April 11, 2017

The School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Digital Media, Arts and Technology (DIGIT), major have put on a wide array of technology-related workshops, presentations, and performances on March 30 and 31 called Digital Media Festival.

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Even the program had an interactive component that supplied guests with a map and a schedule as long as you scanned the front cover with your phone using the app called Blippar.

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Most of the events occurred in Reed, Metzgar and the Yahn Planetarium. One of the most popular events during the festival was the slow-mo video booth that was hosted by Greater Erie Arts Rentals (GEAR). This allowed students to perform tasks such as, dance, whip their hair, or throw confetti in the air to capture in slow motion.

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Norween Salalac, a junior Penn State Behrend student helped out with the slow-mo video booth. He really enjoyed the booth and hopes that it is in the plan for next year.

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“The slow motion video booth was so much fun. It gave everyone something new to try out and once they got going, no one wanted to stop,” Salalac said. “ It was even better than I imagined it would be! I would recommend having it next year!”

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There was also an augmented reality exhibit held in the art gallery within the library hosted by Bill Hill. This exhibit was called Tabula Rasa and was a 360-degree immersive augmented reality setup that starts out in the actual gallery space, goes back in time and space to show the impact of technology on human evolution and the history of people in Northeastern Florida. This exhibit, unlike others was a one on one interaction with the presenter and then you were left alone to explore the experience. The prerecorded immersion lasted around two minutes.

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Tom Deau, a professor at Penn State Behrend, enjoyed his first augmented reality experience.

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“I always wondered what they were looking at when I saw people walking around with the (VR) goggles on,” Deau said. “Well now I know what they were looking at with the goggles- It’s totally awesome!”

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Besides personal interactions with presenters, there was also a few screenings of student made films shown in the Yahn Planetarium. These screenings showed five short films varying in topics from students at Penn State Behrend.

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Not everything was video related at the festival. There was a presentation by Aimee Pogson which allowed you to create your own twitter bot. It was recommended to bring a computer to do it on the spot, but students were given instructions if they wanted to prank their twitter followers in the future.

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There was also a presentation set up in Reed all day Friday for students to interact with called the Living Mandala: The Cosmic of Being. This presentation was hosted by Jing Zhou and she made the mandala interact with the environment in Erie for this presentation. This mandala was programed to pick up sound and color as well as the temperature in the desired location. It changed the mandala as different students interacted with it such as walking near or far or clapping their hands.

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The SoUnDs to SuMoCu by Christopher Jette and Angus Forbes put on a few shows for students during the festival. They put on a concert of acoustic instruments, interactive electronics with a mix of video projection.

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Bailey Hopkins, a sophomore physics major, was interested in how the music and video came together during the performance.

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“It was very interesting to see how music and video could be combined to create a performance in the planetarium,” Hopkins said.

Overall, attendance was impressive for this years Digital Media Festival, but all parties would love to spread the message more and see more people out next year!