Students, educators and professionals packed Shafer Art Building and its adjacent lunch tent this weekend at a chilly Syracuse U. Organizers expected less of a turnout than 2005's conference at Pratt Institute--New York City and all--but were caught a bit off guard when attendance matched last year's numbers. Nobody minded the squeeze or the rain, and a lively, competitive excitement filled the halls, especially during the student merit presentations as cheering sections let loose when their school's nominee took the stage.
The talent was strong. Derek Cascio from Mass Art set the bar high with a well-rounded combination of confidence and content. Literal collective gasps were heard during Mark Palmer's (RIT) display of one stunning model or rendering after another. Samira Gagne's heartfelt homage to her friends at Pratt Institute preceded a strong showing of emotion-driven work, and Manon Maneenawa from U. of Bridgeport added some comic relief with his Eats More Chicken toy ("You will love this!").
Other conference highlights included: Medical neuroscientist Dr. Dave Werner with wow-inducing accounts of his guerilla development of graphical data visualization tools--first developed in his 18 year college career--then later used to establish wireless communication matrices in global situations like sporting events, music festivals, and wars in third world countries. (Made one think twice about the importance of designing that sexy spatula.)Super-sized Jenga at the day one after party at SU's workshop was a blast, but the combination of alcohol and powertools? Hmm.
Sudir Bhatia's in-depth research initiatives, both in the professional setting with the development of industrial barcode scanners, and in the classroom where student teams donned actual casts to study the behaviors and limitations of broken bone recovery, were impressive.
And Ze Frank's hilarious analysis of contemporary media trends both kept the crowd in stitches ("everyone who can't draw draws penises"), and brought up startling points ("MySpace gets half the hits of Google."). Ze ended his set with a funny examination of airplane safety procedures.
Unfortunately, we had to leave a little early and missed out on Continuum's presentation of their $100 laptop project with MIT, and sustaina-talks with 02, GreenBlue, and Strategies for Planned Change. Back in Brooklyn now--we've just gotten word that Mark Palmer from RIT will be going to the IDSA National Conference in Austin, TX. Congratulations Mark!
Text: Kevin McElroy; Pictures: Nate Dwyer, Ebbin Martin
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