Pixeled Multimedia Teachers Association

This post comes from Marian who had a wonderful night at the Pixeled dinner last week.

It’s usually the smokers who congregate outside restaurants these days, but during the Industry Dinner it wasn’t us who were smoking. The dinner was held at Angliss Restaurant which is part of the William Angliss TAFE, so when we heard the fire evacuation alarm we unkindly assumed it was our kitchen that was on fire. It turned out to be another kitchen upstairs – we could all smell something burning as we stood outside in LaTrobe Street shivering in the cold. It turned out to be less than a raging inferno, so we went back inside reasonably quickly to hear the remainder of the excellent presentation by guest speaker and talented animator, Alicia Braumberger. Alicia is studying Multimedia at Swinburne and concurrently working as a freelance storyboard artist and illustrator. Her work is very art-based, reflecting her exceptional drawing ability. I would recommend her as a guest speaker for VCE students of either VCD or Multimedia as her youth and energy would make her an inspirational role model.

The food was a la carte, but catering quickly to a large group did not ruffle any of the young wait-staff. We ate a three-course meal, each beautifully presented and tasty. Drinks were at reasonable bar prices.

The second guest speaker, Adam Parker, took us into a new domain – robotics. Adam spoke about visionary design practices and the role of drawing. He took us on a short historical voyage around computer hardware and software, illustrated by sketches done by the very early PC pioneers who imagined the first monitors and mice. We then journeyed by some lateral leaps through to present-day robotics and the microbot. Microbots can be programmed collectively to behave as a mass, but by some fairly simple programming, this mass can behave unlike any other when exposed to outside forces – blowing on them could make the mass expand or maybe contract, pushing them could roll the mass into a ball, make it branch out, whatever, just depending on the programming. The possibilities are only limited by the designer’s imagination - that’s where drawing came in. Adam showed some of his thumbnails – pretty good sketches for a programmer-type.

Teachers new to teaching Multimedia had great opportunities to network on the night and State Reviewer Mark Ridgeway was able to give timely advice and assistance. We all took the chance to fulfil the VET requirement to update our industry knowledge and contacts in the most pleasant way possible, with good food, good wine and good company.