IMPORTANT: All attendees must RSVP at perils-promises.eventbrite.com. There will be no tickets provided at the door.
FILMS
SECOND SKIN
WEB
Second Skin examines people whose lives have been transformed by virtual worlds in online games such as World of Warcraft, Everquest, Everquest II and Second Life. The documentary follows a group of online gamers whose lives are intensely woven together inside and outside the virtual worlds, a couple whose lives have changed since meeting online, and an avid player whose life spins out of control due to his addiction to playing MMOs. It also presents disabled players who have been given voice and mobility in the virtual world and explores the controversial world of Chinese gold farming and presents facts about online gaming
In remote villages in the Amazon Jungle and Andes Mountains, a group of children are about to gain access to computers and the internet for the first time. WEB documents their experience with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program, and ponders both the benefits and complications that are arising from our increasing digital interconnectivity. Alongside the poignant and sometimes humorous local stories, WEB includes interviews with leading thinkers on the internet including Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley, Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales, and OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte.
HOSTS
DR. DAFNA LEMISH
Host, The Web
DAFNA LEMISH, PH.D. is Professor and Chair, Department of Radio-Television, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, founding editor of the Journal of Children and Media, and a Scholar of the Center on Media and Child Health. She was a Professor and former Chair of the Department of Communication at Tel Aviv University. Her research and teaching interests include children, media and leisure, as well as media representations of gender, having published over 120 journal articles and book chapters in these areas.
DR. PATRICIA GREENFIELD
Host, Second Skin
PATRICIA GREENFIELD, Ph. D. received her Ph. D. from Harvard University and is currently Distinguished Professor of Psychology at UCLA, where she is a member of the Developmental Psychology group. Her central theoretical and research interest is in the relationship between culture and human development. She is a past recipient of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Award for Behavioral Science Research, the APA Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contribution to Developmental Psychology in the Service of Science and Society, and the SRCD award for Distinguished Contributions to Cultural and Contextual Factors in Child Development.
GUESTS
DR. MORGAN AMES
Researcher, The Web
MORGAN G AMES draws on training in communication, anthropology, informatics, and computer science to research the ways we make sense of new technologies in our everyday lives. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the Intel Science and Technology Center for Social Computing at UC Irvine. She received her PhD in communication (minoring in anthropology) from Stanford University, where she was awarded the Nathan Maccoby Outstanding Dissertation Award, and also holds a M.S. in information science and B.A. in computer science from UC Berkeley.
Morgan's research focuses on the role of mythology in tech communities and in the design and use of technology. Her areas of investigation include the One Laptop Per Child project, hacker culture in Latin America, and marginal communities in Silicon Valley. Morgan has also explored what drives college students to multitask on their smartphones, how middle- and working-class families with young children use media and communications technologies (with the support of Nokia Research), and what motivates people to tag pictures (with the support of Yahoo! Research).
JUAN CARLOS PINEIRO ESCORIAZA
Director, Second Skin
JUAN CARLOS PINEIRO ESCORIAZA is a storyteller focused on finding reality, capturing verité, and creating honest content that connects audiences to new worlds through universal truths. He sees his work as a focal point for dialogue and action. His projects are meant to inspire and compel engagement through powerful stories, and drive audiences to participate.
His first motion picture, "Second Skin," is a documentary about virtual worlds like World of Warcraft, Everquest, and Second Life. It premiered opening night of SXSW and won a lot of accolades (the #4 Documentary of 2008 by Ain’t It Cool News, an Adobe MAX award for entertainment in 2009, and best documentary at the ACE Film Festival in 2008).
Besides making films, he is also an activist, having founded “White Roof Project” and acted as a mentor for NYC youth.
Join us for a special, intimate discussion with...
DIRECTIONS
Beckman Conference Center
100 Academy Way
Irvine, CA 92617
DISCLAIMER: This event is part of a groundbreaking national interdisciplinary research conference, Digital Media and Developing Minds, exploring the impact of digital media on children and adolescents. These films were selected for screening due to their controversial nature, offering an opportunity for discussion of a multiplicity of views, and are not representative of the opinions of the National Academy of Sciences or Children and Screens.