Early Tuesday morning I’ll board a bus to NYC to attend ITP Camp, a month-long unconference hosted by NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. As a vocal supporter and organizer of unconferences, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to feel out the boundaries of what an event of such length is like. ITP Camp has been described as “a mash-up of an artist residency and a summer camp for adults.” How wonderful.
ITP itself is an innovative graduate program with a 30 year history, and I’m excited to visit their space and meet some of its faculty and students. It’s awesome that they’re opening their doors for the month of June to let people like myself get a taste of what ITP is all about, so I jumped on the opportunity. One of many things that the program does *right* is that it empowers students to run with creative ideas for applied work and provide them with the skills necessary to realize their projects. A brief glance over their projects page reveals diverse areas of focus, ranging from video & performance, mobile computing, wearable technologies, and algorithmic art. For more insight, listen to the great segment that NPR did on ITP two weeks ago, including an interview with professor Clay Shirky.
I’m not sure what will unfold in June, but that is part of the event’s fun. I look forward to a lot of hacking, meeting new people, finally spending some time in New York, and eating delicious pizza.
Amen to that last line, Dave, and have fun at ITP Camp. Looking forward to getting together for some pizza.