The 2024 ACM SIGGRAPH Village Theater showcased the yearlong educational, professional development and artistic expressions from the ACM SIGGRAPH Standing Committees. Held as part of the ACM SIGGRAPH conference, the Theater offers a platform for presenting high-quality, innovative content that pushes the boundaries of visual storytelling and technology.
The kickoff of the 2024 SIGGRAPH Educators Program will include an overview of activities and opportunities with, and sponsored by, the ACM SIGGRAPH Education Committee. Additionally, the winning entries from the SpaceTime competition will be shown along with a screening of the show reel for the 2024 double-curated Faculty Submitted Student Work (FSSW) exhibit. Designed as a way for educators to share their project ideas across schools and disciplines, FSSW is an online archive of assignment and project briefs as well as a curated video emphasizing the variety of student work and schools submitted. The reel was featured in the ACM SIGGRAPH Village throughout the week.
The Digital Arts Community (DAC) presented 8 art sessions during the Conference. These sessions showcased a variety of creative works, including innovative digital art, interactive installations, and experimental projects. They highlighted the intersection of art and technology, providing a platform for artists to present their work and engage with the SIGGRAPH community. Some included:
- Digital Arts Community and SIGGRAPH’24 Creative Content Overview started their program at the annual SIGGRAPH Conference by showing the latest work of the DAC, which included a description of the activities throughout the year through their online exhibitions, initiatives undertaken by DAC with other communities, and they highlighted the SPARKS Lightning talks series.
- Exploring Ephemeral Spaces: Melding Technology and Performance was a panel discussion which explored the interdisciplinary approaches to experimental performance using computing, sound, and media. Panel members discussed performance, as a contemporary art practice that thrives beyond institutional spaces. Their conclusion is that experimental performance promotes lively discussions and provide an avenue for exchange with audiences.
- Journey to Animating a Solo Feature Film… Twice Denver Jackson, a seasoned filmmaker, dedicated the past five years to crafting solo features. He has been deeply involved in every aspect of production, including writing, character design, art direction, storyboarding, animation, background painting, compositing, and editing. His unwavering commitment to enhancing the production process while maintaining the highest quality in his final works is truly commendable. Jackson discussed his creative process and workflow with the audience. It provided insight into the mind of a filmmaker committed to delivering outstanding cinematic experiences single-handedly.
Several other sessions focused on the work of our professional chapters, work of our DEI Community, History Community, Pioneers Community and Practitioners Committee.
- From ACM: The Nature of Future Conferences and ACM Open ACM President, Dr. Yannis Ioannidis, discussed his model for the future of ACM and ACM SIGGRAPH through the lens of his initiative ACM 4.0. He also discussed the open access model, publication tiering structures, the status of the transition to open access, the impact on ACM Digital Library, and the implications and benefits of Article Processing Charges (APC) for ACM SIGGRAPH authors and contributors.
- ACM SIGGRAPH’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Townhall/Culture for Inclusion This session talked about the issues and opportunities facing diversity, equity, and inclusion professionals today, and bring together ACM SIGGRAPH members from the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee to discuss how the organization is taking the matter seriously. The panel members provided insight into how a global selection of industry experts are addressing these challenges in real-time at the organization.
- ACM SIGGRAPH Pioneers 2024 Featured Speakers Panel This year’s session starred Mary Whitton and Nick England, who co-created the Ikonas Graphics Processor in 1978. Ikonas was the world’s first General-Purpose Graphics Processor Unit, which was crucial in almost every pioneering application of computer graphics. Nick talked about those early programmable graphics processor developments, which originally came out of North Carolina State, and Mary spoke about the development of Virtual Reality technology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- SIGGRAPH Thesis Fast Forward The Thesis Fast Forward showed a high level overview of nine graduating Ph.D. researchers’ work. Each candidate had the challenge of providing a synopsis of their work in the form of 3 minutes presentations. It was an opportunity to get an overview of the open challenges in the field and interact with graduating students.
- ACM SIGGRAPH Practitioners Session: Changes and Opportunities in the Workplace, in your Career, and What it Means for You The SIGGRAPH Practitioners Session gave practitioners at the conference to have discussions, with like-minded peers, on professional development in our industries. Some of the topics included different approaches to creating and scoping engineering projects, developing tech stacks, and identifying opportunities for taking research to practice and the productization journey of a product.
- Chapters: How to Join or Start an ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter Current Chapters leaders talked about how to join or start an ACM SIGGRAPH professional or student chapter, how to make the most of your chapters experience, and to network with current chapter members.
The ACM SIGGRAPH Theater emphasizesd both technical achievements and creative storytelling, providing a platform for professionals and enthusiasts to experience the year round efforts of the ACM SIGGRAPH organization in graphics technology and digital artistry.