A neighborly review of Redmond's Digital Arts Festival

The Digital Art Festival website is art itself. The site was designed by Kamal Siegel - a Redmond Arts Commissioner and owner of the 3-D studio, DigitalDouble . I think of Kamal (on right) as taking the roles of thought leader and Digital Arts Festival Program Director for this festival. The program was magnificent! Attendance was low considering the
offering.

I first thought digital art was all about abstract, electronic art or computer art. Yet, I learned it's mostly about "gaming" -- X-Box, Donkey Kong, Atari, War Games, etc. Redmond is the "capital" in the Northwest for gaming with Nintendo, Digipen, and Microsoft and a variety of boutique digital companies headquartered here. Despite industry presence, The Arts Commission had their work cut out for them. Ed Fries, a prominent speaker, said the "game world" and "real world" are quite different. So, to drive Festival attendance the Commissioners had the ominous marketing task of concurrently educating the public about the digital world of art while advertising & selling the event. On top of it all, government bureaucracies are not missioned to be marketeers.

The Digital Arts Festival Program was extraordinary. My daughter had 5 basketball games during the Festival so I was only able to stop by the Digital Lounge, digital painting studio, panel discussion, and animated short movies. My favorite event was the speaker panel. Kamel did a great job interviewing. The speakers were all experts and I think 4 of the 5 worked at Microsoft at some time or another.

My favorite speaker was a neighbor, Abbott Smith. I first met Abbott during the Avondale Crest land use appeal on 104th St. He is well known in his neighborhood as a past Arts Commissioner and community leader. I enjoyed getting to know Abbott better. His multi-faceted life experiences and engaging personality captivated me. Abbott earned a marine biology/chem degree, mixed with art in Ohio. He enlisted in the Army. Abbott is known as an artist and especially his love and teaching of the digital arts. He taught at Nintendo, worked at the Seattle Art Museum and taught and chaired and instructed at Digipen Institute of Technology for 5 years. Digipen is a school in Redmond for the digital arts. Abbott is responsible for accrediting the BFA Fine Arts degree in Production Animation at Digipen.

Of all the speakers, Abbott gave me the most "take home messages".

1. computers are needed for marketing digital art. DRAWING is the language of the field and the hand is the best tool. The computer is only a tool, an arrow in the quiver, not the artist.


2. DRAWING should to be in every K-12 art teacher's curriculum.


3. The more "Pencil mileage" a student gets, the better his digital art. With each new iteration of software, students with the most mileage will best adapt.


4. Artists and programmers have different "languages". Artists are "old school' so programmers tend to think they are better. Both must work together.


5. Just as DRAWING is the artist's foundation, "Z-Brush" language is the programmer's foundation.

Ed Fries of Fingerprints, Inc. has an amazing background. He will be exhibiting his 3-D printers at City Hall this Thursday at 7pm. (Open to the public). Yes, a paper image is literally "copied" into a 3-D object. After working on Atar 800, Ed joined the Microsoft team of seven to develop EXCELL. He then took 50 MSFT workers and built MSFT games - the beginnings of X-BOX. Ed's take home message: the need for artists in gaming is growing! Artists now outnumber programmers by about 8:1. It's difficult to outsource digital artists because of cultural barriers and the need for a "creative core".

If any of you know an Arts commissioner or city planner Mary Yelanjan make sure you thank them for their monumental effort in putting this class-act program together and tell them not to give up. My wife and I thought the high school venue detracted from the sophistication of the program. A modest ticket charge would seem appropriate and may further attendance. I pay $6 for every basketball game I watch my daughter play. The Redmond Digital Arts Festival is certainly worthy of more.

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Listen to Redmond Arts commissioner Eva Moon's "Bailout Man" U-Tube clip here (newly minted!)