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.

Build Day

As founding Director of WSU’s Center for Research in Arts, Technology, Education and Learning (CRATEL) I hosted Build Day every Friday. On Build Day, CRATEL was open to visitors, volunteers, or anybody who wanted to come by, chat, or build something.

String Improvation

In 2001 I founded Wichita State University’s String Improvisation Department and established WSU’s yearly String Improvisation Day each year, an introduction to string improvisation for string players who had little or no experience with improvisation. I then expanded our String Improvisation program with a new grant-funded initiative: Sharing Music Sharing Culture (SMSC) which connected The Irish World Music Center students and faculty with WSU.

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.

Mark O'Connor with Frankie Gavin and WSU string students Videoconference with the Irish World Music Center

Sharing Music Sharing Culture

Through four grants, I headed Sharing Music Sharing Culture (SMSC), a Wichita State University (WSU) initiative exploring how global learning can integrate with the current WSU music curriculum to transform both what and how we learn about music and culture.

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.

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.

BETA Competition

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