MIME program teaches students new media

In a culture where computer animated films like "Shrek" and "Finding Nemo" earn top spots at the box office, the demand for an education in new media has grown tremendously. Eight years ago, Professor Thom Gillespie decided to meet students' needs and created the master's in immersive mediated environments program, or MIME, through IU's Department of Telecommunications as a way for students to apply their innate creative talents to computer animation.\nMIME recognizes that the explosion in digital convergence comes from applying human talent and imagination to technology, according to the program's Web site, \nWhen graduate student Chris Booker was finishing his bachelor's degree at the Rochester Institute of Technology, he searched for a program that would allow him to put the patchwork of all media together in a single form. He found the MIME program at IU and enrolled.\n"New media is an opportunity for stories to be told by all media outlets," Booker said.\nBooker now works at The Chicago Tribune as a multimedia producer while completing his thesis.\nGillespie said he accepts anybody to the program with a college degree who wants to get into the interactive world but that he looks for students with creative ability in art, music and storytelling. He said he wants the students to already have the traditional artistic tools on hand when he teaches them the technology.\nAnother program graduate student, Veronica Gonzalez, got involved with MIME in 2003 by studying sound design. She worked at Electronic Arts, the largest game publisher in the world, where she did audio and sound design for games such as Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2004. \n"Being a MIME student absolutely helped me to get these positions," said Gonzalez.\nCurrently, the program has 35 active students who strive for a team atmosphere while still choosing their own individualized program. The graduate level program takes one to two years to complete and can take any path a student chooses.\nThe MIME program will offer a certificate in game design for the first time this semester and there will also be a game design track established in telecommunications. \n"The curriculum design is geared toward each individual student and allows each 'Mimester' to get the education and background they desire," said Gonzalez. \nWith the program only requiring three classes, the students have to decide the direction their coursework will take. \nTo help build a collective group atmosphere, though, Gillespie hosts a weekend breakfast at his house. The time together gives the students the ability to explain their preferred games.\n"On Sundays I make sourdough waffles and people come over to eat and play their favorite games," Gillespie said. \nGillespie sees new media as the primary medium for communication with young people. His goal for the future is to develop interactive media as good as famous film directors like Martin Scorsese. Just as one can do anything in film, Gillespie says one can do anything in the game medium. The game is just a new realm.\n"(The program) keeps getting better. It doesn't seem to be leveling," said Gillespie. "The students are driven."\n-- Contact staff writer Lyndsay Gilman atlkgilman@indiana.edu .