Author: ludwigvan968

In the summer of 2013 we were approached by the Institute of Texan Cultures to help them with one of their projects.  They had scheduled a Smithsonian art installation about Native Americans and skateboarding.  Working with local students they developed a program that engaged local and national patrons through student made videos.

We helped them develop out a way to have a virtual skate boarding environment. We talked about conceptual ideas, solutions they had researched (which were costly).  In the end the convergent media collective ordered a pair of XBOX Tony Hawk skateboards and began testing them.  We actually held a skateboarding game night where we had people stress test the skateboards for durability.  We tested the ease-of-use of the game on people of all ages and sizes. Luckily, the skateboards held up well and we managed to take photos while documenting the testing process.

We then took the boards down to the Institute of Texan Cultures they were well received by the staff and curators.  Here is a short video of them giving it a try for the very first time:

Ultimately, the Institute of Texan Cultures were able to contact Tony Hawk representatives and gain permission to use it as part of the installation.

This was a great stepping stone for everyone involved in the consulting experience.  Students, community members and professors alike, all learned about the process of developing solutions. One thing we have learned as we have progressed as a collective is our ability to adapt to our collaborators needs.  We tend to have general knowledge of technology solutions for cultural projects, but we also recognize that further in-depth research is important. The need to get projects done quickly and thoroughly has helped us all in our own endeavors. The staff members of the Institute of Texan Cultures received first-hand experience with the cutting edge rhizomatic think tank that is The Convergent Media Collective.

In February of 2014 Code for America set foot in San Antonio, Texas as an initiative to promote the use of “big data” to encourage the development of technological solutions towards civic engagement and activism.  Throughout the month the CM Collective was able to meetup with Code for America at various events.  The first was at Geek Girl Dinner, the second was when they visited a Convergent Media class at UIW and the third was at their event, Code Across America where they began the initiative to create a civic aware tech Brigade.  It was a great experience learning about their past projects to develop various app, texting applications and websites that use “big data” to provide services to under served communities.

To get involved please visit:

Here are some photos from our various visits with the Code for America Team.

The convergent media collective was happy to cover the PechaKucha 13 event at the Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum on Feb 25th.  We were made aware of the event by Mary Cantu of spare parts and then found out Doris Palmeros, designer and professor from the CART department at UIW would also be presenting.  It was great hearing their talks and getting to see them share their enthusiasm with a great audience.  We look forward to attending more of these events in the future.