RIT Center for Media, Arts, Games, Interaction & Creativity Rochester Institute of Technology magic.rit.edu | The RIT Center for Media, Arts,

RIT Center for Media, Arts, Games, Interaction & CreativityRochester Institute of Technologymagic.rit.edu | www.rit.edu

The RIT Center for Media, Arts, Games, Interaction & Creativity

Andrew PhelpsDirector, RIT Center for Media, Arts, Games, Interaction & CreativityProfessor & Founder, School of Interactive Games & MediaRochester Institute of [email protected] | magic.rit.edu


New Chicago – Jena Holman 1979-1980, Buck Rogers

Andy sometime 1979-1983


“New ideas, not money or machinery, are the source of success today, and the greatest source of personal satisfaction, too.”

-John Howkins, The Creative Economy


So What Do We Do?

The Creative Collective?

The marriage of PLAY with commercialization, transfer, distribution, feedback and iteration

The untapped potential of educational systems, civic institutions, government, and non-profits

The number of things we create before we are 10

will dwarf the number of

things we create the rest of our

lives.


WHAT IS MAGIC?PART 1


MAGIC IS:

• a university-wide research center of excellence• a physical and virtual laboratory environment

for creating and exploring digital media of all varieties

• a commercial entity for publishing apps, games, software, and digital creations

• a brand that speaks to quality and commitment in supporting its constituents


MAGIC IS NOT:

• An academic unit – no courses, no degrees, no curriculum. It isn’t a department or a college or an institute within RIT.

• a part of the School of IGM or the Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences


So what does that “mean” ?

• MAGIC is a unit unto itself that reports to the VP of Sponsored Research.

• It [will have] a staff of its own.• It [will have] space of its own.• It [will have] labs of its own.• It has a budget of its own for operations and

equipment, etc.


MAGIC is 2 things together:



Administrative Structure*

Director

Assistant Director Operations Manager

Associate Director X2

Faculty Affiliates

*Of the Center. The LLC portion will have officers and

a board [coming soon]


Faculty Affiliation*

*NOTE: President Destler explicitly set forth that all current and future IGM faculty could affiliate with MAGIC at the discretion of the Director.

Faculty member decides to seek

affiliationDiscussion with

MAGIC and Dept. Chair

Fill out affiliation agreementSigned by faculty

member, chair, and Dean.

Welcome to MAGIC!

Faculty fills out plan of work with explicit

goals for working with

MAGIC

Reviewed and approved by

Chair/Director and Dean as per normal process.

Faculty are reviewed

annually by Chair/Director

Chairs, Directors & Review

Committees get input from

MAGIC


Characteristics of Affiliation

• Loose system, easy for collaborators to join

• Fosters Multi-Disciplinary Collaboration and Engagement

• Because it’s reliant on PoW, faculty can self-determine engagement level for both scholarly/creative work and service

• Affiliation reviewed every other year by Center Director & Fac. Committee

• Can be ended early by either party but has financial ramifications for work-in-progress

• Funded or supported work administered by MAGIC


Overhead Distribution (carrot)


MOTIVATIONPART 2


This is the ‘Creative Economy’?

Lots of stuff below the surface that never makes it to market

Good ideas turned down or not understood in their time

Famous examples of a world not ready, or not explored

Dale Wilson / Getty Images


Reaching a Market is FLAT, Like the World

Anyone can sell anything at any time. It’s the interwebz, man, ship it Prime in the Cloud...

Bugs Bunny - Hare We Go (1951) © Warner Bros. Animation


CREATIVITY

ENTREPRENEURSHIP!=


Wordie clouds of Wikipedia crowd-sourced definitions of ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘creativity’


Images from tf2strategy.com and http://www.thingsnerdslike.com/


The Assessment / Motive Trap

EXAMPLE: Educational Games fall into this trap all the time: you design a really good solution to the assessment mechanism, but not the actual problem (i.e. student learning).


"The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through."

— Jackson Pollock, American Artist 1912 - 1956


WHAT DOES MAGIC DO?PART 3


What Does MAGIC Do?

• Grant and Project Support• Research Infrastructure• Hiring students and staff• Basic supervision, account

maintenance• Financial management• Corporate & Gov. Relations• Brainstorming and Market

Analysis

• Project Related Purchasing & Travel

• Materials & Supplies• Branding & Press (aka

“storytelling”)• Pilot Projects & Proposal

Development• In-House Skunkworks and

Ideation[…and the list goes on]


What Does MAGIC Do?

• Mentors students and teams on leadership and production

• Helps foster entrepreneurial efforts and incubates additional start-ups

• Works with faculty/staff/students to refine ideas and seek funding

• Co-Ops and Internships• Enables outlets for

volunteer efforts and community service

• Showcase (on campus, locally and national / international shows)

[…and the list goes on]



Here’s some resources, because

you work for us.

Start-up As A Spectrum

Here’s some resources, we own what you do with

them.

Here’s some resources, but we own a portion of what you make.

Here’s some resources, we’re hoping for some

return.

Here’s some resources, have fun.

Peace out.

Different P[…] Need Different Things At Different TimesPeople Projects Platforms Purposes Play-styles


Which all boils down to:

MAKE STUFF.


STARTUP AS A SERVICE

PLUG ‘N’ PLAY


But it’s not quite that simple:

• Universities are great at generating ideas, starting projects, and creating half-finished prototypes. Just walk around and you’ll bump into some...

• Universities are not so good at finishing things and polishing things to put them in front of the public in a meaningful way...


Stop requiring every chick to build its own

nest. Let things that already

exist provide heat and love

Images from oneandahalfacrehomestead.wordpress.com

This doesn’t mean some will not

aggressively step out and go their

own way. Or they might stick around.

Or something in between…


This is why we have a studio

• Budgets roll over. • Projects persist outside the academic

calendar.• Commercial / Market focus (whether or not it

makes $$)• Nearly every conceivable form of support

between public and private ‘halves’ of MAGIC


A Few Interesting Stories

• CMU Model – Every faculty member owns their own studio down the street

• USC Model – Faculty are already entrepreneurs in order to be hired

• RIT Model – Faculty and students can basically benefit from ‘start-up-as-a-service’ and either stop there, or continue on to make their own studio.


REMOVE THE ‘ADULT LIMITERS’ ON CREATIVE IDEAS REACHING THE WORLD


Friends in High Places


WHAT’S NEXTPART 4


Summertime Space Race

• Innovation Hall gutted and re-born• Large MAGIC footprint, some shared facilities for

business mentorship with Simone Center• Center area for larger gatherings and shows• 25-seat ‘studio style’ ‘wrap around’ lab (like the

GDD lab, basically)• Nooks and pods assigned to projects and

sponsors, but with a more collaborative feel and focus.


Infrastructure & Support

• I’m in the research services business now, and so is SRS in support of MAGIC

• SRS organization behind the Center, with key personnel working with us

• Establishing workflow with ITS and Research Computing

• Creating turn-key resources for researchers


Researching Opportunities

• How to capitalize on course re-design, IGM and DH Project courses, and new landscape

• Travelling with President Destler to take MAGIC on the road

• National and international presence• Opening this fall• More every day – just ask.


Several Early Wins

• Red Hat Gift• JP Morgan Chase Technology for Social Good

(2 wins now under same program)• Early leads with Microsoft and Amazon• Interest from several additional groups and

organizations


[email protected] | magic.rit.edu | @ritigm1

Thanks.

Documents

RIT Center for Media, Arts, Games, Interaction & Creativity Rochester Institute of Technology magic.rit.edu | The RIT Center for Media, Arts,