Category: Portfolio

USC Dissertation Completion Fellowship (2011 – 2012)

The Vectors-IML-UCHRI Summer Institute 
Fellowship: Broadening the Digital Humanities (Summer 2010)

USC Annenberg Graduate Fellowship (2007 – 2011)

HASTAC Scholar (Class of 2009, 2010, 2012)

New Directions Fellowship, research grant from Center for Feminist Research (2008 – 2009)

Seminar in Experimental Critical Theory V. “Creative Societies/ Cultural Industries/ New Humanities?” University of California Human Research Institute (UCHRI), Irvine, CA (2008)

Seminar in Experimental Critical Theory III. “technoSpheres/ FutureS of Thinking,” (Participant and Workshop Leader), University of California Human Research Institute (UCHRI), Irvine, CA (2006)

Co-Organizer, “Translating Media,” Critical Studies & Media Arts and Practice (iMAP) Graduate Student Conference, USC, Los Angeles, CA. 2009

Co-Organizer, “Deaths of Cinema,” Critical Studies Graduate Student Conference, USC, Los Angeles, CA. 2007

Event Coordinator, “TransFormations,” series of four events sponsored by USC’s Visions and Voices: Arts & Humanities Initiative, USC, Los Angeles, CA. 2006 – 2007

“El Pachuco as Downtown LA’s Inscrutable Chicano Presence,” iMAPPENING: iMAP’s Annual Exhibition, University of Southern California, May 2012.

“Broadway as Background HTML5 Trailer,” iMAPPENING: iMAP’s Annual Exhibition, University of Southern California, May 2011. Link

“Cuerpo y Luz,” Screening at Annenberg Annual Research and Creative Project Symposium, University of Southern California, April 2009.

“Multimodal Survivals: Vernacular Preservations and Media Design,” iMAPPENING, University of Southern California, May 2012.  Link to video

“Forgotten Material Histories of Repurposed Movie Theaters,” Network Archaeology Conference, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, April 2012.

“Broadway as Background: Interactive Cinemas of Walking,” Society of Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, March 2012.

“Los Angeles of My Broken Heart: Pocha Mobility in México de mi corazón and Del otro lado del puente,” Thinking Gender 22 Conference, University of California, Los Angeles, LA, California, February 2012. Link to video

“Marquee Survivals: Inhabiting Cinema/ Transforming South Broadway,” Visible Evidence 18 Conference, New York University, August 2011.

“The Multimodal Dissertation” panel, Critical Themes in Media Studies Graduate Student Conference, The New School, New York City, NY, April 2011.

“The Future of Scholarship,“ Adobe-sponsored Design| Theory| Practice series, virtual presentation hosted on Adobe’s website, May 11, 2008.

“The Chinese Gold Farmer in World of Warcraft,” Society of Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Chicago, Illinois, March 2007.

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VIDEO DOCUMENTATION

“Editor’s Introduction, Translating Media: Annual Critical Studies Graduate Student Conference Issue” in Spectator: The University of Southern California Journal of Film and Television 30.1 (Spring 2010): 5- 10. With Patty Ahn and Kelly Wolf.

“Deaths of Cinema: First Annual Critical Studies Graduate Conference Issue” in Spectator: The University of Southern California Journal of Film and Television 27 (2007): 5-8. With Brian Jacobson and Christopher Hanson.

To download these papers, visit my Academia profile.

Meet the Middletons (aka The Middletons Break Loose) is an interactive, multiplayer storytelling game. During the game, players collectively build a story. At their turn, a player selects a small movie clip and word, the word is accompanied by a soundtrack; with these audio-visual assets, the player contributes her own unique unit of the story, while reciting contributions from the other players that preceded their own part of the story. For this prototype, the experimental tale focused on an American family attending the New York’s World Fair in 1939. The game was a collaborative final project created by Lauren Fenton, Susana Ruiz, and myself – it was designed for Tracy Fullerton’s Design for Interactive Media course (CTIN 541). The game explores group play, narrative and interactive storytelling. Link for more info
Team: Lauren Fenton, Veronica Paredes, Susana Ruiz, Hidefumi Yasuda and Sean Bouchard | December 2008

CUERPO Y LUZ is a cinematic / immersive/ interactive dance installation that incorporates high-definition video production, music composition, choreography and interactivity to explore ruptures in femininity, movement, identity and performance. CUERPO Y LUZ was a collaborative project between Interactive Media (IMD) alumna, Andrea Rodriguez, created in Mike Patterson’s Experimental Animation course (CTIN 495). The piece used the exhibition space of the 14-screened Zemeckis Media Lab to provide players with a different kind of audio-visual experience. Questioning the comfortable consumption of female bodies in visual technologies, the piece incited uneasiness in its viewers/ users, coupling experimental, enigmatic dance movements with imagery of performed elegance and grace. Our ultimate goal was to have our audience members, young and old, experience new movement through the vividly personal, yet public, space of the interactive installation. Link for more info
Team: Veronica Paredes, Andrea Rodriguez, Perry Hoberman | May 2008

Workshop Series taught for Multimedia Across the College (Institute for Multimedia Literacy, University of Southern California)

SPRING 2010

AMST 274: Exploring Ethnicity Through Film, taught by Ruth Wilson Gilmore
CLAS 375: Alexander the Great: Leadership, Personality and World Conquest, taught by Vincent Farenga
FREN 352: Modern French Cultures, taught by Danielle Mihram
SWMS 301: Introduction to Feminist Theory and the Women’s and Men’s Movement, taught by Sheila Briggs
MDA 599: The Sociology of the Image: Locating Visual Culture in Time and Space, taught by Judith Halberstam and Macarena Gomez Barris

FALL 2009

COLT 357: The Avant-Garde, taught by Gloria Orenstein
ITAL 446: Italian Cinema and Society, taught by Karen Pinkus
REL 335: Gender, Religion, and Sexuality, taught by Sheila Briggs

SPRING 2009

AMST 449: Asian American Literature, taught by Jane Iwamura
CORE 104: Change and the Future: Thematic Option Honors Program, taught by Vanessa Schwartz
CTCS 412: Gender, Sexuality and Media, taught by Tara McPherson
EALC 428: Nature and the Environment in Japanese Literature and Culture, taught by David Bialock
SWMS 225: Sex Similarities and Differences: A Multidisciplinary Approach, taught by Nancy Lutkehaus
WRIT 340: Advanced Writing for Arts and Humanities: Writing in the Community, taught by Stephanie Bower and John Murray

Class taught for Multimedia in the Core Program (Institute for Multimedia Literacy, University of Southern California)

FALL 2008

Co-taught with Todd Honma, MDA 140: Practicum in Multimedia Authorship in conjunction with ANTH 235: The Changing Pacific: Culture, History and Politics in the New South Seas, taught by Nancy Lutkehaus

Meet the Middletons (aka The Middletons Break Loose) is an interactive, multiplayer storytelling game. During the game, players collectively build a story. At their turn, a player selects a small movie clip and word, the word is accompanied by a soundtrack; with these audio-visual assets, the player contributes her own unique unit of the story, while reciting contributions from the other players that preceded their own part of the story. For this prototype, the experimental tale focused on an American family attending the New York’s World Fair in 1939. The game was a collaborative final project created by Lauren Fenton, Susana Ruiz, and myself – it was designed for Tracy Fullerton’s Design for Interactive Media course (CTIN 541). The game explores group play, narrative and interactive storytelling.
Team: Lauren Fenton, Veronica Paredes, Susana Ruiz, Hidefumi Yasuda and Sean Bouchard

Click to play game
This game requires a group to play with and a willingness to tell a story!

Process

Although this iteration of the game featured specific material, particularly a drama from the Prelinger Archives called The Middleton Family at the New York’s World Fair, the system was created to re-imagine any narrative. Ultimately, the project developed from the team’s agreed-upon design challenge to create a game that was engaged with complex ideas and concepts, without being impenetrable; it was important that the game was fun and playable.

The project was inspired by the work of Michel de Certeau; very early iterations of the game had players “play” de Certeau’s theories of the everyday. In attempting to visualize these theories, we experimented with the combination of free play, narrative, and a simple game mechanic. Barbie imagery was used for a paper prototype, but we switched to found moving media after the project moved into digital space. Below is a screenshot of a transition digital prototype using Barbie imagery, and even further down a photo from the playtest of the paper prototype.

Barbie was an appropriate toy mythology for a paper prototype, one primarily played by physical means – with one’s hands, written words, and printed cards – but did not translate to a digital prototype. The Barbie photographs (credited in the sources section) did not achieve the same level of flexibility in digital form as they did in paper form (shown on the left). With paper, players weaved a story of political intrigue, female empowerment and compromised liberation (Barbie kept getting married!). On the computer screen, posed Barbie lost her dynamism in the players’ imaginations.

From this project, I learned a great deal about the relation between theories of design and practices of design. The importance of iteration, usability and user-centered design still influence my methods of project design, in teaching and in my own work. The system of Meet the Middletons is simple in its construction and mechanic, yet the complexity of each play session is contingent on its players and the materials played – here The Middletons are used, but the hope is that other materials could just as easily wield wildly different stories and scenarios.

Sources

Barbie Loves LA by Greg LaVoi

The Middleton Family at the New York’s World Fair

Tellus: The Audio Cassette Magazine, on UbuWeb Sound

CUERPO Y LUZ is a cinematic / immersive/ interactive dance installation that incorporates high-definition video production, music composition, choreography and interactivity to explore ruptures in femininity, movement, identity and performance. CUERPO Y LUZ was a collaborative project between Interactive Media (IMD) alumna, Andrea Rodriguez, created in Mike Patterson’s Experimental Animation course (CTIN 495). The piece used the exhibition space of the 14-screened Zemeckis Media Lab to provide players with a different kind of audio-visual experience. Questioning the comfortable consumption of female bodies in visual technologies, the piece incited uneasiness in its viewers/ users, coupling experimental, enigmatic dance movements with imagery of performed elegance and grace. Our ultimate goal was to have our audience members, young and old, experience new movement through the vividly personal, yet public, space of the interactive installation.

The project was an experience designed for audiences to enjoy as a choreointeractive installation, an intersection of choreography and interactivity that allows for the audience to move through with an awareness and perception to understand their movement through the use of multiple screens. Movement in the installation is propelled by the audience’s reflected participation – using surveillance cameras and visual effects/ programming software (Max/MSP/Jitter), live footage of the participants is abstracted and displayed; the audience perceives its own movement, but in an altered form.

After a public exhibition of the piece, we began to broaden our questions, the motivation to create projects and strengthen collaborative networks engaged with the intersections of gender, sexuality, age, ethnicity, technology, and interaction design continues to drive both of our careers. The project received a research grant from the 2008-2009 New Directions in Feminist Scholarship Seminar, which was led by English Professor Alice Gambrell and addressed the theme of “Mediated Identities.” The questions that animate CUERPO Y LUZ, along with the learned importance of strong collaborative relationships, continue to deeply influence and shape my current research.

Cuerpo y Luz from Veronica Paredes on Vimeo.

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