STUDIO XX, Feminist art centre for technological exploration, creation, and critique, is hosting their own Open Game project from October 2008 to June 2009 in Montréal, Canada. The program is built entirely around Blender. They're still looking for participants!
The project comes with classes and seminars of experts in the field and requires the participants to invest a minimum of four hours a week (not including the mentioned classes and seminars).
From the announcement:
Digital Ludology, which will run from October 2008 to June 2009, will bring together six selected Artists with leading game industry professionals, providing them with free comprehensive professional development workshops focusing on Blender's 3D animation software, open source game engine, interactive scriptwriting, project management and gameplay theory.
In the spring of 2009, Artists having completed a multimedia project will receive a $500 Artist Fee.
Workshops will be led by respected experts such as Heather Kelly and Cindy Porembe of kokoromi.org. Studio XX will provide technical supervision and access to the XX Laboratory during the year.
Artists may propose alternative content and form in their games, diverging from the standard that is offered by the major commercial producers in the field. We particularly wish to appeal to women to meet this exciting challenge. Artists should be ready to invest at least 4 hours per week on their projects outside of classes and seminars.
The fee for completing a project ($500) is not that big, but the free classes and seminars (which STUDIO XX values at $4000) should compensate for that, I guess.
Please note: The deadline for applications is Wednesday, September 24th, 2008. If you're interested in participating, better hurry up!
Link
This sounds like a great project! Now all we need is a local reporter to pop in there occaisionally and send in a nice video or written report on their progress. Volunteers?
12 Comments
wow! muy bueno.
Well, I'm a guy but I'll submit my project to take out the garbage can. ;)
Seriously, I am glad to read that some actual women are interested in 3D which usually reeks of testosterone.
Best of luck and I'll be checking on the website regularly.
Jean
Woh ! Something related to Blender is happening in my hometown !
Too bad I'm a guy....and I don't have time :(
I've meet the people of Studio XX a few times since i was suppose to give Blender Classes over there. Unfortunatly, due to my lack of time I had to turn down the offer. But they're really great people! If you live close and have the time for this class, I guarantee you'll enjoy it!
And their studio is very well situated in Montréal!
Is this a residence?
wow, I had to stop skimming the article and read more slowly, because my eyes bulged a little when reading
"STUDIO XXX, Feminist art center"
*caution, starting rant*
...is it just limited to women? if so that stinks, I hate it when money goes toward segregation...not that I am affected by this announcement at all, but I don't like scholarships that limit requirements by age, race, or gender...
-have to agree with Demon.. blender is about bringing people together, not segregating them based on sex.
While I'm all for the promotion of blender I think sex based promotion is something we can do without.
Everyone is free to to use opensource allready. There is nothing holding back woman or men getting involved in making games, because this is new technology being used in the post-feminist era. It's not 1970's any more.
If you want to make game.. DLD blender and get on with it. I think they would have a more fulfilled lives if they decided to work inclusively and forget about the whole male, female thing. I certainly don't think a specifically male orientated art centre would get funding for this kind of activity.
Beside pointing out the obvious contradiction that art transcends gender and that's it's close on impossible to tell if painting/game was made by a male or female.. does knowing really matter or make a difference. Unfortunately for some it does. I just want to play great games.. and I don't care who makes them..
@DeMon, Kirado: just reading the announcement would have taken less time than posting your comments:
"Artists may propose alternative content and form in their games, diverging from the standard that is offered by the major commercial producers in the field. We particularly wish to appeal to women to meet this exciting challenge."
and
"Men will be accepted on a space available basis insofar as the male-female ratio is inversely proportional to that which exists in the gaming industry."
I.e: both man and women can enroll, they just prefer women. Not very surprising, given the fact that they're a Feminist art center now, is it? ;-)
@Bart: Yeah I guess that I did not read slowly enough, oops, and the dithered gray background and abuse of bolds on their site didn't exactly help me focus. Thanks for calming my irrational anger.
@Demon: you're welcome ;-)
Agreed on gender thing, only those who deserve (more) to be there should be there. Regardless of gender.
But I would also prefer to be the only man accepted (if I applied), I prefer to work with woman, no offense guys. :P
I wonder if they will add to the blender source?
quote: insofar as the male-female ratio is inversely proportional to that which exists in the gaming industry
So whats the ratio? this of course stinks. as there are hardly any woman working in that industry, in holland this would be forbidden as discrimination based on sex. Also scientific research shows positive discrimination aint working. would be intresting to see what kind of stereotypical feminist games they come up with. lol