My First Time Experience at SIGGRAPH

Jenifer Davis, 2003-Sep-30

Hi, my name is Jenifer Davis, and I am going to tell you about my first time experience at the ACM SIGGRAPH international conference, SIGGRAPH 2003. I have been involved with ACM SIGGRAPH for 2 years, and have heard all about the conferences in San Antonio Texas and other venues, but until now have never witnessed them first hand. I expected there to be the most up to date computers and breakthroughs in technology. I was really excited to see the electronic theater, a collaboration of some of the most current animation developing techniques in the world, not to mention some pretty funny short films. I particularly enjoyed the animation After You by Christopher Cordingley; a story about two clay figures being polite to the bitter end. Aside from the electronic theater there was merging technologies, Gorilla Studios an Animation Theater, and an art show to name a few.

The international SIGGRAPH conference was both physically and mentally stimulating, almost overwhelming at times. There are so many things to see and do. Every corner you turn there is something new and interesting. You walk all day and when you feel like passing out in the street, then there are the parties. Some of the larger name companies like Imageworks and Softimage rented out clubs and opened them up for SIGGRAPH attendees. One of the best parties that I've ever been to was the SIGGRAPH chapters' party located at 6th and Broadway downtown San Diego. Who knew having some much fun could use up so much energy?

Day 1

I showed up a day early to attend the SIGGRAPH leadership meeting with my friend Ken Greenebaum, the Chair of the Seattle chapter of SIGGRAPH. It was a very long meeting but very inspiring. I was able to put a face to all the names and emails that I have received in the past. I was able to preview the new SIGGRAPH logo as well as being involved with some pretty intense discussions. They gave us a sneak peek of the convention center and even a peek at the show floor as it was still being put up.

Day2

I spent most of the morning wandering around and looking at all the artwork on the walls and familiarizing myself with the area. Later on that day I sat in on a couple of the courses that SIGGRAPH had to offer, like Beyond Blobs, recent advances in implicit surfaces. You could say that the class was intellectually stimulating; I'd say I didn't know what the heck they were talking about half the time but when I could follow it was great. There were some classes that did have some insight to offer that I could follow.

I spent the rest of the day hanging out at the chapter's booth; it was fun helping people find their way and giving them information on individual chapters in their area. Later on that night there was a special presentation at an IMAX dome theater. Instead of looking at a flat screen, you're looking up at a 360 degree rounded screen. I thought it might be like a planetarium exhibit, but it was a really cool display of 3-D animation. At the end of the show I left with a really stiff neck, but it was worth it.

Day 3

As a student volunteer I was assigned to watch the art gallery, which was mingled in with the entire conference on the second floor in the hallways. I took this opportunity to look at the immense variety of mediums and art styles while making sure nobody was taking pictures or touching the artwork. There were two hundred and nineteen art works hanging on the walls, thirty-four sculptures, and sixteen digital video and animation pieces, and it was up to me to make sure nobody walked off with them. I was able to catch up with an artist that worked with a very interesting medium, wax and digital prints. Her name is Dona Geib; she is from the La Area San Fernando Valley. Dona has a masters in printmaking and photography. She starts off with an idea but never knows how it is going to end up. Michelle Marcuse taught her the medium of Encaustic. Dona was a teacher in design since 1989 and made Encaustic artwork for three years.

I was given the opportunity to work with wax and made my own piece of work at the gorilla studios. It was addicting, even better that to get a start up kit is only about 100 dollars.

The Emerging Technologies exhibit was hands down the most exciting part of the conference. Right when you walk into the doors you see a wall of fog with a picture of the Mona Lisa on it. It was really neat watching people walking through it and waving their hands from side to side. When you walk through it you can't feel anything. Ismo Rakkolainen made it, from the Tampere University of Technology. After taking a couple of steps back I realized that I was in a spotlight and heard a voice…for a split second I thought that I was loosing my mind than I realized that I was spotted out by a high tek surveillance system by ACCESS. ACCESS relies on real-time video analysis and extends motion-tracking algorithms designed for computer vision. No matter where I went the light and voice followed. I know that if I were a shoplifter I would be so creeped out I would surrender. I wasn't stealing anything; this was a demonstration that randomly picked people out.

As I continued through the room I noticed an interesting table with black and white cards on it, on each of the cards there were unique patterns. There were speakers playing music and what appeared to be ant-like bugs implementing the sound projected onto a screen behind the table. This was The Augmented Composer Project or The Music Table. After watching for a while I realized that there was a camera looking down at the table with the cards. This was a really fun way to physically manipulate music through technology.

A different piece was an interactive videogame where you stand in front of a screen and a camera captures your movements. You use your arms as the controllers and you bat the ninjas that jump at you from every angle. I also found the laser projected keyboard interesting; it shrinks big bulky keyboards the size of a cell phone. It shines a lighted keyboard down onto a surface and when you touched the letters it picks up your movements just like a normal keyboard.

Another Interesting music project was the Hyperscore by Mary Farbood, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This program uses drawing and graphic tools to create chords and music. I drew a line on the screen and the program mapped the line to a structural and gestural element in music. It was very easy for me to create some very interesting pieces of music (even though I defiantly lack talent in the music area).

I found a new type of book that I have never seen in my life. This is the Dimension Book. This Interactive book has multiple sensors placed on a book-like computer screen. You could turn virtual pages that interact with outside elements like light, angle, and, air.

My curiosity got the best of me when I walked past the food simulator by Hiroo Iwata from the university of Tsukuba, this device simulates the texture of food when you bite down on it, you bite down three times and It gives you the texture of crackers something squishy (I couldn't tell exactly what It was) and the third time was a real surprise because It squirted a sweet juice that tasted fruity. It was gummy bears.

I was literally shocked when I crossed this really interesting system that simulates the sensation with touch through an electric pulse. Called smart-touch. There is a sensor a bit bigger than your fingertip you place your finger and adjust this little knob until you feel a little shock; you push this sensor over a tablet with black and white lines. The sensor can pick up the difference between light and dark lines relaying a slight shock to your finger when you run it over a dark line.

Last but not least there was bodybrush, a very interesting motion capture system that incorporates body movement into 3d art or music. It was about a 10 ft by 10 ft square that you can prance around in while your artwork is projected in front of you on a large screen.

After the emerging technologies exhibit I went to the electronic theater,the highlight of the SIGGRAPH conference for me. The electronic theater was in an old theater with two balconies. It was packed with people there was not one empty seat in the house. When the lights dimmed the curtains parted and the show begun. There were 28 clips total, and my favorite animated short was Eternal Gaze by Sam Chen. It was an emotional 15 minutes that described the struggles of the artist Alberto Giacometti.

Day4

I was only at the conference for 2 hours because my flight left early. I had to save some money on my flight so I went with that website that doesn't give you the times until after you buy the ticket. I had so much fun but I couldn't go on another day. I was glad that I was going home. I had so much fun seeing some of my friends from The International Academy of Design and Technology in Tampa Florida. And I look forward to attending next year's conference to see all the friends that I made this year. Attending SIGGRAPH 2003 was definitely worth the time and effort. If you ever have the opportunity to attend this awesome learning experience you should without a second thought!