Downtown Bryan Outdoor Meetup
The New Media Lab hosted its first in-person event of 2021 in downtown Bryan on March 30th. Led by Dr. Lopez, this meetup was joined by current and former students from COMM 230/250. Like our previous ones in downtown Bryan, this meetup welcomed students interested in asking questions and getting hands-on experience with video/photography. The meetup began with Dr. Lopez’s briefing and an introduction to the cameras and photography techniques. Then everyone walked around the historical downtown Bryan with cameras to discover different types of photography they could create with their surroundings and the golden hour lighting. The meetup wrapped with some night photography outside The Queen Theatre.
Showing Trajectory Talk Series
Created by Professors Joey Lopez and Jonathan Guajardo, Showing Trajectory is a lecture-based talk series highlighting the success of individuals and the paths taken to reach their success. On April 21st, 2021, Showing Trajectory hosted an online presentation “(Trans)parency in Academia” with guest speakers Dr. Sandy Stone, and Dr. Lucy Miller, whose talks brought a light to the experiences and struggles of trans individuals in academia. You can watch this talk and others on the Showing Trajectory YouTube Channel.
Curated Student Projects
COMM 230 (Communication Technology Skills) and COMM 250 (New Media and Independent Voice) are two of the communication technology classes taught by Professors Jonathan Guajardo, Joey Lopez, and Xiaofei Song. We also regularly have graduate students interested in teaching technical courses teach sections. We had the pleasure of Luna Wu teach this past year and Paige Jennings will be joining us this Fall 2021.
Driven by the belief that the possibilities of new media and its related skills are infinite, the project-based media technology classes survey a variety of new media and media production skill topics, and foster passion-oriented learning. Considered non-conventional for some, the two classes aim to encourage students to explore new media skills based on their passion, and learn the skills through the creation of what interest them the most. Since 2019, COMM 230 and 250 have seen many new media enthusiasts from various major backgrounds joining the classes and experimenting with different media platforms, equipment, and skills.
Each semester, instructors of COMM 230 and 250 create a collection of curated projects from the classes to be highlighted on The Convergent Media Collective’s playlist. Here are some of the most popular student projects from professor joey & Professor Song’s Spring 2021 classes: