BETA Competition

In 2006 I created and hosted WSU’s BETA competition. BETA is an acronym for Bridging Entrepreneurship, Technology, and the Arts; the BETA Competition encouraged WSU students and teams to develop entrepreneurial ideas which connected the arts with technology. Entries were judged on their innovation, feasibility, and scope. We offered over $7,000 total in prizes for the winning entries.

BETA’s judges, a dozen engineering, art and business leaders, evaluated the finalists of the competition in April 2006. The finalists gave presentations at the Ulrich Museum of Art in a trade-show format. At that time judges also gave applicants valuable feedback on feasibility, marketability, and artistic merit.

WSU’s BETA competition included a mentor program where teams of students could elect to work with a local business, technology, or art leaders to develop and refine their ideas as they prepared for the competition. Besides awarding cash prices one winning idea, a video synthesizer by Steve Wilson, was sponsored for further development — construction of a working prototype and a full business plan.

Technology: Art and Sound by Design

From 2006 through 2009 I taught Technology: Art and Sound by Design (TASD). In the course, Engineering and Art students explored new media art: they built circuits and interfaced them to computers. Final projects were installed in a local art gallery.

Introduction to Audio and Video Synthesis

I taught a course called Introduction to Audio and Video Synthesis which introduced a variety of classic synthesis techniques, digital signal processing, and audio production. Additionally, students were exposed to important class and contemporary electronic works.

SoundScratch

SoundScratch is a set of extensions I wrote to manipulate audio in a children’s programming language called Scratch. The environment emphasizes the expressive capabilities of sound through the act of creation and design.

Digital Puppetry

I worked with a team of colleagues, community members, and urban youth. Our intention was to help the youth learn in a playful environment, find personal self-expression, and have their voices heard by communities in Boston. To do this, we adapted commercially available technology to provide a unique medium: digital puppetry.

SoundBlocks

SoundBlocks is a tangible environment where youth connect blocks to describe network dataflow. The environment explores digital sound manipulation as a personal, meaningful and fun artistic endeavor, rather than as a venture into mathematical, electronic or networking relationships.

Minigolf at Figment in New York

As a faculty member Wichita State University’s College of Engineering (WSU), I worked with students to create and install a mini-golf hole as part of FIGMENT at Governor’s Island, NY in 2010. I also gave the keynote address that year for FIGMENT’s public art opening. WSU’s mini-golf hole was chosen from a juried selection. Our…

BETA Competition

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