Rensselaer Magazine, June 2002: At Rensselaer

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Electronic Arts

Coast-to-Coast Arts Project

Seventeen students from the Ark Community Charter School in Troy and from Mills College Children’s School in Oakland, Calif., teamed up to draw pictures together simultaneously through the Web in a first-of-its-kind electronic arts project.

The project was a collaboration between Pauline Oliveros, research professor of electronic arts at Rensselaer, and Moira Roth, Trefethen Professor of Art History at Mills College in California.

The fourth- and fifth-graders used an Internet-based drawing tool, which is based on networking technology called WebTeam. Students, who worked together face-to-face via a Webcam, drew pictures while listening to a series of stories about love, memory, dreams, knowledge, and the future.

WebTeam was produced by Rensselaer’s Academy of Electronic Media under a grant from the National Science Foundation. It allows real-time collaboration for applications such as drawing, circuit design, or other cooperative activities over the Internet.

The youths used electronic tablets connected to computers to paint colorful lines and shapes that WebTeam then transferred instantaneously to all the other connected computers for review by each respective grade school.

The results of the children’s collaborations were part of an electronic arts performance, titled “Library of Maps: An Opera in Many Parts,” that took place on the Rensselaer campus in April. The performance was the culmination of Oliveros’ graduate course, Arts Practicum. The production included video installations and a specialized camera that produces sound by tracking the motion of the performers.

Rensselaer Magazine: June 2002
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