Tucson Digital Arts Community

Where in Tucson can you network with other local professionals while enjoying live performances, art, dancing, music, drinks and hors d’ oeuvres—plus an unforgettable fondue bar? It’s the latest edition of First Fridays, this March 5, 2009, from 8 to 12pm, celebrating ‘60s pop art icon Andy Warhol’s work, which will be featured this month at the Tucson Museum of Art. Recently voted as 2010’s “Best People and Organization” by Tucson Lifestyle Magazine, First Fridays’ “Andy Warhol—POP Art” at the Tucson Museum of Art is your chance to get your own 15 minutes of fame with Tucson’s most important movers and shakers!

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Flash Camp Phoenix is a full-day event focusing on the Adobe Flash Platform. Enhance your skills in ActionScript and Flex while learning from local and national industry experts. Flash Camp will provide an introduction to the Flash Platform as well as covering advanced topics for existing Flex and ActionScript developers.

http://flashcampphoenix.eventbrite.com/

Below is a recap from our TDAC website meeting on 12/9/09 (meeting notes here) going over how the new TDAC website will be built.  Thanks to everyone who made it!  To those who couldn’t make it, feedback is welcome and we’d love to hear your comments.

Overall Design / UI

• WordPress MU, BuddyPress and bbPress need to be updated and setup on a faster server (we can use www.creativeoven.com as a testing site and switch over to this bluehost account if it runs fast enough)
• Better access to group discussions / forums
• Users and content needs to be ported over to this new testing server.
• Need to update the structure of the homepage and decide which elements should be featured.  Include “Teaser Text”.
• Creating simple wireframe layouts should be done for each page of the site, though most importantly the home page.
• Show a personalized homepage for users who are logged in.  Show the groups they are a part of and other information related to them.
• Add blog where people can post things to? Guest bloggers? Aftermath blog of each event AFTER each event (like this post you are reading right now)
• Twitter feed shows activity of all members.  Our current list: http://twitter.com/tucsondigital/tdac-members

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re:VISION uses art to re-invigorate the dialogue about downtown tucson’s future. two current projects are:

the BURRITO files
Downtown Geographical Expeditions

join the dialogue at:
http://www.downtowntucson.blogspot.com

Arts Space & Community Design – a conversation with Greg Esser – June 12th
The Public Art & Community Design Program of the Tucson Pima Arts Council (TPAC) is pleased to present “Arts Space & Community Design” a conversation with Greg Esser, a driving force behind the dynamic Roosevelt Row project in Phoenix.  Join us for this timely and significant conversation addressing challenges and real solutions related to live/work space issues faced by our local/Tucson arts community. Join TPAC in welcoming Greg Esser on Thursday June 12th at 7pm at the Beowulf Alley Theatre located at 11 South 6th Avenue in downtown Tucson, between Broadway & Congress. FREE! Seating is limited so arrive early!

design co*op invites you to a private open studio event:
a party for designers

thursday june 12 2008 6:00pm to 8:00pm

at design co*op’s studio concept:moca 174 easte toole avenue

the first of many events that will bring artists, architects, landscape architects, and graphic designers together in one space to discuss their work, the pertinent issues they face, and to party. please bring your own choice of beverage, it is quite warm in our studio. we will try to provide some ice and light snacks.

design co*op was created with the expressed mission of developing critical modes of inquiry relevant to the human condition. the design co*op is a dynamic synthesis of six noted emerging architects and designers all based in Tucson: Kelle Brooks, Dale Clifford, Bill Mackey, Erin Moore, Jason Vollen and Beth Weinstein. committed to a vision that the design of the built environment can and should improve the quality of life for all, members of design co*op work across disciplines to raise public awareness of the value of affordable and appropriate design.

contact info: Bill Mackey, workerarchitect@yahoo.com

Community Storytelling Arts will be teaching digital storytelling workshops on a regular basis. All workshops are four full days from 9 AM – 5 PM. Workshop participants share stories, write and record narration, choose photos, video clips, and music, and learn to edit a short digital video of their own true story. These stories can be used for personal enrichment, family life histories, community and team building, training, advocacy, recruiting, fundraising and technology literacy. At the end of your four-day workshop you will have a 3-5 minute digital story. Participants are given materials prior to the workshop to assist them in preparation, including important resources, reading, and suggestions for story ideas, images, and use of video clips. The workshop is $495 per person. Registration is limited to 10 participants per workshop.

Location: El Centro Cultural de las Americas, 40 W. Broadway, Tucson, AZ. Parking is available across the street from El Centro.

Workshop dates: June 17-20, 2008; October 7-10, 2008; and December 3-6, 2008
To register and for more information please contact: therese@bayviewmedia.com

Please visit www.Autopoetic.org for more information about this interdisciplinary event of art + music + performance.

In May of 2007 visual artists, bands, dj’s, live aerosol artists, a fire performer and many viewer-participants gathered in Tucson, Arizona for a playful night of art, multimedia, performance and music. This convergent event, which embodied the creative spirit of a community, was given the name Autopoiesis. Based on the success of this gathering, organizers of the event realized that it was a process worth repeating. Please join us on the night of June 14th at Splinter Studios for Autopoiesis 2008!

WordPress Download
http://wordpress.org/download/

WordPress Hosted Version
http://www.wordpress.com
Want to play with wordpress but don’t want to install it, and don’t care if you can’t modify the templates?

WordPress Codex
http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page
This is the official WordPress documentation wiki.

Template Tags
http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags
These are the calls you can make from any of your templates. I refer to this more than any other page.

Template Hierarchy
http://codex.wordpress.org/images/1/1d/wp_Template_Hierarchy.png
Which template do you need to edit when you want to make a change? This should help you find out.

WordPress Plugins
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
This is the master repository.

Favorite WordPress Plugins
http://www.blueprintds.com/2008/03/13/top-10-wordpress-cms-plugins/
Two good lists.

MAMP & XAMPP
Want to install WordPress on your local machine?
http://wordpress.org/download/
http://www.mamp.info/en/download.html (LAMP for Mac)
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html (LAMP for Windows)

Web Developer Toolbar
http://chrispederick.com/work/web-developer/
Every web developer should have this plugin installed in firefox. Amazing.

Also — WordPress 2.5 is coming out this week (or soon) It may make some of these plugins obsolete.

Monty Edmonds is already holding 3d learning night (see below) but we’re looking to expand what we cover. Instead of just getting together to schmooze, let’s share our skills and raise the bar for the whole design and tech community.

We’ve come up with a preliminary list of ideas for talks — things people can present, and things people want to hear — and you can vote on them below. Even better, come up with your own talk topic and add to the comments below. We have the space, we have a projector, and mid-town is never far away.

Please leave a comment with your suggestions.

Montrose Edmonds, of Tripwire Arts (tripwirearts.com) will be host a 3d learning night on wednesday nights at 7:00pm. This is in addition to other TDAC functions, this will be supplemental for those with a strong interest in 3d animated film making. The specific options for this are still open. We want to stay away from button pushing exercises, but we will provide many good resources for self learning between sessions. I think a good route to go would be to develop Characters. My thought is start with character concepting on paper, move to modeling in 3ds max/blender/Zbrush, texture mapping in Max/zbrush, PhotoShop, Painter, then to Rigging in Maya or Max, animation in Maya or Max, Rendering with Mental Ray and finally compositing in Shake. Otherwise people can come with ideas they want solved or help thinking through projects. I am really open to ideas Contact Montrose at info at tripwirearts dot com to sign up or with questions.

M