Interactive Media

Lindsay Grace Receives Games for Change Festival Vanguard Award

By: Karina Valdes Lindsay Grace, associate professor and Knight Chair in Interactive Media, is the recipient of this year’s Games for Change Festival Vanguard Award. The highly prestigious award recognizes the contributions of an individual to the field of play-based learning and advancing the Games for Change community. Games for change are digital games developed to highlight a multitude of global issues and to encourage social change. “Winning this award is an honor. I’m elated to be recognized for my work in the social impact space and to be listed among [...]

2020-04-23T12:55:22-04:00June 19, 2019|Interactive Media|

Feeling Antiquity

Imagine looking at a piece of art in a museum and then suddenly being transported to its century of origin with just the switch of a Virtual Reality (VR) headset. Well, Lorena Lopez, a first-year graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in Interactive Media, has done just that, and right here at the Lowe too. Lopez, who completed her undergraduate degree at Carnegie Mellon University and spent almost four years designing what she called “low-tech” interactives for the Miami Children’s Museum, knew she was meant for more. “I knew there [...]

Join Us: Interactive Media End of Year Show

Interactive Media students will be showcasing their cutting-edge work at the Interactive Media End of Year Show. The event provides the opportunity for students to share their creations with the public, while attendees experience the fun of interactive design. “There’s always a buzz around the event showcasing innovations and an exchange of ideas where students get to try projects worked on by their peers. It’s also a community event where family, friends, and faculty come together to have fun and see what students have been working on all semester,” said [...]

Graduate Interactive Media Program Named a Top Program for Game Design

The University of Miami maintained its coveted spot as a top school for game design in 2019. UM was recognized by The Princeton Review on its list honoring the Top 25 Graduate Programs for Game Design.  The School of Communication Interactive Media M.F.A. program placed No. 25 this year. This is the M.F.A. program’s fifth time on the list since the program’s creation in 2013. The list is based off of its 2018 survey of administrators at 150 institutions offering game design coursework and degrees in the United States, Canada, and [...]

SwampScapes Selected for Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival

SwampScapes celebrates continued success in bringing much-needed attention to the vital importance of the endangered Florida Everglades. The 360º film is an official selection for the 2019 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, the largest documentary festival in North America. University of Miami School of Communication Associate Professor Kim Grinfeder, former Visiting Knight Chair Liz Miller, and Miami-based filmmaker and artist Juan Carlos Zaldivar co-directed the swamp-conscious film. “We are pushing the film across many fronts and a festival like Hot Docs will helps us attract attention from educators and programmers who [...]

2019-12-16T18:31:47-05:00March 26, 2019|Interactive Media, Motion Pictures|

2019 Global Game Jam

Starting on Friday and running for 48 hours, the University of Miami School of Communication is participating in the largest game jam event in the world. The 2019 Global Game Jam (GGJ) begins on Jan. 25 in the school’s Interactive Media Center. GGJ co-founder, Susan Gold, will be at the school to kick-off the event. GGJ is the world's largest game game creation event taking place around the world at physical locations, functioning much like a hackathon focused on game development. Lindsay Grace, visiting Knight Chair in Interactive Media and associate [...]

Miami@Play

By: Karina Valdes Miami, are you ready to play? For the first time, a team of University of Miami School of Communication faculty have organized Miami @ Play, a curated collection of art and design work that seeks to demonstrate a range of playful experiences and celebrates the unparalleled way games unite communities and people. This inaugural Miami @ Play event is in coordination with the 2018 Filmgate Interactive Festival and presented during the week of Art Basel-Miami. Lindsay Grace, Knight Chair in Interactive Media, Clay Ewing, associate professor, and Lien Tran, assistant [...]

2020-04-23T13:08:47-04:00November 29, 2018|Interactive Media|

SwampScapes: A Journey Through the Everglades

As South Floridians, we boast beautiful beaches and tropical temperatures, but often fail to acknowledge the sweeping beauty of the Florida Everglades. As the earth undergoes accelerated change, understanding the landscape’s function in human and ecologic survival is essential. Former Visiting Knight Chair Liz Miller, University of Miami School of Communication Associate Professor Kim Grinfeder and Miami-based filmmaker and artist Juan Carlos Zaldivar co-directed an immersive four-platform project designed to reconnect users with the importance of the swampland. Graduate and undergraduate SoC students enrolled in Miller’s and Grinfeder’s classes also [...]

2019-12-16T18:32:31-05:00November 15, 2018|Interactive Media, Motion Pictures|

Join the Data Revolution: VizUM Symposium

Large sets of raw data can be overwhelming and difficult to understand without the aid of charts, graphs, and other forms of data visualization. Diverse industries have taken note and are increasingly interested in discovering the stories that can be found within datasets and communicating those findings to their audiences.  At the fifth annual VizUM Symposium at the University of Miami, all things data will be celebrated. The symposium begins with talks from two remarkable thought leaders in the data visualization field, Bongshin Lee, senior researcher at Microsoft Research, and Hadley [...]

Undergraduate Interactive Media Major Now Available at the SoC

A new undergraduate major is now available at the University of Miami School of Communication. In fall of 2018, the SoC began offering the Interactive Media major, equipping students with design skills and a technological fluency that allows them to explore the expressive possibilities offered by emerging forms of communication. The interdisciplinary major, developed by Kim Grinfeder, associate professor, originates from the thriving Interactive Media M.F.A program, which has groomed graduate students for careers in the academia, not-for-profits, government or at corporations like Sapient, Univision, Disney, Visa amongst others. Grinfeder [...]