Glass' by Gertrude Stein.

Talk to the Hand

Student: Julia Boms
Course: Comm-Arts 522 Digitally Documenting Everyday Communication
Medium: Video
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Description: A study of nonverbal communication at a local State Street bar in Madison, Wisconsin, specifically hand gestures.

Tall, Dark, and Loathsome: The Emergence of a Legend Matrix in the Digital Age

2013 Best of Show

Student: Andrew Peck
Course: Comm-Arts 609
Instructor: Eric Hoyt
Medium: Video (6:56)
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Description: The faceless, tall, eerily long-limbed humanoid clad in a black suit emerges in an online forum as a pair of photoshops and a half dozen lines of text. Soon, this so-called “Slender Man” begins appearing in images, videos, stories, and blogs across the Internet. By sharing, discussing, and commenting on these artifacts in participatory media, users create legendary narratives and audio/visual “evidence” that present researchers with a new kind of digital folk practice. Enabled by the affordances of digital and social networks, this digital legend matrix serves as an example of a new form of digital folklore that combines the generic conventions of oral and visual storytelling with the collaborative potential of networked communication.

taylorcolemiller.com

Student: Taylor Cole Miller
Course: Independent
Medium: Website
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Description: taylorcolemiller.com is my attempt at curating all my professional and academic work in one place. It includes a blog, and portfolios for my graphic print design and web design as well as a number of photos I've published throughout the years. It also incorporates videos from my broadcast days, back when I fancied myself a reporter. Oh, those days.

University of Wisconsin Madison Zoological Collections

Student: William Johnson
Course: Comm-Arts 355 Intro to Media Production
Instructor: Aaron Garnat
Medium: Video (4:52)
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Description: This is an observational documentary made about UW Madison's own Zoology Museum and explores some of the activities that take place there.

UW-Madison Cinematheque

Student: Tony Tran
Course: Comm-Arts 609 Essential Digital Media Production for Graduates
Instructor: Eric Hoyt
Medium: Video (7:19)
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Description: Our video explores the workings of the UW-Madison Cinematheque as we travel through its history, film selection process, role in archiving and preserving film history, and projection room.

When Justice Calls

Student: Jacob Wears, Ricardo Romero, Adam Levitt, Perri Zaret
Course: Comm-Arts 210 Introduction to Digital Media
Instructor: Eric Hoyt
Medium: Video (6:33)
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Description: Something is awry in the Sellery Residence Hall. Called to the scene is Ricardo Romero. Throughout the six minute short he interviews suspects, breaks down doors, and slowly loses his composure.

Wisconsin Counties Data Visualization

Student: Thao Pao
Course: Art 448: Web & Interactive Media
Instructor: Meg Mitchell
Medium: Website
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Description: This data visualization is used to educate, inform, and entail the populations of all 72 Wisconsin counties. There are several ways of getting to see population: by instantly hovering over any county or click on a population range on the bottom right of the Wisconsin map - which you can also hover over those various counties for their population. The darker blues represent populations with more people and lighter blues with less people.

Yes We Can

Student: Luana Genot
Course: Comm-Arts 355
Instructor: Aaron Granat
Medium:Video (2:47)
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Description: Linda and John are a multiracial couple that need to deal with the challenge to raise their baby during their college lives.