Thursday, June 30, 2005

EP Category 8: Young professionals till 30 years and students



The category Young professionals and students is always a special one. You can read the new trends in their entries. This was certainly true for this year. Important was the Saxion entry. This was an installation and a multi-disciplinary exercise. Also the NS Game was a multi-disciplinary exercise. Some entries came from schools which have participated before. But we could also welcome two new schools. It was a little meagre for the effort that Wim and I undertook to promote the EUROPRIX.nl in schools. But I guess that it take a long breath. Last week Mariet, an old coleague of mine from the encyclopedia years way back, told me that the Institute of Interactive Media in Amsterdam will particpate in the European competition EUROPRIX Top talent Award 2005; next year they will also participate in the EUROPRIX.nl, she promised. Last night the students had their own school competition (see under).

The nominations of this year are the following:

Emiel Haring (GMT / HRO) – De Oranjes
For the game portal of the Rotterdam College several students of Graphic Media Technology department have developed a Flash internet game. In this game Dutch royals of the Oranje family, like crown prince Willem-Alexander, princess Maxima and princess Amalia play leading parts. By playing mini-games the time schedule of the royal family is being presented. At first the user plays the part of princess Amalia. After registering your name, a short clip on princess Amalia appears followed by a mini-game. The first assignment is to throw teddy bears at a creepy man. During the entire game Flash animations and mini-games alternate. When the first phase of the game with princess Amalia has been completed, the user assumes the role of princess Maxima and after then the role of prince Willem-Alexander. A nice detail is that in the game you spend the same day from 3 different perspectives. The score of each mini-game is added up and at the end the game, if your score is satisfactory your name will be inserted in ranking board of the website. The funny sounds and the animated graphics of the mini-games make it a nice game, which can be played three times from different perspectives.

Kasper Kamperman / Sebastiaan Elstgeest (KT / Saxion) – Extract Project
The Extract Project is a new entertainment concept in which scenery, light and visuals join music. These four ingredients all play an equal part in the final result. The Extract Project is the graduation project of 2 students of the Saxion College of Advanced Education, Sebastiaan Elstgeest and Kasper Kamperman. The name Extract refers to the dissecting of audible and visual content to allow translation of this content to other senses. The primary goal of their project was to create an experience which starts with the integration of music visuals, light and space and ends with delivering the proof that combined media have an enhancing effect upon each other. Besides that, the visitors can within certain limits influence the experience. An important element herein is the lounging furniture, the students designed. The audience public can experience this special type of furniture, while at the same time the furniture is an integrated part of the experience itself with its multiple synchronised light effects coming from the heart of the furniture piece. It is very important to direct the audiences to the music and its visualisation. All their senses must be stimulated in such a way as if they were part of the video clip. By means of specially programmed software the music can be translated into light and visuals, also allowing light effects coming from the directions of the sound. The combination of technical equipment and the special software to control the show allows to direct and present the concept as one single unity. To fully create this unity, the music, the visuals and the 3D animations have been especially developed for this project and no use has been made of existing material, leading to the ultima forma of a completely new integrated entertainment concept.

Willempje Vrins (KMT / HKU) – NS Game
Students of the Art College in Utrecht (HKU) have developed an interactive game, in order to let the employees of the NS, the Dutch Railway Corporation, communicate better among themselves and to make clear who is responsible for what task. Purpose of this game is to give insight in the complexity of the organisation, resulting into the creation of goodwill to the NS as employer. This is achieved by giving the player the role of an outsider, who gets to know the responsibilities of the different employees of the NS during the game. The player gets notifications of problems about trains during the game. He should give the proper task to the right type of employee, who is responsible for solving the problem. The task of the HKU project team was to create a proof of concept. This consists of a written feasibility report and a demo of the computer game. This demo should demonstrate the basic functionality of the full game on the one hand and win the over the employees for the final game. (The Dutch Railway Corporation has in the meantime placed the assignment for the development of the definite game). The game has been developed by a team people from different disciplines such as Interaction Design, Psychology, Digital Media Design and Media and Cultuur. The NS game is programmed in Java and because of this, the result is a platform independent product.

Pim Tiemessen (KMT / KHU) – Abraham Travels
Students of the Arts College in Utrecht (HKU) have built a dynamic interactieve website for the Jewish Historical Museum. Visitors can read, listen, watch and interact with the web story of Abraham, a nineteen years old teenager who lived in Amsterdam at the beginning of the 20th century. Abraham travelled together with his friends Gerard and Frans through different countries like Germany, England and Palestine. This all on foot! The web story is a log of their travels and is divided up in chapters. By clicking on a chapter the leaves are turned; this is part and parcel of the lay-out and navigation. An animation shows that the user is turning pages of the book. In every chapter an animation can be opened. The story is told by means of moving images, spoken and written text and music. Pictures of people and landscapes in sepia colors show the atmosphere in the animation of that period. It is also possible to hear David speak. He comments on the story and compares the story of then with the present time. Images and press cuttings can be viewed. Historical facts relating to the journey are inserted aas loose pieces of paper hidden in Abraham’s book. This interactive website with beautiful graphics is build in Flash and animations are well done. The Flash animation of David is integrated very well in the website. The animations are innovative and there is an excelling interaction with the video material.


Presentation Oranjes Saxion student


NS Game Abrahams'Travel

The Extract project was the winner in this category. The installation is interesting. The concept works with synaesthesia. It was a multi-disciplinary project.


(Last night the students of the Institute of Interactive Media in Amsterdam had their own competition under the name Golden Dot. Students in interactive media work on projects for external clients in the public sector from the beginning of their course.

Nominated for the Golden Dot are the following entries:

Wartrauma: Online knowledge ban for the organisation Wartrauma, to be used for the communication with doners, field workers and Dutch and foreign experts.

Interpeut*: online self help system for psycho therapy including an encyclopedia on assignment of Marjo Vogel, psycho therapist.
Know thy neighbours (Kent uw buren): an interactive sequel to an existing TV format of the Amsterdam TV station AT5, based on Sixteen million people, a survey among the Dutch by the Prime Minister's Office.
BEB*: an interactive concept to have pupils eat and move more consciously, again based on Sixteen Million People, a survey among the Dutch by the Prime Minister's Office.

Poëcinema: an interactive exhibition to support a animation-poetry project by the Bernard Nieuwtijt College
Green internet (Groen Internet): website and campaign for a safer internet in young families on the assignment of SIF (Safe Internet Foundation)
Childres'paper (Kinderkrant): an interactive concept for pupils of the primary school to produce a newspaper on racism and facism on the assignment of Stichting Kindermonument
Funnel (Trechter)*: an interactive solution to animate poetry on assignment of Bernard Nieuwetijt College.

* Winners. Interpeut was the winner of the Golden Dot by the standards of the Jury and the audience.

The jury members judging these entries were:
- Eveline Aendekerke, managing director Lost Boys
- Eric Castien, internet entrepreneur, ex The Box
- Raoul Kuiper, Tribal DDB
- Ad de Bont, interaction designer VPRO 3 voor 12
- Corinne Vos, projectl manager KPN i-mode

The Institute started in 2002 and has now 350 students and 25 instructors.

The Institute offers courses to become Interactive Media Professionals who can help find, design, develop and manage solutions. The Institute aims at students who want to work on socially relevant applications of interactive media.)

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