Sorry I didn’t get a chance to write from Siggraph. The installation went smoothly, but I always felt bad sitting at the computer while other people were working!
First things first: I didn’t make it to the zoo. I know, I know; No need to twist the knife, people. But SD is so close to LA, I’m sure I’ll see panda’s soon enough.
A few words on Siggraph: It seems to be one of those events that is worthwhile to show in, at least once if you get a chance. The collection was unapologetically odd, however. There were a couple big names, some even CMU and UCLA related. But then there was also a TON of painfully mediocre digitally manipulated photography. I mean, c’mon people! Aren’t we over this yet? I got that feeling about some of the media art projects too, but mostly from the projects in the “Emerging Technologies” section. Oh, I also got a peek at Microsof Surface, which is basically a giant iPhone on its side by the look of it. I think the most interesting feature of Surface will be its ability to interface with physical hardware. To me though, this is a clear sign that its initial marketing will be almost exclusively to hotel lobbies, phone stores and things like that. For example, imagine going into a phone store, placing your phone onto the surface and, using some interface, dragging ringtones or package options into the circle drawn around your phone or something like that. Or putting your mp3 player (made my Microsoft, duh) on it and dragging mp3’s from your library onto the area where the player. Then they go wirelessly into it. What annoyed me about the presentation of it though was how they talked about gestural interfaces as though nothing like it had ever been conceived, completely omitting any mention of all the other research being done by interaction designers in the field of multi-touch and gestural interfaces. Jeff Han, comes to mind.
Events will continue there all week, but I only planned on going for the installation. I am kinda disappointed about missing a few things, notably the (slightly out of place) Siggraph fashion show, the animation theater will all the 3D animation shorts, and a performance by DMA alum, Takeshi. Some cool work I saw there included Ingo Gunther’s WORLDPROCESSOR project, Mark Shepard’s Tactical Sound Garden, Shawn Lawson’s Wu Wei.
San Diego is a lot smaller than I thought. There seem to be some interesting pockets and the weather was nice, but overall I don’t think i’d ever want to live there. I spent most of my time around the southern end of the city, by the convention center and the “gaslamp district” which is full of overpriced restaurants that cater to the convention center’s company credit-card type crowd. The padres were playing at the nearby stadium so that area was also full of bros. Also bike-taxi’s are HUGE there! As an unexpected and pleasant surprise, though, I also got to see my friend Ali again, who was volunteering there.
To sum up — Siggraph: Kinda cool/kinda weird. San Diego: Meh…
Oh, and don’t ever, ever, ever drive a rental car to Tijuana…ever… (ever). There’s a story there, but i’m too embarrassed to tell it!
