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Program Information
Overview of the Program:
The driving purpose behind the year-long Visual Informatics program is to empower and position young adults (ages 18 – 30) to move into creative careers in the fast evolving Web and Cell Phone industries through a combination of community college classes, interactive hands-on experimental workshops, creative brainstorming sessions geared around group projects, a website forum designed to showcase video/web work samples, and practical internship/job training. The following is a breakdown of the program components:
• Web, Video, and GIS classes taught by EGOS/CEC instructors
• Hands-on Experimental Arts/Technology Workshops held at DCIS
• Weekly Creative Brainstorming and Big Picture Focus Sessions also held at DCIS
• Visual Informatics Website (www.visualinformatics.org) will contain:
-Program Info/Schedule of Classes and Workshops
-Downloadable Program Application
-Cohort Blog/Administrator Message Board
-Contact Info/Links to Resources and Examples
-Individual webpage profile for each participant that has a digital resume, and creative video work sample
-Group Project Pages
• Internship Opportunities and Career Training
The 3-week intensive Video Mapping program that will be held at MLK Early College during the summer session will give High School age students training in Interactive Media. All of the Experimental Arts/Technology workshops and Creative Brainstorming sessions are also open to these participants. At the end of the summer these students will be given a $200 stipend and will receive job training/ shadowing over the course of the program.
Community College Classroom Training:
In partnership with Emily Griffith Opportunity School and the Career Education Center Middle College, the Visual Informatics Program will train young people in the fundamentals of Web Design/Programming, Video Production/Editing, and Geospatial Mapping Technologies. Classes will be aligned with established content standards. Participants will take classes from seasoned instructors and professionals in these fields and will receive 9 hours of community college credits (3 hours per area).
Experimental Workshops:
Creative/Technical Director Ryan S Ballard will lead a series of intensive experimental workshops at the Denver Center for International Studies throughout the year. These workshops are designed to compliment the practical classroom training and expose the participants to a variety of visual and performing artists, musicians, software developers, scientists and other professionals who are superlatively creative and who integrate technology into their work in interesting and dynamic ways.
Visual Informatics will organize 3-5 workshops over the summer of 08, another 10 -15 workshops in the fall of 08 and another 10 -15 in the spring of 2009. Workshops are currently scheduled for Monday July 7th, and Monday July 14th.
These workshops will incorporate discussions on the theory and practical application of related cross-curricula subjects integrated with dynamic hands-on activities and guided experimentation.
Examples of Experimental Workshops:
• Recycling, Green Technologies, New Lighting Technologies and Alternative Energy with an improvisational Trash Fashion Show.
• Sacred Geometry, Ancient Iconography, Particle Physics and Buckminster Fuller’s Geodesic Dome Designs with a hands-on Origami Workshop.
• Superstring Theory, Visual Tonalities, Kirtan and Eastern Musical Theories and Traditions with an experimental Musical Performance.
Creative Brainstorming and Big Picture Focus Sessions:
These weekly focus sessions will be held on Monday nights throughout the Fall 08 and Spring 09 semesters. They are designed to keep the participants focused on the overall big picture goals of the program. Namely, creating work samples that they can use to market themselves to potential employers and create career opportunities.
During these sessions the students will be given practical, creative, and aesthetic advice on how to create the following samples within the context of their practical classroom training at EGOS and CEC:
• A Professional Profile Webpage
• A Digital Video Resume (approximately 3-5 minutes in length and geared to present themselves to a potential employer).
• An Individual Creative Video Project (incorporating titles, transitions and basic video editing techniques).
• A Group/Cohort Video Project with a practical GIS mapping application. Participants will create these projects in groups of 3-5. These group projects can developed in collaboration with business partners, creative consultants, etc., and should have some sort of practical impact/intent.
Students will be able to develop pieces of these projects during the Web, Video and GIS classes while learning the software programs and fulfilling the requirements and content standards of the courses. The overall creative and practical direction that this focus gives the participants will lend an immediate validity to the skills they learn in class. Weekly Creative Sessions (which will occasionally coincide with the Experimental Workshops) will keep the students moving-forward on their individual and group projects and give them an opportunity to develop their ideas outside of the traditional classroom setting and then bring these refined ideas back into the classroom.
Example Themes for the Group Video/GIS Projects include:
• Medical
• Politics
• Urban Planning
• Socio-Economic
• Retail
• Arts/Culture
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