ARCHIVE: 2010 Emergent Landscape Speaker Series

The MFA in Emergent Media degree program is proud to host a range of engaging speakers as part of its first Emergent Landscape Speaker Series. The series is part of the EMM 510 - The Emergent Landscapeclass which explores the questions - Who are the thought leaders in emergent technologies and what are they thinking? Visiting thought leaders, practitioners, entrepreneurs, researchers, and scholars will present their work and concepts in a discussion series on current trends impacting communications. Special attention will be given to the origins and evolution of these ideas.

• September 13 - John Abele, Boston Scientific
• September 20 - Jonathan Harris, Artist, Storyteller, Internet Anthropologist
• October 4 - Rich Nadworny, Digalicious
• October 25 - Frank Lantz, Area/Code
• November 1 - Randy Smith, Indie Game Developer
• November 15 - Justin Siegel, MocoSpace
• December 6 - April Cornell, April Cornell

The next speaker series will take place in the fall 2011 semester. If you are interested in speaking, please contact Ann DeMarle at demarle@champlain.edu.

Speaker Bios

John Abele (September 13)

Kingbridge Collaboration Blog
xconomy: "Getting Disruptive Ideas to Market" 

John served as Chairman of FIRST from 2002-2010, and currently serves as the Vice-Chairman, Chairman of the Governance Committee, and as a member of the Steering Committee.

John is retired Founding Chairman of Boston Scientific Corporation.  He holds numerous patents and has published and lectured extensively on the technology of various medical devices and on the technical, social, economic, and political trends and issues affecting healthcare.  His major interests are science literacy for children, education, and the process by which new technology is invented, developed, and introduced to society.  He developed the Kingbridge Centre and Institute, a conferencing institution whose mission is to research, develop, and teach improved methods for "super productive" collaborative conferencing: problem solving, conflict resolution, strategic planning, new methods for learning and generally help groups to become "collectively intelligent."

He is a Fellow in both the Society of Interventional Radiology and the American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering, and received honorary Doctors of Science from Northeastern University and Wentworth Institute of Technology. Other awards include Gold Medal Awards from the Society of Interventional Radiology and the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe, the 2007 Pioneer in Endoscopy Award from the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, the Distinguished Career Award in 2006 from the International Symposium on Endovascular Therapy, the 2003 BMES Distinguished Lecture Award presented by the Biomedical Engineering Society.

He lives with his wife and two dogs in Shelburne, Vermont.

Jonathan Harris (September 20)

Number 27

Jonathan Harris (b. Aug 27, 1979) makes projects that reimagine how humans relate to technology and to each other. Combining elements of computer science, anthropology, visual art and storytelling, his projects range from building the world's largest time capsule(with Yahoo!) to documenting an Alaskan Eskimo whale hunt on the Arctic Ocean (with a warm hat). He is the co-creator of We Feel Fine, which continuously measures the emotional temperature of the human world through large-scale blog analysis, and has made other projects about online dating, modern mythology, anonymity, news, and language. After studying computer science at Princeton University, he won a 2005 Fabrica fellowship and three Webby Awards. His work has also been recognized by AIGA, Ars Electronica, the state of Vermont (for which he co-designed the state quarter), Print Magazine (which named him a 2008 New Visual Artist) and The World Economic Forum (which named him a 2009 Young Global Leader). He has given talks at Google, Princeton and Stanford Universities, theTED Conference, and at two hippy forest gatherings. His projects have been shown at The Museum of Modern Art (New York), Le Centre Pompidou (Paris), and have appeared on CNN, NPR, BBC, and Bhutanese television. Born in Vermont, he now floats between Brooklyn, NY, the open road, and cyberspace, documenting his life with one photo a day. 

Rich Nadworny (October 4)

Digalicious
Huffington Post: "Watch for More Hybrid Marketing in 2010"

Rich is a digital strategist and online marketer with over 13 years experience. One of his many strengths is the ability to put himself in the customer's shoes to create engaging, intuitive, and results-driven two-way campaigns. Rich has helped develop digital strategies and tactics for companies including State Street, Unicel, Stowe Mountain Resort, Time Warner, Crane & Co., and Sharp Electronics Corporation.

Rich has led work that has won Webbys, WebAwards, and Adobe Sites of the Day, among others, and has been highlighted on Communication Arts' Web site. He is a member of the International Academy for Visual Artists and judges the W3, WebAwards, Davey, Mobius, and MITX awards.

Before starting his own firm, Digalicious, Rich was Interactive Creative Director, Digital Strategist and Partner at Kelliher Samets Volk for 9 years. Prior to this, Rich was a producer at Public Interactive in Boston, producing sites for clients such as The Savvy Traveler and Car Talk. Rich was also an independent producer of informational and educational videos in Stockholm, Sweden. 

Rich has a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.S. in New Media from Boston University.

Frank Lantz (October 25)

Area/Code
TEDx: "Reinventing Gaming"

Frank Lantz is Creative Director and co-Founder of Area/Code, a New York based developer that creates cross-media, location-based, and large-scale social games. Before starting Area/Code, Frank was the director of game design at Gamelab, and worked as a game designer for POP&Co. For over 15 years, Frank has taught game design at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, the School of Visual Arts, and the New School. He is currently the director of the NYU Game Center. His writings on games, technology and culture have appeared in a variety of publications.

Randy Smith (November 1)

Seven Days: "Ahead of the Game"

Randy Smith is the game designer and co-owner of Tiger Style, the indie studio behind the iPhone hit Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor. He is also a monthly columnist for Edge magazine where he writes about video games as an art form and seeks perspective on the path to artistic maturity. Previously, he was the project director of Thief: Deadly Shadows, a designer on previous installments in the Thief series, and a collaborator with Steven Spielberg on a game project at Electronic Arts in Los Angeles.

Justin Siegel (November 15)

MocoSpace
YouTube: MocoSpace Co-Founder and CEO Justin Siegel

Justin is an experienced mobile entertainment executive who has successfully started and built several consumer product companies. As co-founder and chief executive officer at MocoSpace, he has taken the company from an idea to an industry leading, profitable business.

Prior to MocoSpace, he was co-founder and chief executive officer of JSmart Technologies, a leader in mobile games and entertainment. Justin built the company into one of the top publishers and developers in the United States before it was acquired by the SK Group in 2004.

Justin holds a BA in Sociology, and an MA in French Literature from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

April Cornell (December 6)

April Cornell
April Cornell Blog - Live Beautiful 

Like the artful influences experienced by the woman herself, April Cornell's designs have an artistic sense that April believes is unique to the marketplace. "It's unusual for a retailer, manufacturer or licensed designer to be art-driven like myself. For me, I think that's largely due to my background in -- and love of -- textiles. As with an artist's canvas or a bolt of cloth, I start my designs with the big picture and work my way down to the details.

Traveling the World for Design Inspiration

A keen eye for artistic details is a natural for a woman who has lived one-third of her life overseas and traveled the world for more than 30 years. Her design references hail from far-flung locations like Paris, India, Portugal, Hong Kong and British Columbia. "I get much of my inspiration and style from observing how other people are living and what they are feeling in cities and towns around the globe."

The result is a unique design style that has been crafted by a combination of international influences, including India's tradition of fabric embellishment, painting and tailoring, the atmosphere of a European cafe and the simple shape of a Chinese mandarin collar. Together, they help April create a "lifestyle" that is colorful and exotic, yet decidedly familiar.

Establishing an Emotional Connection with Women

April has a natural talent for establishing an emotional bond with the women who enjoy her designs. As an independent, original thinker she creates products that make a woman and her home feel pretty, welcoming and interesting, but with a hint of the unexpected. "I like my designs to fashion an oasis for women, a place of beauty, calm, original ideas and uplifting and feminine things that make them feel great about being a woman."

April is committed to designing feminine and artistic designs that are quintessentially artistic in character and highly detailed, and that add meaning to women's lives. Her designs often convey feminine, womanly expressions, whether in the curvaceous, rounded shape of a piece of pottery or an apron that is delicately tapered at the waist to reflect the natural curves of the female body.

Designs Inspired by Nature

Using nature's color palette, lines, forms and shapes as her guides, April's designs are an inspiration to make an occasion of every day. She credits nature for providing the backdrop and the muse for many of her creations. "Flowers, leaves and birds are the recurring motif in all elements of my merchandise and designs," she says. "I love where nature takes me. Even when I can't be outside, I bring nature indoors with flowers and nature-inspired textiles and objects."

A Talented and Joyful Writer

A gifted writer, April expresses her love of life, the joy that nature evokes in her and the enthusiasm she exudes about her designs in many forms of the written word, which is cheerfully communicated in her online world. April has also authored three books on color, art and scrapbooking, and most recently a book on quilting. Her book on scrapbooking has also been released as a demonstrational DVD.

Cornell's Presence in the Licensing Field

April is currently focused on managing her ever-expanding presence as a licensed artist. She also designs clothing, housewares and accessories for her retail stores in the United States and Canada. Housewares include bedding ensembles with coordinated cushions, throws and quilts; dining and breakfast cloths; and placemats, napkins, aprons and tea towels.

A Passion for Giving

April has many philanthropic passions including caring for the people in the company's core production region in India. She actively supports the Concern India Foundation and is a trustee of the Giving World Foundation, which helps the under-privileged in India. The foundations fund many programs including schools and programs to empower women and help impoverished children living in ghettos and on the streets. "Each of the projects I'm involved with is unique and interesting. It gives me such satisfaction to know that, together, we're making a difference."

That ability to "give something back" is one of the driving forces behind April's work. "I find it so rewarding. The different people I've met around the world have influenced my whole perspective on how important giving back truly is. It's a privilege to be involved in local, national or international projects and see the change that can occur in children, women, men and communities."

Born in Montreal, Canada, to parents from Nova Scotia, April is one of four children. She studied Fine Arts at Dawson College and is the proud mother of three sons: Cameron, Lee and Kelly. April resides in Burlington, Vermont, near the shores of picturesque Lake Champlain.

Please join April on her Blog, Facebook & Twitter for fun tips, recipes and conversation about all things color!