Media Tech Tonic: Seminars for designers, artists, and media makers held at MassArt

Our next speaker in our Spring 2009 Speaker Series is writer and journalist Scott Kirser.

Abstract
Artists in every field who choose to use new tools, technologies, and methods of distribution almost inevitably encounter resistance from the “establishment.” Looking at the history of Hollywood (and viewing clips of movies made in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries), we’ll explore how cinematic innovators have run into this resistance, and often overcome it–transforming the movies as an art form and as a business. We’ll discuss some of the institutional and psychological reasons people often prefer to preserve the status quo rather than giving new ideas a hearing, and also discuss some of the challenges that the motion picture industry (and anyone who wants to tell stories with film/video) is grappling with today. What are the new forms and genres emerging today… what are the business models that support them… who is innovating and who is trying to hold on to the past?

Event Details:
Free and and open to the public, however, registration is required.
Location: MassArt, 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Room: Tower Building, Room 312 (through the Computer Arts Center, all the way at the end of the hall)
Date: Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Time: 6:30pm to 9:30pm
Directions: By car | By T | Campus map (PDF)
Parking Information: at the end of this post

Speaker Biography
Scott Kirsner is a journalist who writes about innovation, with a special focus on the ways that new technologies are changing the entertainment industry. He writes regularly for Variety and The Boston Globe, and has been a contributing writer for Fast Company, BusinessWeek, and Wired. He edits the blog CinemaTech, and is the author, most recently, of the book Fans, Friends & Followers, which explores the challenges of building an audience and supporting a creative career in the digital age. Earlier books include Inventing the Movies, a technological history of Hollywood, published in 2008, and The Future of Web Video: New Opportunities for Producers, Entrepreneurs, Media Companies and Advertisers, published in 2007. Scott’s writing has also appeared in the New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Salon, the San Jose Mercury News, and Newsweek, among other publications. Scott has been on panels at the Sundance Film Festival, the South by Southwest Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Los Angeles Film Festival, Silverdocs, the Harvard Business School Entertainment and Media Conference, the NAB Futures Summit, and the IFP Filmmaker Conference.

Parking and Driving Directions
Parking will be available to attendees who drive in the Ward Street lot if you enter the lot between 5:45pm and 6:45pm. If you’re driving, take a close look at a Google Map of the area, finding the Ward Street Lot can be tricky the first time.

If you’re traveling west on Huntington Avenue from Downtown, as you pass the main campus on your right, take a left at the light at the Longwood Avenue intersection, crossing over the trolley tracks. Go straight to the stop sign and turn left, then immediately turn right onto Ward Street. MassArt’s parking lot is short distance ahead on the left.

If you’re traveling east on Huntington Avenue from Bringham Circle, take a right at the light at the Longwood Avenue intersection, then a quick left and right and you’re on Ward Street. MassArt’s parking lot is short distance ahead on the left.