CENTER FOR COMPUTATION & TECHNOLOGY

By Renita D. Young, NOLA.com | The Times Picayune

The newly-rebranded Red Stick International Festival will return to Baton Rouge May 29-31, bringing with it different sides of technology.

Organizers say this year's activities and topics will range from interactive art exhibits to digital animation, and will take place at various venues throughout downtown Baton Rouge. All events over the three days are free and open to the public.

"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."

Multiple players are involved, including Celtic Studios, Louisiana Technology Park, LSU and EA Sports among others.

The event was created by LSU's Center for Computation and Technology's (CCT) Stephen David Beck and Stacy Simmons in 2005. Organizers say it was part of the former Red Stick Animation Festival until 2012, and hosted at LSU. 

"Last year, CCT decided to go out 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 Louisianans to pursue science, technology, art and math – or STEAM – opportunities; and unite Louisiana with the Global communities in creative technology."

Here's the full schedule of events, courtesy of LSU:

Friday, May 29

• An opening gala will take place from 5:30-10 p.m. around the Town Lawn on North Boulevard and in the Shaw Center for the Arts' Hartley-Vey Theater, 100 Lafayette St., Baton Rouge. This will be a gathering of those in the digital media business and industry, featuring steampunk as one of the themes, as well as a performance by Evidence & Luke DuBois. Well known for his contributions to the Jitter library for video processing, internet and data based art works, DuBois is also recognized for his live video and sound art performance. Evidence is a collaboration between sound artists Stephan Moore and Scott Smallwood. Since 2001, they have developed a distinctive language of deeply layered sound, using field recordings of natural, urban and industrial sources as their primary material and inspiration. Their activities range from studio compositions and live improvisations to sound installations, street performances, and numerous collaborations with other musicians, choreographers, and video artists.

Saturday, May 30

• A Kids' Lab event will take place from 10 a.m. to noon on the lawn in Galvez Plaza and in the East Baton Rouge Parish Library's River Center Branch, located at 120 St Louis St. Sponsored by Electronic Arts, the lab will include activities such as a class discussing the Arduino open-source electronics platform, a showcase for local school art creations, a Cubee Papercraft building lab, Lego labs for created art and building lab for kids to build with the popular construction toys; a showcase and live lab of the popular Minecraft computer game and an interactive art project on the inside windows of the library.
• From 2-6 p.m., Galvez Plaza and the East Baton Rouge Parish Library's River Center Branch will host the Expo/Makers Fair, also sponsored by Electronic Arts. The makers fair will feature booths by NASA's Stennis Space Center; playable demos of Electronic Arts video games; Acadian Robotics, the only 3D printer manufacturer in Louisiana; LSU's Digital Media Arts & Engineering program; and a builder's fair featuring members of the Maker BR group.
• Three Cloud workshop sessions will be held in the River Center Branch Library, starting on the hour at 3 p.m., 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. These workshops are for anyone age 11 and up. Minors will require a parent or guardian be present. Cloud is an interactive artistic installation built by a community. It consists of a constellation of independent, self-aware "cloudlets" that are programmed through a workshop. Participants will have an opportunity to shape individual cloudlet's behavior in how it communicates with other cloudlets, as well as with bystanders. No prior programming experience is required. To sign up for the Cloud workshop, visithttp://goo.gl/forms/SRGDMr1CUZ.
• Two 90-minute Arduino workshop sessions will be held in the River Center Branch Library, from 10-11:30 a.m. and from 2:30-4 p.m. These workshops are for anyone age 11 and up. Minors will require a parent or guardian be present. Arduino is an electronics kit that anyone can use. This easy-to-learn, yet powerful platform will have the user making their own projects in no time. This workshop will teach the basics of Arduino. No previous knowledge is needed. Kits are provided for use during the program. To sign up for the Arduino workshop, visithttp://goo.gl/forms/x5NnnkpS7i.

• At 8:30 p.m., a screening of the 2012 hit film "Pitch Perfect," which was filmed in Baton Rouge, will be held on the lawn at Galvez Plaza. Guests are invited to bring picnic materials, lounge chairs and blankets to enjoy a movie under the stars.

Sunday, May 31

• From 3-5 p.m., the Louisiana Art & Science Museum, 100 River Road South, will host a retrospective of select pieces from previous Red Stick Animation Festivals.
• The closing events of the Red Stick International Festival will coincide with the opening of the NIME 2015 conference, taking place May 31-June 3 at LSU. A special art exhibition opening reception will be held from 6-8 p.m. throughout the Shaw Center for the Arts and the Glassell Gallery. For more information on NIME 2015, visithttps://nime2015.lsu.edu.

 To learn more about the Red Stick International Festival, visit https://redstickfestival.org or follow the festival on Facebook and on Twitter at @RedStickFest.