LSU’s Center for Computation and Technology, or CCT, will present the Red Stick International Festival Friday through Sunday at numerous downtown venues.
The festival brings out the exciting and fun side of technology, organizers say.
“Creative arts and technology mash-ups are exploding around Louisiana,” said Jesse Allison of LSU’s Experimental Music & Digital Media program. “The festival is coming at this from every facet: video games to interactive art exhibitions, drones in movies to experimental sound performance, digital animation to the maker community.”
This year’s festival is part of the evolution of the former Red Stick International Animation Festival, an event created by CCT’s Stephen David Beck and Stacy Simmons, which LSU hosted from 2005 to 2012.
“Last year, CCT decided to go out to community stakeholders and talk about rebranding and retooling the festival to an event that will be focused on digital media,” said Randy Dannenberg, assistant director of economic development for CCT. “The Red Stick Festival is a place to promote Louisiana’s contribution to science, technology and art throughout the world; develop Louisiana’s new talent and inspiring new generations of Louisianians to pursue science, technology, art and math — or STEAM — opportunities; and unite Louisiana with the global communities in creative technology.
This year’s Red Stick International Festival sponsors include Electronic Arts; Celtic Studios; Louisiana Technology Park; New Orleans Video Access Center; The Advocate; LSU’s Office of Research & Economic Development; a grant from the Charles Lamar Family Foundation as administered through the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge; Louisiana Art & Science Museum; and the East Baton Rouge Parish Library System, with special crossover events with the upcoming International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, or NIME, held at LSU.
“We are very excited to be able to help support this year’s Red Stick International Festival,” said Patrick Lamont, lead recruiter at Electronic Arts’ North American Testing Center location at LSU. “We like the new direction that the festival is taking and feel that the future of Baton Rouge’s digital media and video game sector will continue to grow with the festival itself.”
“Supporting the digital arts and technology communities in Baton Rouge is an integral part of the mission here at Louisiana Technology Park, and so we are proud to support the 2015 Red Stick International Festival,” said Stephen Loy, Louisiana Tech Park’s executive director. “The RSIF is an amazing resource for the technology and video game startups housed in the Louisiana Technology Park Incubator program to connect with the Baton Rouge public, as well as for the public to discover all the great things happening in art and technology in the city.”
“Helping creatives connect and bring their ideas to life is the core mission of the Celtic Media Centre and virtually all of our tenant companies,” said Patrick Mulhearn, executive director of Celtic Studios. “We’re proud to support the Red Stick Festival, and we know it will be a wonderful opportunity for great minds to interact and have a lot of fun in the process.”
For a full schedule, visit redstickfestival.org.
Publish Date:
5-28-2015
