If you are a member of NYC ACM SIGGRAPH you can expect a ballot for this years elections in your mailbox shortly. Here are the candidates you will find on the ballot:
Scott Lang
Candidate for Vice President
Statement
I have been involved with NYC ACM SIGGRAPH since I first volunteered over thirty years and I continue to volunteer because I appreciate the opportunity to give back to a community that means a great deal to me. During my time as Vice-Chair I have been able to meet and work with a wide variety of people from all areas of the computer graphics and interactive techniques fields. Providing others with a platform to share and discuss their views, ideas, successes and failures is essential to the mission of NYC ACM SIGGRAPH. Allowing our members the chance to interact with those they might not otherwise come in contact helps lead to greater connections, larger networks, and more exchanges within the NYC-area digital media community.
We have had great success with a number of our existing events – BYOA, Industry Spotlight, MetroCAF – so those are terrific vehicles for us to build upon. I’d also like to see us expand the scope of our events to include more specialized areas such as visualization and virtual reality. Our partnerships with other groups have been very positive so we’ll continue to grow those. The pandemic has also shown us that remote events are viable activities that may allow us to feature speakers (and attract attendees) from all around the world so scheduling remote events in the future may be an option. Another possibility is a regularly scheduled panel held each month, featuring 3 – 4 speakers from different focus areas, which would allow for greater discussion amongst the panelists and our members. We are also working to bring back our very popular Member-Only Site Visits.
With your support, I look forward to serving as Vice-Chair for another two years. Thank you.
Bio
I have served as NYC ACM SIGGRAPH Vice-Chair for the last ten years. My main responsibility in this role is to organize the chapter’s events calendar. I also co-chaired MetroCAF twice during this time. I have also been Executive Producer for the ACM SIGGRAPH SCOOP Team and for the ACM SIGGRAPH YouTube channel. When not volunteering for ACM SIGGRAPH, I work as the Video Production / Interactive Design Instructor at the Bergen County Academies, a magnet high school in northern New Jersey.
Mark Reynolds
Candidate for Secretary
Statement
The first NYC ACM SIGGRAPH event I attended was 2014’s Industry Spotlight, and I knew immediately I wanted to be involved with this organization that brought together area practitioners of the mystical arts of computer graphics. Through the chapter’s events over the years I have been able to meet and talk shop many industry professionals and animation hobbyists, not to mention get a good look at the cutting edge of CG thanks to our many panels and presentations featuring local industry luminaries. By continuing to serve NYC ACM SIGGRAPH as Secretary I would be able to help realize more local events covering a wide range of interests while continuing to develop our chapter’s mainstay events, such as Industry Spotlight and Bring Your Own Animation, and hopefully introducing them to wider audiences, growing our community.
Bio
Mark Reynolds is a New York City-based animator and visual effects artist who has created work for screens large, small, virtual, and live-projected. In addition to his freelance work, he teaches Maya and After Effects at the New York Film Academy. He has served as a member of the NYC ACM SIGGRAPH Board of Directors since 2014, and as Secretary since 2016. During his tenure with the chapter he has co-chaired two editions of MetroCAF and continues to assist with the organization and realization of various panels and events, including the monthly Bring Your Own Animation.
Danesh Taraporevala
Candidate for Director at Large
Statement
I have been an active member of SIGGRAPH for the past 8 years and have always volunteered my time for SIGGRAPH events. I do this purely out of love for the VFX and animation community of New York. I co chaired the MetroCAF 2020 event and we figured out how to get students work across during the pandemic in our virtual event. If elected I would do the same and put in more energy into our events and activities as we steer clear of the shutdown and begin opening up.
Bio
My Name is Danesh Taraporevala and I have been working as a 3D artist for the past 10 years in New York City. I have had the pleasure of working with some of the top studios in the city like Afterparty VFX, Hornet, Alkemy-X, Los York, Brand New School, Vayner Media, Transistor Studios, Method, Artjail, Ntropic, The Molecule, R/GA, Sid Lee, Psyop, Charlex, Gravity (Formerly Rhino FX), The Napoleon Group, Tag Creative, Fake Love, Framestore, Suspect, TBWA to name a few.
I have been serving as a board member since the past 4 years and had the pleasure of co chairing MetroCAF 2020.