| Creators of this year’s Viz-a-GoGo, the 14th annual showcase of digital wizardry created by students in Texas A&M’s master of science in visualization sciences program, have gone “Back to the Drawing Board,” discarding many of the previous shows’ more ostentatious frills in favor of a lean back-to-the-basics production highlighting student creativity.
Viz-a-GoGo 14 includes a standing exhibit of student work in the Rudder Exhibition Hall on the Texas A&M campus that runs April 30 – May 5 and live demonstrations of thesis work and special projects slated 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. May 4 and 5 just prior to the shows’ main feature, screenings of time-based student films and animations at 7 p.m. in Rudder Theatre.
Missing from this year’s screening will be the live digital emcee, a celebrity master-of-ceremonies, dance productions, guest musicians and long-running interstitial film shorts laced between show segments, devices used in past productions which the Viz-a-GoGo 14 producers say have overly lengthened performances and detracted from the shows’ real intent — showcasing the talent and digital artistry of Texas A&M visualization science students, or “vizzers.”
In keeping with this year’s theme, "Back to the Drawing Board," visualization student Christine Liu said the show’s interstitials will be 2-D animations lifted from the pages of vizzer sketchbooks and tweaked “using classic animation principles and a ‘viz’ twist.”
“Everything that we create starts from sketching,” noted Liu.
In addition to “flatwork,” the Viz-a-GoGo 14 exhibition features the work a video game development class, interactive exhibits and 3-D models designed by viz students and created on the College of Architecture’s new 3D printer.
Among the demonstrations staged in the Rudder Exhibit Hall beginning at 5:30 p.m. on May 4 and 5 will be an interactive game of “Body Pong,” a variation of the once popular old-school Atari video game. In this iteration of the classic “Pong,” participates don a brightly colored shirt to be come the pong paddles, manipulating the bouncing “ball” on a giant projection by moving strategically through a defined space.
More details, show history, parking information and samples of time-based student work that will be incorporated in Viz-a-GoGo 14 are available on the Viz-a-GoGo Web site: http://vizagogo.tamu.edu/.
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