Student Creativity And Humor Take Center Stage At Viz-a-GoGo
A chameleon burglar, a plush dragon coming to life and a detective in the shape of a golf ball were among the stars of Viz-a-GoGo Thursday night at Rudder Theatre.
The 30th edition of the display of creative works by visualization undergraduate and graduate students brought in a large and appreciative crowd. The student-run event featured a curated reel of work from the past year, with “the Vizzies” awards ceremony at the end.
Isabella Bradberry, exhibition director and senior visualization major, thanked the many volunteers involved in putting on the event, and noted this year’s screening is “a little bit more special” now that the visualization program is part of the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts.
A Look Back, A Look Forward
Tim McLaughlin, interim dean of the school, paid tribute to the “original authors of visualization” at Texas A&M in his opening remarks: retired faculty and staff Karen Hillier, Joe Hutchinson, Bill Jenks and Terry Larsen.
“They got together, recognizing that design and computing were going to have this relationship if enough smart people got involved in figuring out what that relationship was,” he said. “And visualization was created.
“The reason that’s significant is that we’re standing in the same position. What we’re doing with the new School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts is saying, ‘Hey, at Texas A&M, now we’re also going to do something really cool, which is we’re going to bring the arts together at a time when technology — real-time graphics and simulation, AI, ML, immersion — are emerging across different parts of our lives. What will happen? We don’t know yet, but we’re going to be in a position to find out.”
McLaughlin noted he was a student for Viz-a-GoGo’s debut, back in the days when analog tape was used. When visualization was created as a degree program, he said the faculty and leadership were just working with ideas. He likened it to the creative process resulting in smartphones.
“‘We think this is going to be something. We’re not sure how it’s going to be used, but it might be kind of cool to put some things together, and it could be fun to work with,’” he said. “That’s what happened with Viz. And that’s what’s happening with the new school. We have some ideas about what it’s going to be, and we’re really excited about how those ideas will take form.”
While paying tribute to the origins of visualization, McLaughlin also looked ahead, pondering how the program and the school will look 30 years from now.
“Imagine what it’s going to be,” he said. “Thirty years ago, so many things were coming into place that we didn’t expect. Right now, AI and other things are coming into place that we didn’t expect. We know it’s going to look a lot different. I couldn’t be more excited about what the future holds.”
The Screening
This year’s Viz-a-GoGo reel attracted more than 600 submissions, according to Toby Johnson, a recent visualization graduate and screening director for the event.
Among the many highlights: An adorable, smiling marshmallow figure in “Hot Mess” — made by Mabel Perez, Anthony Juarez, Kaitlyn Wendell and Nick Martinez — sparked “awww” reactions from the crowd. That quickly turned into laughter because of the marshmallow’s unfortunate proximity to a campfire.
A creepy doll figure brings a jump scare in “Forsaken” by Daniel Arellano, Andrea Ballesteros, Emma Krilowicz, Ben Moder, Dominic Nguyen and Skylar Thomas.
Game clips included “Chill Pill,” a sweet adventure of Koko and her lost cat Ro trying to find each other, made by Izzy Rollo, Madhu Ratnakar, Marina Trevino and Naimisha Parmar. Another cat-related game, “Nofi Nobi” by Jaden Choi, Jenny Tran, Audrey Yang and Elsa Davila, featured a feline attempting to impress the object of his affection with fish.
Live-action clips included a witty commercial by Zaria Steele, Soha Aftab and Melanie Riojas. It imagines a drink called Creativi Tea, which greatly improves an artist’s skills despite an alarming list of potential side effects (“may cause British accents” and “susceptibility to mind control by nefarious forces” among them). Another spoof ad by Veronika Minina, Bria Peters and Madhu Ratnakar points out the many uses of the fork — It’s a flyswatter! A paint brush! A shovel! — which allow you to “become the person you’ve always wanted to be.”
A series of computer graphics renderings showed intricate creativity, including “Baby T-Rex” by Krystal Gonzalez, “Alien Greenhouse” by Kaylyn Luna and “Four Seasons in One Head Recreation” by Hannah Klein.
And a comical “Back to the Future” spoof — in honor of this year’s “Viz to the Future Part Two” theme — was interspersed throughout. The clips, filmed in and around Langford Architecture Building C, even included scenes of a flying DeLorean that sparked laughs.
The Vizzies
Awards were given for different mediums, including works on display at the Rudder Exhibit Hall, along with best in show.
Best in Photography: Lauren Bradley for “Unseen”
Best in Sculpture and Installation: Corain Marneweck for “Whiskers and Whiskey”
Best in Digital Flatwork: Krystal Gonzalez for “Dragon Creature Designs”
Best in Traditional Flatwork: Sydney Lemmon for “Cheeky”
Best in Graphic Design: Chloe Aldrich for “The Language of Dragons”
Best in Technical Art: Ryan Applebee for “Look of Lilli/Yarn Suite.”
Best in CG Rendering: Hannah Klein for “Four Seasons in One Head Recreation.”
Best in Undergraduate Research and Creative Works: Estefania Loo Kung for “Casita Adorada”
Best in Graduate Research and Creative Works: Hannah Klein for “A 3D Rendering of a Renaissance Painting”
Best in Interactive Media: Avery Burns, Makenna Baylor, Kayln Hernandez, Aubrie Stromberg for “Inform”
Best in Game Design and Development: Christopher Bruns, Maggie Lloyd, Thomas Winston, Rachel Barner, Sydney Lemmon for “Tunnel Vision”
Best in Time Based Media: Emma Krilowicz, Daniel Arellano, Ben Moder, Skylar Thomas, Dom Nguyen, Andrea Ballesteros for “Forsaken”
Best in Show: Julia Boisvert, Evan Dickinson, Allie Ehrenfeld, Emmalie Hall, Robert Harwerth, Emily Legg for “Serendipity”
Scholarships
Undergrad Research Scholar, second place: Nicholas Mireles
Undergrad Research Scholar, first place: Tessa De La Fuentes
Best Body of Work, Visualization Undergraduate Program Scholar: Robert Harwerth
Pixar Alumni Awards: Ryan Applebee, Hannah Klein, Nicholas Mireles
Disney Alumni Awards: Farnoush Torkzadeh, Natalya Abrahamian, Sonia Wong, Emilie Sangerhausen
Dreamworks Alumni Award: Ryan Applebee
Electronic Arts Alumni Award: Isabela (Izzy) Rollo, Yanwen Chen
