SparkArts: Digital Arts Festival - Day One Report
category: general [glöplog]
As predicted, hosting an event like this in a venue as amazing as the Salt Lake City Public Library was a terrific idea! The library staff was helpful and friendly, the library itself never fails to amaze me with its architecture, and attention to detail. Even in the conference rooms downstairs, the curved ceiling baffles and well placed lighting combine to form a creatively stimulating atmosphere.
The fabled scavenger hunt is going full swing. I always enjoy the creativity involved with demoscene scavenger hunts. Bryan Livingston gave a talk on game programing with the XNA platform, and succeeded in his goal to recreate Pong in less than an hour. He finished ten minutes early, and went on to show some of the sample games that are included with the XNA development tools.
I gave my talk on digital photography. Other than a mild sore throat, I felt pretty good about it. You can download the lecture notes. I'll keep them hosted, and possibly even expand on them a bit in the coming months.
Despite some good press (a Salt Lake Tribune newspaper article, calendar listings, and an Adam's articulate interview skills on Park City TV), attendance was still lower than I had hoped for the first day. It should pick up a bit tomorrow, when people don't have work and school to worry about. Several attendees saw the report in the Tribune and came looking for displays of digital art. The demotheater is great, but I certainly hope we'll have the budget to display some art prints next year. There is a large, beautiful hallway right outside the conference rooms that would be perfect for it! I think Adam and I will probably put our heads together and get cracking on some grants so we'll have more funding for things like that in 2008.
Competition entries are starting to trickle in. So far I haven't had word of any demo submissions. A reminder to the out of state crowd, I will be happy to represent you at the contest, so feel free to email your demo to dilvie@dilvie.com before 2:00pm MST Saturday the 13th (tomorrow). I'm looking forward to screening entries tomorrow.
In case there are any doubts, the auditorium at the Salt Lake City Public Library also happens to be one of the most impressive movie theater systems in the state. It features a large, beautiful screen, a well designed sound system, and plenty of comfortable seats.
It's a fair bet that this is the best screening environment that any North American demoscene event has ever had. It's a shame we didn't get the word out about it better this year -- but it's not too late to get your demo on the big screen, and there WILL be a next year!
- Eric
The fabled scavenger hunt is going full swing. I always enjoy the creativity involved with demoscene scavenger hunts. Bryan Livingston gave a talk on game programing with the XNA platform, and succeeded in his goal to recreate Pong in less than an hour. He finished ten minutes early, and went on to show some of the sample games that are included with the XNA development tools.
I gave my talk on digital photography. Other than a mild sore throat, I felt pretty good about it. You can download the lecture notes. I'll keep them hosted, and possibly even expand on them a bit in the coming months.
Despite some good press (a Salt Lake Tribune newspaper article, calendar listings, and an Adam's articulate interview skills on Park City TV), attendance was still lower than I had hoped for the first day. It should pick up a bit tomorrow, when people don't have work and school to worry about. Several attendees saw the report in the Tribune and came looking for displays of digital art. The demotheater is great, but I certainly hope we'll have the budget to display some art prints next year. There is a large, beautiful hallway right outside the conference rooms that would be perfect for it! I think Adam and I will probably put our heads together and get cracking on some grants so we'll have more funding for things like that in 2008.
Competition entries are starting to trickle in. So far I haven't had word of any demo submissions. A reminder to the out of state crowd, I will be happy to represent you at the contest, so feel free to email your demo to dilvie@dilvie.com before 2:00pm MST Saturday the 13th (tomorrow). I'm looking forward to screening entries tomorrow.
In case there are any doubts, the auditorium at the Salt Lake City Public Library also happens to be one of the most impressive movie theater systems in the state. It features a large, beautiful screen, a well designed sound system, and plenty of comfortable seats.
It's a fair bet that this is the best screening environment that any North American demoscene event has ever had. It's a shame we didn't get the word out about it better this year -- but it's not too late to get your demo on the big screen, and there WILL be a next year!
- Eric
Might have cooked something up had I known about this event earlier.
Hello dilvie and good afternoon! (night where you are) We would like to submit remotely... did you get my email? We emailed you a few hours ago... we are polishing our demo prod after working on it through the night... can you get in email touch with us at pedovan@mail.ru so that we can arrange a file transfer? Thanks!
-pedovan danger
-pedovan danger
Thanks for the report, Dilvie, and keep going ! Post pictures on Slengpung if you have time, I would really enjoy seeing the party place. :)
I didn't get your email. Try sending to dilvie@gmail.com, and use YouSendIt.com if it's a large file. I'll see if I can get an FTP going, as well.
Six hours remaining before we hit the big screen! If we don't get enough entries to fill the allocated time, we'll probably wind up screening demos that have won previous competitions to get the crowd excited about next year.
FYI, there will be a camera crew from Park City Television at the awards ceremony, and likely follow-up coverage in the Salt Lake Tribune (newspaper) as well. They are going to want to see a list of winners. =) Rules are here, but I expect we may be lenient on minor rules if we're lacking enough entries to fill the time. =)
Six hours remaining before we hit the big screen! If we don't get enough entries to fill the allocated time, we'll probably wind up screening demos that have won previous competitions to get the crowd excited about next year.
FYI, there will be a camera crew from Park City Television at the awards ceremony, and likely follow-up coverage in the Salt Lake Tribune (newspaper) as well. They are going to want to see a list of winners. =) Rules are here, but I expect we may be lenient on minor rules if we're lacking enough entries to fill the time. =)
Quote:
It's a fair bet that this is the best screening environment that any North American demoscene event has ever had
you must have missed the movie auditorium at spring break '99. :)
..oh, and the movie auditorium at coma 3 too.. wasn't quite as big.
not to imply there were any demos *worthy* of a cinema presentation at either of these events.. abcdemo, maybe. ;)
not to imply there were any demos *worthy* of a cinema presentation at either of these events.. abcdemo, maybe. ;)
ok, you had an auditorium too.. so among the best.. sorry for thinking in short bursts, but i'm old.
can you resubmit old demos ?
hey dilvie, i uplaoded to yousendit and sent you email about it. I just hope that won't get spam filtered (some USA people have troubles with my .ru adress it seems).
Hi guys. All the entries are in. It looks like we won't have any demos at our demo party, but for our first year, we intended mostly to introduce Salt Lake City to the demoscene, and prove to the rest of the world that we could actually pull together a bigger, better event than Pilgrimage ever was.
We accomplished both goals. With over 200 people in attendance (not counting the many who are just coming to the awards ceremony which hasn't happened yet), television and newspaper coverage (and more follow-up coverage coming), and a truly impressive facility -- Honestly, I don't mean to talk trash on the cinema screens that have come before, but if you saw the architecture here, and the theater we're screening in -- you would understand better. I would say it's a fair bet that this is the best venue ever for a North American demoparty. I honestly believe that to be the case, and it's also a fair bet that we'll be here again next year.
There are a total of 33 competition entries, including machinima, video games (two, both programmed in one day), and lots of music and graphics / photography entries. There are three categories -- we had little choice about that. They're divided up into dynamic graphics (anything that moves), static graphics (photos and graphic arts), and music.
I wish we could have had some demo submissions, but we really didn't get the word out to the outside demoscene. A lot of the North Americans went to Block Party on the East Coast, and had the mindset that it was THE North American Demo Party this year, even going so far as to say that our party would be a "non-event".
I don't fault them for that, because of the tension caused by the mis-management of Pilgrimage, but this is a very different event. We did pull it off. We did show demos to hundreds of people who have never seen them before, and we did accomplish a lot of networking among local people interested in digital arts.
In terms of raw numbers and the quality of the facility, we have blown all of the Pilgrimage events to shreds. Anybody who has gripes about Pilgrimage will be pleasantly surprised by SparkArts in 2008. We're going to work even harder on the publicity and outreach next year, including banners up and down Salt Lake City's main street, more press coverage, and more online outreach.
Based on our numbers this year, I predict a crowd of hundreds for the screening in 2008. I sincerely hope that the rest of the North American scene will give us a chance next year. I am sure you'll be impressed.
I have posted some photos of Anthony VanVranken's DJ Set in the SparkArts conference room. Now I'm off to the screening!
We accomplished both goals. With over 200 people in attendance (not counting the many who are just coming to the awards ceremony which hasn't happened yet), television and newspaper coverage (and more follow-up coverage coming), and a truly impressive facility -- Honestly, I don't mean to talk trash on the cinema screens that have come before, but if you saw the architecture here, and the theater we're screening in -- you would understand better. I would say it's a fair bet that this is the best venue ever for a North American demoparty. I honestly believe that to be the case, and it's also a fair bet that we'll be here again next year.
There are a total of 33 competition entries, including machinima, video games (two, both programmed in one day), and lots of music and graphics / photography entries. There are three categories -- we had little choice about that. They're divided up into dynamic graphics (anything that moves), static graphics (photos and graphic arts), and music.
I wish we could have had some demo submissions, but we really didn't get the word out to the outside demoscene. A lot of the North Americans went to Block Party on the East Coast, and had the mindset that it was THE North American Demo Party this year, even going so far as to say that our party would be a "non-event".
I don't fault them for that, because of the tension caused by the mis-management of Pilgrimage, but this is a very different event. We did pull it off. We did show demos to hundreds of people who have never seen them before, and we did accomplish a lot of networking among local people interested in digital arts.
In terms of raw numbers and the quality of the facility, we have blown all of the Pilgrimage events to shreds. Anybody who has gripes about Pilgrimage will be pleasantly surprised by SparkArts in 2008. We're going to work even harder on the publicity and outreach next year, including banners up and down Salt Lake City's main street, more press coverage, and more online outreach.
Based on our numbers this year, I predict a crowd of hundreds for the screening in 2008. I sincerely hope that the rest of the North American scene will give us a chance next year. I am sure you'll be impressed.
I have posted some photos of Anthony VanVranken's DJ Set in the SparkArts conference room. Now I'm off to the screening!
Sounds and looks pretty cool : D Congrats on this. I'll have to make it out for next year!
