Can social networks enhance participation in democracy?

• Can computer games teach

youth about the environment? • Can surveillance cameras be designed to protect
privacy? • What is the role of eye contact in video conferencing? • What will be the next
generation of embodied human interfaces? • Can the Internet encourage charitable

donations? • What is the effect of PowerPoint in the classroom?

j o i n a n o n g o i n g d i a l o g u e o n t h e s e a n d r e l at e d q u e s t i o n s . . .
 T h e B e r ke l ey C e n t e r fo r N ew Media is a magnet for rigorous scholars
the berkeley center for new media
w h o c h a l l e n ge conventional thinking. Extremely creative students from
around t h e wo r l d j o i n fo rces at BCNM: engineers who appreciate
t h e v a l u e s o f c u l t u r a l h i stor y and humanists who embrace the
c o m p l ex i t i e s o f t e c h n o l og y.

Teaching, research, and human experience

in today’s technology-driven world
Contemporary new media — from Wi-fi to Wii to Wikipedia — shape our

relationships with world events and with each other. New media can

transform how we perceive, learn, communicate, and experience

our daily lives. What is “new” is accelerating rapidly with emerging

technologies, yet these developments remain deeply rooted in powerful

aesthetic, cultural, and political forces.

“Our mission is to critically analyze and help shape

developments in new media by facilitating research with
unorthodox ideas, designs, artworks, and experiments.”
P r o f e s s o r K e n G o l d b e r g

D i r e c t o r , B e r k e l e y C e n t e r f o r N e w M e d i a

“At the Berkeley Center for New Media, scholars and students
explore the powerful effect of new media on culture and think
rigorously about how new media will continue to change our
lives and perceptions.”
C h a n c e l l o r R o b e r t J . B i r g e n e a u
BCNM is among the most the berkeley center for new media
cross-disciplinar y new
initiatives on campus. The
Center itself is a medium
between people and ideas.
It ser ves as a focal point for
Exploring the intersection of
unconventional historical
and contemporar y thinking
innovation and communication
from a diverse community The Center depends on private support in order to expand its pathbreaking
of over 110 affiliated faculty,
research and multidisciplinary initiatives. Its dynamic learning and research
advisers, and scholars from
more than 30 UC Berkeley environment exposes students to a multitude of experiences and points of
departments, including view, and is gaining worldwide recognition as a model of research
architecture, philosophy,
and education in new media. By supporting the Center, you keep Berkeley
film studies, art histor y,
and performance studies, at the forefront of research and teaching about emerging developments in
as well as the Schools of
new media. The Berkeley Center for New Media catalyzes research — and
Information, Journalism,
and Law, the College educates future leaders.
of Engineering, and the
Berkeley Art Museum.

“We’re thrilled to support UC Berkeley at a time when

unprecedented wealth is being lavished upon private
institutions. Berkeley’s academic excellence and history of
challenging convention mean a lot to us at craigslist, and we
rely upon technological innovations from the UC Berkeley
community every day.”
J i m B u c km a s t e r , CEO , c r a i g s l i s t. o r g

David Byrne “I ♥ PowerPoint”

BCNM Lecture
 the berkeley center for new media

The Center’s researchers seek to

understand what is new about each
new medium from cross-disciplinary
and global perspectives that emphasize
humanities and the public interest.

Defining and redefining

the lens of discovery
In the world of mass communications, the newspaper is a medium.

In fine art, oil paint is a medium. A broad range of tools that act as a

lens between the observer and the object — conveying meaning in

the process — can be viewed as media. Along those lines, the “new

media” of today use emerging technology to forge innovative

means of expression. Students and faculty at the Berkeley Center

for New Media are at the forefront of new ways in which cutting-

edge technology shapes our communication — and our perceptions.

 the berkeley center for new media

Research projects at
Expanding definitions
the Center include: New media include digital technologies but also includes a broad range
• S tatistical Analysis of
of innovations that facilitate perception and communication.
Online News
• U
 sing Participatory Media New conceptual models, for example, can be considered media
and Public Voice to Encourage
Civic Engagement
— psychoanalytic theory and the theory of relativity are intellectual

 pen Source Toolkit for Teaching

• O frameworks for interpreting phenomena, serving as lenses through
Social Media Literacy
which we consider texts, data, and events.
• T
 he Role of Sound in
Creating a Sense of Place
But lenses can transmit as well as distort. That’s why the Center
• V
 irtual Embodiment and
aims to highlight and critically examine both the opportunities and
Myths of Meaning in Second Life
the risks associated with new media, and to consider how they can
• Unblinking:
 New Perspectives on
constructively benefit education, political engagement, privacy, and
Visual Privacy in the 21st
Century the aesthetic experience.

The “Te l e - A c t o r ” s y s t e m a l l ow s
groups o n t h e I n t e r n e t t o ex p l o re To learn more about these
remote e nv i ro n m e n t s
projects, visit bcnm.berkeley.edu.

B l a c k C l o u d
Funde d i n p a r t by a g r a n t f ro m t h e M a c A r t hur Foundation, ar t practice
associa t e p ro fe s s o r G re g N i e m eye r a n d h i s team are investigating
game-b a s e d l e a r n i n g w i t h B l a c k C l o u d , a d i gital learning curriculum
organi ze d a ro u n d a n a l t e r n a t e re a l i t y g a m e in which students develop
an und e r s t a n d i n g o f t h e e m i s s i o n l a n d s c ap e in their neighborhood. D o n at i o n D a s h b o a r d
The Donation Dashboard project uses a collaborative-
filtering algorithm to suggest a personalized array of
giving oppor tunities. The process is simple: After a
visitor rates a small set of nonprofits, the system uses
statistical patterns to compute a customized por tfolio
of recommendations — scaled to suit the visitor’s
preferences and available funds.
 the berkeley center for new media

R e s p e c t f u l C a m e r a s

Motivated by security concerns, today’s digital video

cameras provide unprecedented ability to zoom in and
capture high-resolution video images within a wide field
of view. Such cameras, however, raise significant privacy
concerns. The Respectful Cameras project provides
Adding to the Center’s visual privacy by hiding an individual’s identity while

teaching resources allowing obser vation of their actions.

Incorporating faculty from 30 campus departments, the Berkeley

Center for New Media has a wide reach on campus — yet it is only

now getting a true home of its own. The Center is building its

Commons for Teaching and Presentation in Moffitt Library, next to

the Free Speech Movement Café. Additionally, the Center will soon

have a research lab in the campus’s Center for Information Technology

Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) building, scheduled for

completion in 2009.

G a m e - B a s e d L a n g u a g e L e a r n i n g
o n C e l l P h o n e s

Professo r Jo h n C a n ny ’s M I L L E E ( M o b i l e a n d
Immersi ve L e a r n i n g fo r L i t e r a c y i n E m e r g i n g
Econom i e s ) p ro j e c t i nvo l ve s t h e d eve l o p m e n t
of learni n g g a m e s fo r c e l l p h o n e s , t h e P C s o f
the developing world. The games engage children
through r i c h n a rr a t i ve s t h a t t e a c h l a n g u age
naturally — a n d a dd re s s o n e o f t h e t o u g h e s t
challenge s i n d eve l o p i n g c o u n t r i e s .
 the berkeley center for new media

Supporting new media

faculty and students
Private giving plays a vital role in providing the Center with

much needed resources. Student fellowships, research grants,

symposia, and support for new facilities and labs are among

our chief needs. Generous benefactors of the Center

include craigslist, which established the Center’s first

endowed faculty chair with a donation of $1.6 million. The

craigslist gift, supporting research, symposia, and lectures, is

being matched with $1.5 million from the William and Flora

Hewlett Foundation for a total of $3.1 million for the Center.

Other gifts include the Peter Lyman Graduate Fellowship

in New Media, which supports the living and educational
expenses of Ph.D. students pursuing cross-disciplinary
research involving new media, children, and K-12 education.

These exciting gifts are laying the groundwork for building

private support of the Center. By expanding teaching
resources and greatly enhancing research efforts in
new media studies, donors can make a real difference for
the Center.
 the Berkeley Center for New Media

Investing in creativity
and innovation
You can be a part of UC Berkeley’s continued

preeminence in new media studies by making a

gift to the Berkeley Center for New Media. With

your support, the Center’s students and faculty can

continue to evaluate the complexities and advance Learn more about the
Berkeley Center for New Media
the frontiers of emerging technologies. online at bcnm.berkeley.edu.

Existing opportunities for supporting the Center’s

groundbreaking work include the following:

• Naming Endowment for the Center

• Graduate Fellowships
• Research Grants
• BCNM Commons
• BCNM Research Lab

P l e a s e c o n s i d e r m a k i n g a g ift today.

For more information, please contact:

Professor Ken Goldberg

Berkeley Center for New Media
University of California, Berkeley
4189 Etcheverry Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
510.643.9565
goldberg@berkeley.edu

M a ke c h e c k s p aya bl e t o U C B e r keley F oundation . You may

a l s o m a ke a g i f t o n l i n e a t g i ve t ocal.berkeley.edu .

c r e d i t s : Im a g e o n p a g e 1 by L u t her Thie .

V6585A

S c u l p t u r e i n B C N M c o m mons by Philip Krohn.

university of california, berkeley