From Michael F

Hi Sue...

Talk about gaping, drooling mouths wide open; as a newbie myself, it was an amazing first experience of SIGGRAPH on every front. No photos though, I’m afraid. Is that a sign of newbie, or jaded?

The focus for me was to get a different perspective on the things that obsess me as a producer, as an animator, as a filmmaker and that I think are part of the general animation cinema consciousness. I didn’t attend any technical papers or courses as you did, or educator’s sessions, like Chris Hinton did. I went to three panels that touched on various aspects of copyright, digital rights management and ethics in working with new digital tools when it comes to, as my documentary colleagues have been known to debate, “veracity”.

Digital Rights, Digital Restrictions
http://www.siggraph.org/s2006/main.php?f=conference&p=panels&s=panel1

So You Want to Create Content: Licenses, Copyrights, and Other Things to Think About
http://www.siggraph.org/s2006/main.php?f=conference&p=panels&s=panel3

Ethics in Image Manipulation
http://www.siggraph.org/s2006/main.php?f=conference&p=panels&s=panel4

I attended one and a half sketches on medical technology advances with digital tools. Mesmerizing, and an excellent pill for putting what we do as filmmakers into the proper perspective. Spending millions of dollars and thousands of hours making animated water look more natural for a Hollywood feature seem so trivial next to work being done to improve training and evaluation for pediatric surgeons doing infant heart surgery. Talk about everything in its proper place.

Push, Pull and Touch Technologies
http://www.siggraph.org/s2006/main.php?f=conference&p=etech&s=sketches2

[And yes, I understand that there is much cross-fertilization amongst the digital disciplines, but when an ILM digital researcher gets $5 million handed to him and a medical researcher scratches and begs for $750,000, it makes a difference in effect.]

Finally, I attended three panels/presentations on the tensions between art and digital creation. They were fascinating and exciting and invigorating, and a perfect antidote to how I felt after sitting through the Electronic Theatre screening and 4 of the 7 Animation Theatre screenings. Animation at SIGGRAPH seems to be so much about “the craft of using digital tools excellently”, and almost not at all about using those powerful digital tools to make art. [And in this, I consider telling a compelling, engaging and complete story to be artful.] I think that’s the most disappointing thing about SIGGRAPH for me. But as I discussed with a friend, maybe that’s why Ars Electronica and others of that ilk exist, as counterbalance.

Generative and Genetic Art
http://www.siggraph.org/s2006/main.php?f=conference&p=art&s=panel3

Conceptual Investigation: Technology, Message, and Meaning
http://www.siggraph.org/s2006/main.php?f=conference&p=art&s=sketches5

New Media, New Craft
http://www.siggraph.org/s2006/main.php?f=conference&p=art&s=papers6

It was a great opportunity for me, and I appreciate that David Verrall sent me and Chris Hinton on behalf of the studio. I learned tons, and I met two amazing people in Bonnie Mitchell (chair of this year’s Art Gallery and a huge fan of cNote who worked very hard to get the film in) and Graham Daniels, creative director of Addictive TV, doing some of the most amazing sound/imagery mashups I've seen so far.

Next year would be wonderful! And thanks for letting me post as you.

Michael Fukushima