PLEASE NOTE:
It should be made clear that while the Convergent Media Collective documents many collegiate initiatives, it has no official ties to any universities programs. Many members may work for various Universities, but there are no official ties and the CMC represents only personal views.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Creative Media Lab is proud to post our Spring 2025 write up. To say we had a lot going on would be an understatement. Let’s get right into it.
Ph.D. students Dr. David Dockery and Dr. Valentina Aduen defended their dissertations. David’s was based around gaming analysis and Valentina’s focused on Texas Freedom Colonies in Texas. Additionally, Doctoral Candidate Rick Pulos continued working on his documentary and research on science fiction and fandom.
Weekly Meetups
Star Forge Meet Up – About two years ago Professor Joey Lopez joined Star Forge, a local makerspace developed by Texas A&M students. This space was originally located on South College Ave by (the now former) Hurricane Harry’s and now is located centrally on Texas Ave by the Target in College Station.
This spring we had a critical mass of interest in visiting the makerspace, so the CML students and faculty made the journey over to Star Forge where Professors Joey and Will showed off the project Will was working on and then worked with students on their projects for Will’s instrument building class. It was an overall great experience! Thank you to Star Forge for hosting us!
Lectures/Events
AfroFuturism Conference Feb 22nd – The second Afrofuturism Explored! 2025 conference took place on Texas A&M University campus towards the end of Black History Month. The one-day event featured a multitude of guest speakers, student presenters, intimate performances, and two keynote speakers comprising a full nine-to-five day of academic discourse and expressive creativity. The opening talk given by Will Connor, one of the organizers, outlined the event as a platform for relevant voices to be heard as well as providing a “much-needed” outlet for participants to listen as much as speak, and following the conference said in an interview that he felt the day of activities did just that.
The first panel featured Texas A&M students, starting with Justin Hopson who showed off his Afrofuturist-themed MFA video game project, The Duskfire Chronicles: Echoes of Tomorrow.
The first keynote speaker joined the conference via zoom next, bringing renowned Afrofturuist scholar Reynaldo Anderson to talk about his upcoming book Afrofuturism and World Order to be published by Ohio State University Press, reflecting his views on state of current affairs and how that is being reflected in Afrofuturist creativity today.
PVFA film studies scholar, Aurore Spiers, led a viewing and discussion of the short afrofuturist film The Afronauts, a film that takes an artistic look at the Zambian space program.
The second keynote speaker, Egyptologist Rita Lucarelli, came from University of Berkeley California to give an in-person talk on the historical and cultural references to Egypt in the music and performances of Sun Ra – an expansion of her article that appeared in Aegyptaica entitled “A Solar-Ship Voyage: The Ancient Egyptian Religion as Inspiration in the Life and Music of Sun Ra and the Astro-Intergalactic Infinity Arkestra.”
Faith Odele and Kevin Johnson both presented powerful deliveries of a selection of their Afrofuturist poetry and song, introducing a welcomed panel of creative output expressing personal connections to the day’s discourse.
The closing panel included TAMU’s own Mike Collins presenting a deep-dive (and exceptionally humorous) look at Ishmel Reed’s The Freelance Pallbearers, and Rebecca Hankins with Muhammed A. Ahmad discussing their joint work, “Islamicate Afrofuturism: Race, Religion, Science Fiction, and Beyond.”
Afrofuturism Explored! 2025 was rich with content pertinent to today’s setting and climate, affording the local BCS and university community to engage with both rigorous scholarship and creative expressiveness not presented elsewhere. The conference has hopefully been established as an annual event, now, and sponsored by Barnes & Noble, the Creative Media Lab, the Glasscock Center’s Science Fiction Working Group, the Visual Materials and Performance Culture research section, the Global Language and Culture department, and the College of Performance, Visualization, and Fine arts at Texas A&M University.
Cozy Gaming, March 6th – An enchanted evening video game studies and demos, “The event consisted of Texas A&M Professor and CML Co-Coordinator, Jonathan Guajardo, and his wife, cozy gaming aficionado and Texas A&M staff member, Areeba Guajardo, giving a 45 minute presentation about the origins and contemporary topics of cozy video games.” (read more)
Black Mountain Lecture, April 14th
On April 14th, in the Liberal Arts and Humanities building, CMJR Professor Jonathan Guajardo and PVFA Professor Stewart Ziff gave a presentation about the pedagogy of Black Mountain College and its influence on modern day educational initiatives.
Skateboard Deck Art Showcase, May 2nd
On May 2nd and 3rd, 2025 the Creative Media Lab hosted the first ever CML Skateboard Deck Art Show at Tavo Coffee. The event consisted of 14 Skateboards and 11 Artists. Music was provided by Seasar and Friends, a group of noise musicians who literally rocked the space and pierced through the air. We cannot thank everyone who came out and supported the show enough. We will definitely be hosting another show in the future. You can read more about the show and the artist on the show page.
Black Magic Cyborg Event Feb 28th
Following an impressive, unique concert held as part of Lorefest 2024, Jaycie Carver and Black Magic Cyborg (aka Brandon Lynch) were invited back to Texas A&M University to visit several classes and perform. The Austin-based dark ambient, improv, dungeon synth artists began their mini residency visiting several sections of Performance in World Cultures and the Introduction to Music Technology class to discuss and demonstrate dark ambient and dungeon synth culture and music, plus their self-made, one-of-a-kind instruments. Black Magic Cyborg and Jaycie Carver were joined by Jeff Morris and Will Connor in the PVFA recording studio where artist/music industry liaison and Grammy-award-winning engineer Toby Pipes recorded a series of pieces currently being mixed into a full release for the guest artists. The next day both musicians gave workshops and lectures to the Musical Instrument Construction as Culture class as well as the Electronic Music Literature through Practice class. Part of that visit was to work with and prepare any students interested in participating in the performance at the LAAH Black Box Theatre later that evening.
The show began at 7pm and started with Jaycie Carver improvising with her homemade noisemakers and found objects repurposed for musical performance. After 30 minutes, she was joined by Black Magic Cyborg, who introduced his arsenal of synth controllers set in cow and goat skulls, giving way to a short solo set by Lynch. Black Magic Cyborg invited Seesar (Will Connor) to the stage to add bicycle and other homemade instruments to the continuous soundscape, and eventually was rejoined by Jaycie Carver. Students from the Music Technology courses also were added to the mix featuring Kyle Briscoe performing with circuitry he built as part of a class project, culminating in Lynch distributing bones to audience members who used them as percussion instruments, bringing the performance to a rhythmic climax. The entirety of the show was accompanied by video synth artist Kang, who projected analogue visuals behind the performers that reacted to their music in real time.
Jaycie Carver’s and Black Magic Cyborg’s visit was undoubtedly thrilling and entertaining as much as it was educational, providing a special opportunity for students to both experience the music of two professional experimental artists and instrument makers, and also provided an outlet for students to get on stage and be part of the experience from a creator standpoint. Hopefully, these fine artists and others like them can come back to Texas A&M and enrich the students’ engagement with both their studies and personal development in the near future.
Chris Kallmyer | Cattle Lands April 11-12th
The Creative Media Lab and Will Connor’s electronic instrument building class worked with artist Chris Kallmyer to create art pieces for the Cattle Lands art show. Professor joey and Will even built a crazy large cowbell, check out the video to see it!
Workshops
Drone Workshop, March 1st- Kaye Cruz
On March 1st the Creative Media Lab hosted the first every Communication & Journalism hands on drone workshop for content creators and journalists. Facilitated by Jonathan Guajardo and led by Creative Media Collective member Kaye Cruz, the Drone Workshops consisted of classroom training in the morning and hands-on training in the afternoon. The students and faculty who participated really enjoyed the workshops and some went on to purchase their own drones.
Field Trips
LaTex Jan 25-26 – Will
Coming Soon!
Laredo, April 4th – Joey
On April 4th, along with the Department of Communication & Journalism’s journalist professors & students, joey phd traveled to Laredo, TX to meet with Texas A&M University International professors and students. The TAMU and TAMUI students with the guidance of professor Mariano Castillo conducted an interview about possible carcinogenic pollution by a local manufacturer with Rio Grande International Study Center.
Individual Projects
Will’s Dream Machine
Coming Soon…
Kaan McCormick –
Coming Soon – Robotics World Finals, Wedding, 12th man, HTC Vive, Gaming PC setup, Multi Camera Podcast
Sound of Music Commercial for TTC – By Rick Pulos
At the beginning of the semester, Rick was asked by The Theatre Company (TTC) to create a commercial for The Sound of Music to air on KBTX. He wanted to try to recreate the opening image of the film.
To do so, he reached out to the GroupMe for help and Leo Garza volunteered to use and operate his drone. TTC was super happy with the results! Thank you Leo!!! Check it out:
KBTX Magic Popcorn Commercial
Later in the semester, TTC asked Rick to produce a general commercial for the company. Rick collaborated with two actors and a small production team. After an initial brainstorming session with the lead actors, Rick created a 20+ shot list to tell the story of a theatre goer who enjoys magical popcorn while attending one of TTC’s shows. The production happened on a Wednesday night from 6:30-11:30. KAAN was there to assist and do his magic working the Creative Media Lab’s gimbal. We used our new lights for the production as well. Rick is still finalizing the commercial right now – it should be on air this summer! Thank you KAAN!!!!
Featuring: Darby Kingman, Jay Figueroa, and Lee Ann Littrell
Original score by Bran Kempf
Gimbal Operator + Production Assistant: KAAN
Production Assistance: Bryan Adams and Bryan Rodarte
BTS of the Magic Popcorn Commercial Shoot:
Bomi Running Documentary
The Run Bomi Run documentary continued through the Spring semester with joey, Bomi and Kayte Cruz traveling to the Irving, TX marathon. Bomi completed the marathon around 3 hours and 45 minutes, about an hour off pace. He is definitely learning a lot and is sign up for the Houston Marathon next. It has been a learning experience for everyone involved and it’s definitely helping us all grow.
Individual Accomplishments
Valentina Aduen – Valentina Aduen Ph.D. successfully defended her dissertation and will be a visiting professor Oberlin College in Ohio. Congratulations Dr. Aduen, we cannot wait to see the documentary!
David Dockery – David Dockery
Rick Pulos – Blasting Off Into Outer Space with my Dissertation
I’ve been busy working on my dissertation project. My project, Queering, Diversifying, and Transforming Sci-Fi Media Fandoms, is an ethnographic research study that focuses on LGBTQ+ fans at the intersection of identity, media, and culture. I have immersed myself in several sci-fi fandoms by conducting interviews with fans, studying their online lives, gathering video footage, and participating in fan conventions. My dissertation includes a manuscript and a related documentary film.
I have raised $10, 500 for my dissertation project including a recent award of $4000 from the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at A&M and a $2000 competitive grant from the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. In addition to these grants, I was awarded the Distinguished Graduate Student Award – Teaching Excellence. Thank you to Leo Garza for writing me a stellar recommendation and to joey lopez phd for writing me one last year.
The film, To Boldly Go Where No Gays Have Gone Before, integrates critical and creative practices to gain deeper insights into queer fans. Fan culture is often cultivated by social interactions that take place in various spaces. This project engages the stories of LGBTQ+ fans and explores fan cultural practices that surface when we articulate our identities while engaging with popular media and fan social systems. I am so humbled by the people that have joined my study and film project so far – I’ve met so many amazing, kind, fun, and inspiring people on this journey and I have more research/film trips planned this summer. I’ve interviewed people at two different theatres in NYC, at an AirBnB in Philly, and at a sci-fi archive at City Tech (The City University of New York). I am looking forward to meeting more fabulous LGBTQ sci-fi fans this summer! Here are some screen shots of my interviews:
Jonathan Guajardo
Johnny put stuff here
