- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock receives $325,000 grant from National Endowment for the Humanities

John Hill — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 20:01:01 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has received a $325,043 grant from the (NEH) to create a rich collection of digitized material integrated into a map-based website that tracks how urban renewal changed the City of Little Rock in the decades following the Central High School desegregation crisis.�� The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture (CAHC) will lead the project, “Mapping Urban Fracture: Charting the Context and Consequence of the Little Rock Central High Crisis Project.” The center’s director, Dr. Deborah Baldwin, associate provost of collections and archives, will serve as the principal investigator for the three-year project that begins June 1. CAHC received a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2018 for an 18-month pilot project of the map that brought together humanities scholars and technical specialists to select, digitize, describe, and create a website making the resources available to the public. A prototype of the project can be found on the . The Mapping Urban Fracture project will create a virtual collection comprising approximately 700 new reports and maps created after 1989 and develop an access interface to research spatial segregation with meta and geospatial data. The website includes the digitization and geolocation of maps, architectural drawings, reports, and related photographs to address humanities issues and questions. The project will create an aggregated collection of digital products that track the history of Little Rock through patterns of residential segregation, urban renewal, public school desegregation plans, and local elections and governance. While scholars will generate sample narratives to interpret the virtual collection, members of the public, particularly teachers and students, can find and create their own stories through the data. “One of the reasons we wanted to complete this project is to make our collections more accessible to a wide variety of people, and we believed integrating them into a multilayered map on a website would do that,” Baldwin said. “It is an opportunity for the university to pull together expertise in many different areas and focus them on a project that can inspire a lot of conversation about the development of this city.” The NEH awarded $24 million in grants for 225 humanities projects across the country. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock was one of only two projects in the state selected for a 2021 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. “NEH is proud to support these 225 new projects, which embody excellence, intellectual rigor, and a dedication to the pursuit of knowledge, even as our nation and the humanities community continue to face the challenges of the pandemic,” said NEH Acting Chairman Adam Wolfson. “We look forward to the contributions these projects will make to our understanding of ourselves and our society through exemplary humanities research, publications, documentary films, exhibitions, and undergraduate programs.” The Mapping Urban Fracture project will allow the CAHC to place collections from various institutions together in a single, searchable database so that users can interact with digitized and described materials both spatially and visually. The project combines geographic, print, architectural, photographic, census, and election data to provide a complex portrait of the effects of government, politics, and growth on the urban environment. In the 1960s, urban renewal in central Little Rock comprised one of the largest demolition and clearance programs in the country. As a result of renewal efforts, Little Rock’s Central High district shifted from being a majority-white to a predominantly African-American neighborhood. The Ninth Street Corridor, the city’s African-American business district, was cleared of its inhabitants and businesses to make way for freeway construction.

Downtown Little Rock in 1951. Photo Courtesy of the CAHC collection: Earl Saunders, Jr. Photograph Collection.

The Mapping Urban Fracture project will not only digitize important historic materials from this period and make them freely available online, it also will develop methods that can be used nationally for describing place-based materials in ways that others can easily find. Because this project includes many maps and architectural drawings, the team will attach geospatial data to the digital files so that computers and Geographic Information Systems can be used for analysis. Focus groups with local educators as well as a teacher advisory group will ensure the project interface is accessible to both teachers and students. The project will also increase community engagement and civic discourse by providing the local community with access to resources and information about spatial segregation, the effects of past urban renewal initiatives, and the evolution of school desegregation. “There are many mapping projects around the country right now,” said Laura McClellan, assistant director of the Center for Arkansas History and Culture. “There is a trend to use data in a visual way, and we feel like expressing data in a visual way with all these different kinds of collaborators brings a richness to the discussion of the history of Little Rock that ordinarily we couldn’t have. This is a way to connect with multiple collaborators with a new way of discussing the information that also follows national trends. We are cutting edge.” CAHC personnel and partners hope to make presentations on this “cutting edge project” at the Society of American Archivists, the Arkansas Historical Association, the Society of Southwest Archivists, and the University of San Diego’s Digital Initiatives Symposium. A variety of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock departments will collaborate in the creation of the project, including the CRUX Lab, the Arkansas Institute for Economic Advancement, the Department of History, and IT Services. “This is a very collaborative project that pulls together people who are interested in the humanities,” Baldwin said. “The enjoyable part of this project is gathering a wide variety of people who don’t always work together.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s CRUX Lab hosts Global Game Jam 2020

John Hill — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 14:45:23 +0000

Sixteen local game enthusiasts took part in from Jan. 31 to Feb. 2 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. In just 48 hours, they created seven new games for the world to enjoy. “This was our third year hosting the Global Game Jam at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s CRUX Lab, and it was the biggest and best one yet,” said graduate student Olivia Dunlap, a co-founder of Little Rock Game Designers who co-led the event with alumnus and co-founder Robbie Hunt. Global Game Jam is similar to a hackathon but is focused on game development. Over 48,700 people participated in Global Game Jam 2020 from 934 locations spanning 118 countries. Participants were given a “Repair” theme and then had 48 hours to create a game. Dunlap said she especially appreciates how the event not only brings together people of all different backgrounds and skill levels, but also helps to grow the local game development community. “Every year, the whole place is just buzzing with creative energy and lots of fun, smart people helping brainstorm, problem-solve, and playtest each other’s games,” graduate student Loren Snow said. “It’s exhausting, but well worth it to have a functional game to show off at the end. The inspiration stays with me long after the weekend has passed, and I also make a bunch of new friends every year.” Computer science major Kyle Hooks said Global Game Jam is one of his most favorite events of the year. “Getting a chance to work with old friends and new ones on games is good fun and great practice for my programming and design skills,” Hooks said. “The fact that it’s not a competition makes it much more relaxed, too, which I think helps people think outside the box without added pressure.”

Global Game Jam 2020 participants write their skills on a whiteboard to form teams. Pictured left to right are Robbie Hunt, Kyle Hooks, Olivia Dunlap, Dr. Joe Williams, Zach Bolt, Dr. Joyce Carter, and Emily Hillyard.

This year’s participants included ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students Mark Barnes, Zach Bolt, Dunlap, Snow, Venus Mitteer, Bushra Sajid, and Skylar Whitehurst, as well as Travis Bailey, Alex Barton, Sean Beasley, Erik Frederick, Emily Hillyard, Hooks, and Hunt. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock employees joined in on the fun, including Brad Sims, media and online instruction specialist for the College of Education and Health Professions, and Jason Zak, lead artist at the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Emerging Analytics Center. Tanner Marshal, a computer science graduate student, and Dr. Joe Williams, associate professor of rhetoric and writing, helped run the event, and Dr. Joyce Carter, chair of the Department of Rhetoric and Writing, cheered on the teams. “This was my first time participating in Global Game Jam,” said Bushra Sajid, a computer science major. “It was fun working with my team and felt amazing when we turned an idea into reality in just 48 hours. I will definitely participate next year.” Snow said she is primarily an artist, but is learning to program through osmosis. Snow worked on a team to make a game titled “Larry Fixes the World” while simultaneously working on a solo project called “Dr. Smesh’s Nightmare Emporium.” “Our jammers made a total of seven new games, all of which are really creative and did totally different and interesting things with this year’s ‘Repair’ theme,” Dunlap said. The games are available on the . They include: Dr. Smesh’s Nightmare Emporium by Loren Snow – Dr. Smesh helps his patients deal with their nightmares. His methods are questionable. Dream Theory by Robbie Hunt and Alex Barton – Dream Theory is a logic puzzle with a light narrative. What happens in your brain when you have a lot on your mind and you wake up with a new outlook and the perfect solution to your problems? In Need Of Repair by Sean Beasley – Ideally, this physics-based construct could walk smoothly and naturally. In practice, it is a bit wibbly-wobbly. Using left and right arrows, a center motor will drive the locomotion of legs and move the construct.

Kyle Hooks designs his game “Iterate.”

Iterate by Kyle Hooks and Mark Barns – “Give your life to repair the Great Machine.” Iterate is an atmospheric, replayable puzzle game about transcendence, about many parts contributing to the greater whole. Each Iterator you play as, uniquely and randomly generated, lives for only a brief moment in time. However, your combined efforts (be they multiple lives of your own, or others) will ultimately open the gates to become one with the Sparkmother, the Great Machine, that looms over you in the distance. The game is intended to be played in separate, repeated sessions, where progress made in each 20-second cycle is persistent. Larry Fixes the World by Zack Bolt, Travis Bailey, Bushra Sajid, Emily Hillyard, and Loren Snow – You play as the handyman, Larry. The object of the game is to repair the various broken things in your life. Choose your tools wisely. Medic Mech by Skylar Whitehurst, Venus Mitteer, Alex Barton, and Jason Zak – Repair them…it’s all you know. Endlessly you repair others like you, fueling the engine you reside within. Parts must be ordered and quality is key because the engine must continue to run. The sound of explosions rumble through the walls of the factory. You fear not for your safety. You fear for the survival of all you know. The Trash Garden by Olivia Dunlap and Brad Sims – Playing as one of many small creatures in a world of broken things, embark on a quest to make something beautiful from the trash all around you. Interact with other trash denizens to help them grow and to help your garden grow, too. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s event was sponsored by the Department of Rhetoric and Writing and . For more information about other game design events in central Arkansas, email Olivia Dunlap at ocdunlap@gmail.com.

The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock CRUX Lab team created seven new games for the world to enjoy during Global Game Jam 2020.
Pictured in the photo at top are Zach Bolt, Bushra Sajid, Emily Hillyard, Travis Bailey, and Loren Snow.

To The Rescue: ��Vlog��ý Little Rock gamers create simulation about saving dogs at rescue shelters

Ajani Oyindamola — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 13:57:56 +0000

Two University of Arkansas at Little Rock students are raising awareness of animal rescue shelters while creating a fun, interactive game that will melt your heart.�� is a dog shelter simulation game that allows players to understand the ins and out of running a dog rescue shelter. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock graduate students and best friends Olivia Dunlap and Tanner Marshall have been working on the game as a pet project for the past 2 ½ years. Dunlap and Marshall are roommates and the proud pet parents of a dog jovially named Keanu Reeves. “We were walking to class one day, and Olivia pointed out that there are a lot of interesting emotional decisions to make if you create a game about running a dog shelter,” Marshall said. “You have limited resources, limited time, and you have to help as many animals as you can while making some hard decisions.” In the game, a player is the sole volunteer who is responsible for running the shelter, taking care of the dogs, and making sure they are adopted into their forever homes.�� “The goal is to keep the shelter open for as long as possible and to get as many dogs adopted as possible,” Dunlap said. “You rely on donations to keep the shelter open. Some dogs have certain health or behavioral issues that make it more expensive to take care of them. People come in looking for specific things that will affect how likely they are to adopt.” The player also has to make tough decisions that Marshall and Dunlap admit can be heart-wrenching. “One of the game’s unexpected challenges is disease outbreaks,” Marshall said. “Your shelter can be running along fine and suddenly you get a heartworm outbreak that is very expensive to treat. You suddenly have to make a decision about if you have enough money to treat all the dogs, or if you might have to euthanize the dogs if you don’t have enough money to keep the shelter open while treating all the dogs. That’s a good example of the kind of emotional decisions you have to make. It’s sad and it’s part of why we wanted to make the game. Someone out there has to make these decisions and help as many animals as they can. It’s good for a potential pet adopter to think about these things.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock graduate students Tanner Marshall (left) and Olivia Dunlap (right) are developing a dog rescue video game, “To The Rescue.” Photo by Ben Krain.

Although there is a child-friendly mode for younger players, the game makers feel it’s important to raise awareness about the issues faced at rescue shelters. “It’s a fun game, but we didn’t want to shy away from some of the issues that people might be unaware of,” Dunlap said. “We want to raise awareness for animal shelters. That’s why we will donate 20 percent of the profits to animal shelters.” The game was created with Joseph Williams, associate professor in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing, who worked on sound design, and Byron Buslig, a ��Vlog��ý Little Rock alumnus who served as the game’s artist.�� “Part of our journey was seeking out like-minded people, and Joseph Williams was the most influential person in that regard,” Marshall said. “We have done several independent studies with him. That is how we met Byron, working on a small independent game prototype. That is how we were able to get a game-oriented education. Having access to the CRUX lab in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing has been invaluable. We are happy that it is here on campus since the workspace really helps us to develop our games.” The game creators will launch a Kickstarter campaign for “To The Rescue” on Aug. 6, where they hope to raise enough money to complete the game and manufacture the first orders. “To The Rescue” is expected to be available on PC and Mac OS computers in early 2020. The game is available to add to your .

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to host Global Game Jam Jan. 25-27

Ajani Oyindamola — Fri, 18 Jan 2019 20:59:02 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host a Jan. 25-27 for those who are interested in creating a game in 48 hours.�� is the world’s largest game jam event taking place around the world at different locations. The event is similar to a hackathon but is focused on game development. �� Nearly 43,000 people participated in Global Game Jam 2018, resulting in 8,597 games developed at 803 sites in 108 countries. At ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, 10 people participated in the university’s first Global Game Jam last year, resulting in the creation of five games based on the theme of transmission. While design and coding skills are important in game development, the event’s organizers encourage anyone interested in games to participate. “The great thing about games is how interdisciplinary they are,” said Olivia Dunlap, a graduate student in computer science who is organizing the event with alumnus Robbie Hunt. ��“Most games require programming and art skills, but writers, musicians, actors, and more can all contribute to a great game. For independent game production, marketing, social media management, team management, and other production-related skills are also necessary. But what that means for an event like the Global Game Jam is that you can enter with little-to-no art or programming experience and still make a game that is fun, or that tells a great story.” Dunlap noted that there are several programs that the Global Game Jam organizers will demonstrate to participants that will easily help them break into the world of game development. “There are really accessible tools such as or or that make it really easy to get started, and there will be people like me around who will be happy to mentor for those tools,” she said. “For example, we had an attendee at last year’s jam who had never touched the Unity game engine before, but by the end of the 48 hours, he and his team had made . If you’re a programmer, an artist, a writer, a designer, a mathematician, or are just plain bored and want to try and make something cool, you should definitely try out the Global Game Jam!” Participants will gather at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock on Friday, Jan. 25, be divided into teams, watch a short video keynote with advice from leading game developers, and then a secret theme will be announced. Teams have 48 hours to design, develop, create, test, and make a new game based on the theme. The game jam will be held in the CRUX Lab in Stabler Hall Room 603 from 3 p.m. Jan. 25, until 5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 27, when participants’ games will be revealed. Snacks, a sound booth, green screen, and a limited number of computers with game development tools will be available, but participants are encouraged to bring their own computers. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s event is hosted by the Department of Rhetoric and Writing and Little Rock Game Designers. Dr. Joe Williams, associate professor or rhetoric and writing, is the faculty advisor. Register for the event by signing up at the . For more information, email Dunlap at playlittlerockgames@gmail.com. In the upper right photo, these 10 gamers participated in ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s first Global Game Jam in 2018, creating five games in 48 hours.��Back row (L to R): Zack Bolt, Tanner Marshall, Geoffrey Townsley, Alex Barton, Joe Williams, and Kyle Hooks. Front row: Olivia Dunlap, Robbie Hunt, and Loren Snow.��

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock receives $325,000 grant from National Endowment for the Humanities

����Vlog��ý Little Rock’s CRUX Lab hosts Global Game Jam 2020

To The Rescue: ����Vlog��ý Little Rock gamers create simulation about saving dogs at rescue shelters

����Vlog��ý Little Rock to host Global Game Jam Jan. 25-27

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock receives $325,000 grant from National Endowment for the Humanities

��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s CRUX Lab hosts Global Game Jam 2020

To The Rescue: ��Vlog��ý Little Rock gamers create simulation about saving dogs at rescue shelters

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to host Global Game Jam Jan. 25-27