Global scholars, researchers and artists from the Smithsonian Latino Center, the technology industry, and academia came together on Feb. 23-24 for the 2017 Smithsonian Cultural Digi Summit. The global industry gathering was hosted by the MSU School of Journalism at the Immersive Media Studio in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences.
The annual summit brings together the world’s leading minds to share presentations, hands-on workshops with cutting edge technologies covering animation, virtual reality, mobile interaction, augmented reality and mixed realities. The emphasis was the use of groundbreaking technologies, many still in the confidential development stage, to represent the Latino Dance Project and Smithsonian Latino Collections.
The Latino Dance Project is collaboration between Smithsonian Latino Center, the MSU School of Journalism, and Latino dance ethnologists, cultural anthropologists and choreographers.Industry summit participants included MSU School of Journalism strategic partners Noitom Perception Neuron, Reallusion, Viar360, Sinewave Entertainment, and Zappar. The Smithsonian Latino Center is also part of MSU Journalism’s growing partnership alliances in Immersive Journalism. Google made a special presentation to the group on “Humanizing Digital."
Faculty from the Berklee College of Music, University of California-Riverside, and the MSU School of Journalism participated in the summit.
“The MSU School of Journalism continues to redefine the field for the 21st century by being at the forefront of research and technology for Immersive Journalism,” said Michigan State Professor Stacey Fox, who organized the summit and is the Animation, Mixed Realities and Immersive Worlds faculty leader in the School of Journalism. “We are excited, and thankful, to have such amazing strategic partners who are so generous with their knowledge and technology. They have donated over $645,000 of in-kind hardware and software to the School of Journalism for our students to utilize in their story production.”
The summit was sponsored by Target with Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center