Industry Spotlight: Free Event

For the last three and a half years, we’ve been holding almost all of our events virtually. We were able to re-start our Bring Your Own Animation (BYOA) event in person this previous May and we’re happy to report people are starting to return in larger numbers. But we have not been able to run any of our large, annual events. Until now.

On Thursday, October 19 at 7:00pm, we will be bringing back our very popular Industry Spotlight event. We are also very excited to be hosting this event at FIT, with the support of the FIT Department of Illustration and Interactive Media. It has been almost five years since our last activity at FIT so it is nice to be back.

We normally charge for our events because there are always costs associated with our activities. However, for our first large event since the pandemic struck in March of 2020, we are going to make Industry Spotlight a free event as a way to encourage as many people as possible from the NYC-metropolitan area to attend. All we will be asking for is an RSVP from anyone that would like to attend. If you do not RSVP, we cannot guarantee admission to the event. The form to RSVP will be available on our web site and our Facebook page this week.

Industry Spotlight is always a fun event and a great way for the community to get together. We hope that after three and a half years, you’ll be able to join us on Thursday, October 19, 2023, at 7:00pm.

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Fall 23 In Person Events

We are happy to announce the return of Industry Spotlight and MetroCAF as in person events.

Industry Spotlight, which we had to postpone from April, will take place on Thursday October 19. The premiere screening for MetroCAF 2023 is planned for Thursday November 2. Both events will start at 7pm. More details will be posted soon.

Of course we will also continue our monthly Bring Your Own Animation gatherings, the next one will be on September 19 and feature Hornet as special studio guest!

In Memoriam Maureen Nappi (1951-2023)

The Board of Directors of NYC ACM SIGGRAPH is saddened to learn of the recent passing of Maureen Nappi and we wish to share our deepest condolences with Maureen’s family and friends. Maureen was a dedicated contributor to the chapter and member of the NYC ACM SIGGRAPH Board during the 1980s and 90s. Here is her bio:

Maureen Antoinette Nappi died peacefully in her sleep on June 19, 2023, while visiting family in Haymarket, Virginia. Maureen was born on May 1,1951 in Philadelphia to Michael Anglo Nappi and Quintina Marie (Marziani). She is survived by a sister Maryann Lanchoney, nieces, nephews, and loving cousins and friends.

An American Association of University Women Doctoral Fellow, Maureen received her Ph.D. in the Critical Studies Area in the Department of Art and Arts Professions from New York University in 2002. A tenured Professor of Media Theory, an accomplished educator in the Media Arts Department at Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY, Maureen was a scholar, a prolific writer, and an artist. She retired in 2021.

Following her graduation from West Catholic High School, Maureen began her education at the Moore College of Art in Philadelphia where she was initially captivated by photography and filmmaking. She moved to New York and earned a B.F.A. from the Institute of Film and Television at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University in 1976. Maureen began to explore narrative structure, experimental cinema, and animation and earned an M.A. in the Cinema Studies Department also at the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU in 1978. While experimenting with film, video, and computer art, Maureen became interested in fusing contemporary music with her moving images and new forms of image-making.

In 2011, she presented her work at the United Nations’ 55th Commission on the Status of Women. She was a member on the INN.org, Board of Directors for the past 20 years, and served as President in 2012. A member of Veteran Feminists of America, she was awarded a “Keeper of the Flame Award” by the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY. Her work has been widely presented, published, and exhibited nationally and internationally in such venues as: The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), NY; The New York Digital Salons; The Franklin Institute of Science Museum, Philadelphia; Art Futura-Virtual Reality, Barcelona, Spain; The Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan; IMAGINA, Monte-Carlo, Monaco; The IBM Gallery of Science and Art, NY; The Bronx Museum of the Arts; and the London Film Festival.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Maureen’s memory may be made at the Humane Society of New York https://www.humanesocietyny.org/donations/

BYOA is back in Person

May 2023 marked the return of one of our signature events, Bring Your Own Animation, or BYOA for short, as in-person event. We are now planning for the next two, which are scheduled for June 13 and, most likely, July 11. Stay tuned for more details!

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Return to in-person?

Three years into the pandemic, Zoom fatigue has really set in.
Attendance of, and (frankly also our) enthusiasm for virtual events has
dwindled. Therefore we have decided to put our virtual events, including
BYOA, on hold for now. The Board of Directors of NYC ACM SIGGRAPH is
working on returning to in-person events. We are monitoring the COVID
situation as we want to run our events as safe as possible. Please stay
tuned for updates.

Image generated with the help of Stable Diffusion AI

Bruce Wands

RIP Bruce Wands (1949-2022)

The Board of Directors of NYC ACM SIGGRAPH is saddened to learn of the recent passing of Bruce Wands and we wish to share our deepest condolences with Bruce’s family and friends. Bruce was a very committed member of the NYC ACM SIGGRAPH Board during the 1980s and 90’s, and received The NYC ACM SIGGRAPH Rick Barry Outstanding Service Award in 2017. Bruce’s bio from that award follows below. We will post further information regarding Bruce as it becomes available.

Bruce Wands joined the NYC ACM SIGGRAPH Board of Directors in the late 1980s and continued in that role for ten years. From 1993-1995, he was the Curator of the New York Digital Salon, an annual digital art exhibition established by the board that premiered at the Art Directors Club. Bruce was also involved in organizing panel discussions and conferences related to digital art and education. These included the NYC ACM SIGGRAPH Educator’s Conference and Multimedia Integration in 1996, Careers for the 21st Century Conference in 1997, and Cybercasting: The TV of the 21st Century? in 1999. Along with Rick Barry, Bruce co-organized the Binary Biker Project, a collaboration between NYC ACM SIGGRAPH and the 1998 SIGGRAPH Conference Outreach Program. Bruce and Rick took their motorcycles from New York City to Orlando, Florida, documenting the journey with a blog and taking digital images every two minutes from a support van with cameras and a Mac computer. In a 2003 interview, Rick singled out the Binary Biker Project as one of his favorite experiences with NYC ACM SIGGRAPH.

In addition to his experience with NYC ACM SIGGRAPH, Bruce continued to be involved with the SIGGRAPH Conference and published and presented talks on The Importance of Creativity in Computer Graphics Education at SIGGRAPH 2002, The Digital Becomes Contemporary in the SIGGRAPH 2003 Art Gallery Catalog, Thoughts on Hesse, Digital Art and Visual Music in SIGGRAPH 2004, and from 2011-2014, Bruce was Chair of the SIGGRAPH Art Awards Committee.After 34 years at the School of Visual Arts, Bruce was named Chair Emeritus of the MFA Computer Arts Department, where he was Chair for 18 years. He began teaching at SVA in1984, became the Director of Computer Education in 1992 and founded the BFA Computer Art Department in 1994 and was Chair from 1994-1998. He has been working in digital media and music for more than forty years as an artist, writer, musician, educator and curator, and has lectured, performed, and exhibited his creative work in the United States and internationally. His books are Art of the Digital Age, published by Thames & Hudson in 2006 and Digital Creativity by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in 2002. Time Out New York named Bruce as one of the “99 People to Watch in 1999.” His websites are www.brucewands.com and www.artofthedigitalage.com.

MetroCAF 2022 Extended Deadline

The deadline for MetroCAF 2022 has been extended to July 20, 2022.

If you are a student in the NYC Metropolitan Area and created an animation with the help of computer technology, or have an amazing VFX or VR work to share, please consider entering our festival! You have to be a student and the work can not be more than a year old. For details, visit the MetrCAF website:

metrocaf.org/2022/submit