New media group to give campus a voice during GOP convention

The new media consortium, The Screensavers Group, will give people all over the world—including the BGSU campus community—a voice at the Republican National Convention through technology and an experimental software.

The Screensavers Group, based in New York City, is comprised of artists, new technology professionals and community activists.

RNC Redux is part art performance and part live video stream. Using a new software called Keyworx, the Screensavers Group will produce a video that is created and edited in real time and will be streamed over the Internet each night of the convention.

Keyworx was originally used in New York clubs and art venues to allow people to mix different media such as sound, images, video and text like a disc jockey mixes music. For the convention, the Screensavers Group will use the software to combine thousands of text messages, images, videos and audio clips that will be placed on the Internet each day by people who use blogs, instant messaging, emails and Web sites.

RNC Redux will present video projections of the streaming images on the streets of New York City each night of the convention, giving anyone who participates both a symbolic and physical voice at the event.

The event will also take place at BGSU as a projection on the Bowen-Thompson Student Union. The public will be encouraged to add their voices to this collective documentary via cell phone, email, and instant message or written text as the video projections happen. People can voice their opinions regardless of their political affiliations.

People may participate in the RNC Redux by stopping by the union from 8-10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday (Aug. 31-Sept. 2) or by going to the Internet at those times:
• Web: www.screensaversgroup.org
• Email: redux@screensaversgroup.org
• Text messaging: 347-418-2454
• Instant message (aim): updsny

This project is made possible in part with public funds from the Fund for Creative Communities/New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Program, administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and at BGSU, by the visual communication technology program and the Bowen-Thompson Student Union.

For more information, visit www.screensaversgroup.org or contact Stephan Hillerbrand, VCT, at
2-3750 or stephh@bgnet.bgsu.edu.