Staff

This conference could not have occurred without the excellent and extensive work of our volunteer staff Sylvia, Julie and Eleanor. I, conference attendees and the university thank you! SP, Director.

Dr. SIMON PENNY, Director

Professor in the Arts Department at the University of California, Irvine (UCI)

Trained in sculpture, Penny has extensive background in media arts as a maker, technical developer, teacher and theorist. He explores – in both artistic and scholarly work – problems encountered when computational technologies are interfaced with cultural practices whose first commitment is to the engineering of persuasive perceptual immediacy and affect. His longstanding concern for embodied and situated aspects of artistic practice is captured in his book Making Sense: Cognition, Computing, Art and Embodiment (MIT press 2017). He was director of A Body of Knowledge: Embodied Cognition and the Arts conference at UCI in 2016. He was the Professor of Art and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon from 1993-2000, and founding director of the Arts Computation Engineering graduate program at UCI 2001-2011. He was the Labex International Professor, Paris and ENSAD in 2014 and a visiting professor of Cognitive Systems and Interactive Media masters at the University Pompeu Fabra Barcelona from 2006-2013.

 Visit: Simonpenny.net

 

SYLVIA C. FRAIN,  Associate Director

Research Associate for the Richard Flores Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center (MARC) at the University of Guam

Sylvia Frain’s research is part of an ongoing collaboration of artists, activists, and academics who explore decolonization and demilitarization resistance and solidarity in Oceania through a gendered and visual lens. She submitted her doctoral thesis with The National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies • Te Ao O Rongomaraeroa at the University of Otago • Te Whare Wānanga Otāgo, in New Zealand • Aotearoa in February 2017. She earned her Masters of International Studies in the field of Peace and Conflict Resolution from the University of Queensland, Brisbane in 2011 and her undergraduate degree with the Global and International Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2004. She is an active member of the Alternative Zero Coalition of Saipan, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. She founded and manages the Facebook Page: Oceania Resistance to share her autoethnographical research relating to (de)colonization and (de)militarization.

JULIE LIM, Assistant Director

ASUCI Business Senator at the University of California, Irvine (UCI)

Julie Hyunhee Lim is a third year Business Administration major at UCI. She currently serves as the Business Senator at UCI under the student body government. Julie Lim is currently working to create the first UCI Stock Market Competition and set up a UCI Prison Education Program. As a hobby, Ms. Lim is also the radio show host of Student Made at KUCI 88.9 FM, a show that interviews students about the music they make. However, her main goal is to start her own company after graduation.

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Eleanor Goulden, Graphic Designer

Freelance Graphic Designer and Student at Occidental College

Eleanor is a third year at Occidental College, double majoring in theater and cognitive science. Her research focuses on embodied cognition, creative cognition, and group creative collaboration. She works for the school’s graphic design service, Occidental Design Service, in addition to doing freelance work on the side. She is also President of the school’s Student’s for Disability Rights club, which hopes to provide a space for disabled students to decompress on campus as well as advocate for accessibility. In addition, Eleanor is an ambassador for the outside organization Sick Chicks, which works to empower young women with chronic illnesses and physical disabilities.

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