I am chairing a panel this Wednesday at the CUNY Graduate Center

CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street
March 17th 2010, Wednesday, 7:30pm, The Skylight Room (9100)

Online video has rapidly developed genres, conventions, and topics based around a quest for video views and internet fame. These attempts often revolve around themes and tactics as diverse as political humor, cute animals, the lulz, appropriation, instructional videos, and the ambiguous amalgam of the confessional documentary that turns out to, in fact, be short form fiction. This panel will bring together three scholar-practitioners to present and discuss specific examples of this work: Patrick Davison, Eyebeam, a not-for-profit art and technology center; Michael Mandiberg, Assistant Professor of Media Culture, College of Staten Island; and Marisa Olson, Assistant Professor of New Media, SUNY-Purchase.

Co-sponsored by the Digital Media Studies Group and the ITP doctoral certificate program

Talking to someone on the internet? Want to seem cool? Want to photoshop their head onto that of a celebrity? Well – the digital savvy know how to do that, but the REALLY digital savvy know that Photoshop’s not the only way. The world of digital image manipulation is too often seen as a one-horse race, but it doesn’t have to be that way. GIMP is the premiere, super-fantastic FREE SOFTWARE tool for photo retouching, digital image creation, and cover-for-the-CD-me-and-my-friends-made-in-my-basement making. Come get an introduction to both at once, learning the strengths and weaknesses of both as you make your Facebook photos look better, and your friends be more jealous of your skillz. With a “z.”