Interactive Life Review Portraits (2012 - Present)
With the generous support of University of Florida and Shands Arts in Medicine Program and the Healing Arts of Wakulla County, we are creating a series of collaborative, life-review portraits of senior citizens in which they share their personal histories and lessons learned from life experience. These interactive, multimedia portraits will be posted to the Web and high-resolution digital prints of the artwork will be produced for the subjects. This project explores the human condition through the eyes of our seniors, documenting their personal victories and struggles to distill life lessons that all of us can learn from.
Subjects for the portraits are drawn from residents at Eden Springs Nursing Home in Crawfordville, FL. These collaborative portraits are created using a combination of 2D graphic arts, animation and spoken word. The central image of each interactive portrait will be printed as a Giclée (hi-resolution print), matted and hung in the subject's room. Some of the seniors' personal photos will be digitally restored and printed for them as well.
Each final product will include an interactive timeline and visual representations of the subject's influences, lessons, driving principals and life goals. These icons will surround a central painted likeness of the subject. The series of dynamic portraits will be posted online and the Web address will be printed on cards for the seniors to share with family and friends. See current life review portraits.
Smoking
Prevention CD ROM and Web Site (2002 - 2006)
The Cut is a smoking prevention program for middle schools
that includes a 3D, first-person perspective CD ROM game, curriculum materials , on-line class activities and a Web site. This program,
funded by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and the Ann Arbor Area
Community Foundation, is designed to reduce initiation of tobacco
use among middle school students in southeastern Michigan by using
a peer mentoring approach and the appeal of the 3D game genre. The
curriculum
helps young participants develop refusal skills and provides information
about coping with peer pressure, addresses smoking in the context
of issues immediately important to teens and preteens and speaks
to youth in the language of the their own culture. NOTE: The Web
site, linked from above, is very image-heavy. (It is designed for
high bandwidth connections as are found in most schools). To receive
a copy of the CD ROM game for your review, please contact me.
Insite
Mentoring Network (1999 - 2004)
This program, designed and implemented in 1999, provided intergenerational and career mentoring information and internship
opportunities for at-risk high school students. The Web component includes
a searchable
database of mentors, Day at Work features, career FAQ
pages and a secure mentor-mentee email correspondence environment.
This database was created by over 100 students from area high schools,
teen centers and at-risk programs and included about 200 web profiles. These students participated in
semester-long production sessions held in various media labs throughout
Washtenaw County. They researched seniors' personal histories, careers, interviewed mentors,
created mentors' Web profiles and produced their own web profiles and on-line
resumes. Students in the intergenerational project interviewed senior citizens, documented their
'life lessons' and created these seniors' web profiles.
WISD
Online Technology Projects (2000 - 2002)
This program was designed for the Washtenaw Intermediate School
District of Washtenaw County, MI. in 2000. It was a collaborative
project between Washtenaw County public high schools, Washtenaw
Community College and area businesses to initiate technology learning
by matching high school students with technology mentors from the
local community. The Web component included a database of interactive
tutorials, step-by-step lessons and a secure correspondence and
file transfer system. NOTE: In June of 2002 the WISD underwent administrative
changes and discontinued the project. You may, therefore, encounter
some broken links when previewing the program's Web site.)