UW-Whitewater hosts Media Arts and Game Development Expo

April 04, 2012

Video game designer Neill Glancy and Foursquare engineer Matthew Rathbone will judge creative projects at the Media Arts and Game Development Expo.

The event, Monday, April 16, at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, is a juried show of interactive entertainment, 3D, 2D, aural, virtual and animated creative work. Events will take place throughout the James R. Connor University Center.

Glancy and Rathbone will give keynote addresses at 7:30 p.m. in the Old Main Ballroom.

In his 25 years creating games, Glancy has played the part of artist, animator, sound designer, game designer, project manager and creative director. He is currently vice president and creative director of Fun Machine, a new social mobile company based in Austin Texas.

Rathbone, an engineer at Foursquare, recently joined UW-Whitewater's Media Arts and Game Development (MAGD) advisory board.

"MAGD combines the departments of Communication, Art and Computer Science, drawing on the talents of an interdisciplinary pool of students," said Spencer Striker, lecturer and event coordinator. "The work submitted to our annual expo represents the best of the MAGD program. We expect hundreds of submissions from our students in areas such as web video, web graphics, motion graphics, social media, original music and sound design."

Prizes, including $200 cash awards for "Best in Show," "Most Creative Entry" and "The People's Voice," plus a variety of games will be awarded.  Anyone - students and members of the public - can submit work, as long it is not produced under contract for a company or commercially released.

At 5 p.m. in Roberta's Art Gallery, Josh Fishburn, assistant professor of communication, will host a reception for Arthouse Games.  The collection will feature traditional form-related art and non-traditional, byte-sized independent games designed by regional media artists. It will be exhibited through April 27.

The expo is being held in conjunction with Foursquare Day, an international social media holiday held each year on April 16. Attendees are encouraged to check-in to university locations throughout the event. Click here to visit UW-Whitewater's Foursquare page.