OPS:MEME has three thematics for visiting guests: 1) RECENT TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN ONLINE PUBLIC SPACES; 2) THE IMPACT OF CORPORATE CULTURE ON TECHNOLOGY DESIGN; and 3) MUSEUMS AND CLASSIFICATION OF KNOWLEDGE/ART.
We have had a number of visitors come to spend 1-2 days with various members of our research group to see OPS:MEME R&D, and to provide feedback based on their areas of expertise. These visitors include: Michael Naimark, artist in residence at Interval Research; Rebecca Allen, Professor of Design, Co-director of School of the Arts and Architecture's Center for the Digital Arts; Mark Meadows, Chief Creative Officer for Construct Corporation; George LeGrady, Faculty, UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture; and Roy Ascott, Director of CAIIA (Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts), University of Wales, Director of STAR (Science, Technology and Art Research Centre), University of Plymouth. Scheduled to visit are: Alexander Migdal, Princeton, MetaCreations R&D Director; Mark Pesce, co-developer of VRML; Po Bronson, SF novelist; Patricia O'Brien, Director, UC Humanities Research Institute; Bryan Taylor, Dreamworks, designer and animator; and Harry Nelson, Physics, UCSB.
We also held several workshops in collaboration with Kathleen Connally and Judith Gradwhol, Director of the Smithsonian Museum's "Museum Without Walls" and "Revealing Things" projects. Professors Bruce Robertson and Mark Meadow have been working closely with the Smithsonian in relation to their Camillo Memory Theater project. Through their contact, we recently wrote a $2.9 million dollar NSF grant, part of their Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence (KDI) initiative, in partnership with the Smithsonian.