Resources
Wake County, along with the surrounding Research Triangle Region, has emerged as the game industry's east coast hub. Visit http://www.raleigh-wake.org/section/games to learn why.
Why digital arts and humanities, and why here? Today, the country’s leading research institutions are focusing substantial resources on research into the emerging role of digital technologies in the arts and humanities. Major granting institutions are likewise investing heavily in arts and humanities research that explores the educational and cultural possibilities afforded by digital technologies.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the surrounding Triangle region, has a unique opportunity to establish itself as a leader in this most forward-looking field of arts and humanities scholarship.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the surrounding Triangle region, has a unique opportunity to establish itself as a leader in this most forward-looking field of arts and humanities scholarship.
- Within 30 miles are three leading research institutions: UNC, Duke and North Carolina State universities. Faculty and students at all three campuses already are beginning to engage informally in inter-institutional experiments that bring together humanities content, artistic vision and new technologies. We recognize these existing ties and hope to provide the fertile ground to grow new ones. Visit our Friends of the Festival page for links to resources at Duke and N.C. State.
- These three premier campuses surround the Research Triangle Park (RTP). Currently home to more than 35 IT companies, RTP is one of the most globally prominent high-technology Research & Development centers in the world. It boasts one of the largest concentrations of game development companies in the U.S. and has emerged as the game industry's East coast hub: more than 30 gaming companies employ more than 1,000 people in the Triangle, making this region a center of innovation for the gaming industry in particular. The interest in gaming as an innovative teaching and learning technology is reflected in the Games4Learning initiative on the UNC campus.
- An important resource in the Triangle is the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI). Launched in 2004, RENCI is a major collaborative venture of UNC, Duke and N.C. State. It brings together multidisciplinary experts and advanced technological capabilities to address pressing research issues and to find solutions to complex problems that affect the quality of life in North Carolina, our nation and the world.Faculty in the arts and humanities are beginning to take advantage of these area resources. CHAT is designed to incite movement into digital arts and humanities by commissioning work from faculty, staff and students and by showcasing new possibilities for collaborative practice and innovative artistic and scholarly expression enhanced by technological innovation.
- UNC's School of Information and Library Science (SILS) is ranked #1 in the nation. It attracts top researchers with ties to IT industries nationally. SILS recently recruited the world-renowned Data Intensive Cyber Environments (DICE) group (formerly known as Data Intensive Computing Environments group), long of the University of California, San Diego’s Supercomputer Center. This award-winning research group brings expertise in development of digital data technologies, including open-source software that enables sharing of data in collaborative research, publication of data in digital libraries, and preservation of data in persistent archives for use by future generations, along with a research portfolio exceeding $10 million.
- UNC's highly rated Department of Computer Science has one of the top programs in the nation for interactive computer graphics and has strong ties to local IT companies.
Links & Area Happenings
We're excited for the Triangle Game Initiative's Triangle Game Conference in Raleigh, April 7-8, 2010:
http://www.trianglegameconference.com/
The NCSU Advanced Media Lab team has created a valuable resource of tutorials on the basics of Unity 3D, available at http://vimeo.com/channels/ncsuunity.
The Duke University Provost's Lecture Series is themed "The Future of the Past, The Future of the Present: The Historical Record in the Digital Age." Check out their exciting lineup of speakers:
http://www.provost.duke.edu/speaker_series/index.html
Did you know that RENCI collaborated with the UNC School of Law to conduct mock trials in the virtual world? Read about it here:
http://www.renci.org/news/features/mock-trial-virtual-world-real-learning
Do you have a resource to add to this list? As you see, it's pretty focused on UNC since that's our area of expertise. To share a resource, send an email to chat@unc.edu.
