Associate Professor and Director of the Multimedia Communication Major and the Mass Communication Major in the Communication Department of Concordia University Wisconsin.  Email Mark Wolf

Education

University of Southern California, Ph.D., 1995, Cinema/Television, Critical Studies

Minor: Annenberg School of Communication, USC

Dissertation:  Quantizing Perception: Art, Communication and Cognition in the Digital Age

Dissertation Committee: 

Marsha Kinder (Chair), Professor of Critical Studies, USC School of Cinema/Television Michael Renov, Professor of Critical Studies, USC School of Cinema/Television

Richard Weinberg, Professor of Computer Science, USC, with a joint appointment in

                           the Production Department of the School of Cinema/Television

University of Southern California, M.A., 1992, Cinema/Television, Critical Studies

University of Southern California, B.A., 1990, Cinema/Television, Production

Teaching Experience

Concordia University Wisconsin, in Mequon, Wisconsin

Associate Professor, Communication Department

At CUW from Fall of 1995 to the Present

Courses taught (* = created course where none had existed previously):

            Communication 105: The Spoken Word

            Communication 193: WCUW Radio

            Communication 250: Introduction to Mass Communication

         * Communication 261/Religion 261: Representations of Christ in Film

            Communication 265: Journalism

            Communication 280: Careers in Communications

         * Communication 281: Video Art

         * Communication 316: Science Fiction Film

           Communication 321: Media Writing

         * Communication 322: Multimedia Design

         * Communication 329: History of Film

         * Communication 339: Film and Video Production

         * Communication 347: Animation

         * Communication 348: Multimedia Production

         * Communication 371/Philosophy 371: Philosophy and Film

            Communication 415: Mass Media Ethics

         * Communication 425: Communication Technologies

         * Communication 439: Advanced Film and Video Production

         * Communication 448: Advanced Multimedia Production

            Communication 460: Cross-Cultural Communication

            Adult Learning 391: The Contemporary Scene

            Master's in Managerial Communication 540/840: Professional

                                             Presentations and Reports

University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin

Summer Interim, 1997 (May 19 to June 6)

         * Radio-TV-Film 96-246: Animation: Theory, History, & Practice

University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, California

Spring, 1995, Research Assistantship

         Research and design work on Marsha Kinder's Runaways CD-ROM Project

Fall, 1994, Graduate Readership

         CNTV 501: Silent Film History (Read and evaluated graduate class journals)

Fall, 1992�Fall, 1994, Teaching Assistantships

         CNTV 200: History of International Film to WWII (Fall of 1992 and 1993)

         CNTV 201: History of International Film After WWII (Spring of 1993 and 1994)

         CNTV 393: American Sound Film Since 1950 (Spring, 1994)

         CNTV 499: Multimedia and New Technology (Fall, 1994)

Fall, 1990-Spring, 1992, Teaching Assistant for USC Film Graphics Department

         Provided technical assistance and aesthetic consultation, gave camera demonstration and checkouts, supervised camera and equipment usage, and kept track of supplies.

Conference Planning and Organizing

Concordia University Wisconsin Faculty Retreat, August 18-19, 2003, in Green Lake, Wisconsin, co-chair of the Faculty Development Committee which planned the retreat.

"Design and Its Critics" Conference, held at Concordia University Wisconsin, June 22-24, 2000.  Member of the planning committee for the conference.

"20/20 Vision: 20 Years of CIVA, 20 Centuries of Christians in the Visual Arts", 1999 CIVA Conference, held at Concordia University Wisconsin, June 2-6, 1999.  Member of the planning committee for the conference.

"TECHNOGRAPHY: Writing With and About New Media and Technology", held June 8-11, 1995, at the University of Southern California.  Founder and Co-Organizer of the conference.  This four-day conference included academic panels and workshops, as well as industry tours and presentations, combining practical, theoretical, industrial, and artistic perspectives of the effects of new technologies.

Conference Papers and Presentations

March, 2004, Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Atlanta, Georgia; Paper: "Space, Time, Frame, Cinema: Muybridge, Bullet-Time, and Beyond".

October 31-November 1, 2003, invited to speak (all expense paid) at the Annenberg Public Policy Center's Conference on Digital Media and Communication at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; paper: "On the Future of Video Games".

June 26-29, 2003, Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) Conference, at Gordon College, in Wenham, Massachusetts; Panel Chair and Moderator, "Painting with Light and Motion: Art and the Moving Image".

March 2003, Society for Cinema and Media Studies (formerly the Society of Cinema Studies) Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Paper: "The Technological Construction of Performance".

November 11, 2002, invited to speak (all expense paid plus honorarium) at Baylor University for CST 4V30: Video Game Industry Seminar, taught by Michael Korpi and Corey Carbonara.

August 18, 2002, CUW Faculty Retreat at Pheasant Run, St. Charles, Illinois; Presentation; "Film, TV, Video, & the Web: The Moving Image in the Classroom".

May 2002, Society for Cinema Studies Conference, Denver, Colorado; "Digital Aesthetics" Panel Chair; Paper: "The Decline of Abstraction in the Video Game".

February 26, 2002, "Subcreation: Imaginary Worlds and Embedded World-Views", solicited for the Cranach Institute Spring Speaker Series at Concordia University Wisconsin.

May-June, 2001, Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) Conference ("A Presence Seen"), "Film Panel and Discussion", Panel Chair.  Also organized film screening with guest speaker.

May, 2001, Society for Cinema Studies Conference, Washington D.C.; Paper: "From Simulation to Emulation: Ethics, Worldviews, and Video Games".

September 24, 2000, �Game Not Over: Culture And The Expanding World Of The Video Game�, Covenant Presbyterian, Chicago.  Invited to speak (all expense paid plus honorarium) as a part of their Arts Ministry program.

July, 2000, "Emotional Realism and Special Effects in James Cameron's Titanic", paper given on video at the "Nights to Remember: Memory, Modernity, and the Myth of the Titanic" Conference, Southampton, England.

April, 2000, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.  Invited and paid to speak as the Keynote speaker on a panel on video games on Thursday, April 13, and as guest speaker for Shawn Rosenheim's Documentary Technology class on Friday, April 14.

March, 2000, Society for Cinema Studies Conference, Chicago, Illinois; "Video Game Theory" Panel Chair; Paper: "Why Video Game Theory?".

June, 1999, Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) Conference ("20/20 Vision: 20 Years of CIVA, 20 Centuries of Christians in the Visual Arts), "Christians in Film and Video", Panel Chair.  Also organized film and video screenings entitled "EYE HAS NOT SEEN: New Works in Film and Video".

April, 1999, Society for Cinema Studies Conference, West Palm Beach, Florida; Paper: "A Brief History of Morphing".

October, 1998, National Broadcasting Society Heartland Regional Convention, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; member of the Animation panel.

May, 1997, Society for Cinema Studies Conference, Ottawa, Canada; Paper: "From Pong to Myst: The Increasingly Cinematic Diegetic World of the Video Game".

June, 1995, Technography Conference, University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Conference Founder, "Interactivity" Panel Chair; Paper: "A Spectrum of Human-Machine Interaction".

March, 1995, SCS Conference, New York City; "Technologies and Meanings" Panel Chair; Paper: "Cultural Biases Inherent in Digitization".

August, 1994, Visible Evidence II Conference, University of Southern California, Paper: "Subjunctive Documentary: Computer Imaging and Simulation".

September, 1993, Visible Evidence Conference, Duke University; Paper: "A Grain of Truth? Documentary Value and the Digital Photographic Image".

February, 1993, SCS Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana; Paper: "The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction".

May, 1991, SCS Conference, University of Southern California; member of USC Roger Rabbit Laserdisc Interactive group project and presentation.

Books

Forthcoming Tolkien biography for Cumberland's "Leaders in Action" book series.  [Solicited by the editor.]

The World of the D'ni: Myst and Riven, forthcoming in Fall of 2005 as a part of the Ludologica book series which is part of a larger project on video game and new media research funded by Libera Universit" di Lingue e Comunicazione (IULM)/Cariplo Foundation.  Published in Italian and English.

The Video Game Theory Reader, anthology co-editor (with Bernard Perron) and essay contributor ("Abstraction in the Video Game"), New York: Routledge Press, 2003. (Also designed the background image on the book's front cover.)

Virtual Morality: Morals, Ethics, and New Media, anthology editor and essay contributor ("From Simulation to Emulation: Ethics, Worldviews, and Video Games"), New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2003.  The book is Vol. 3 in the Digital Formations series edited by Steve Jones.

The Medium of the Video Game, anthology editor and contributor of five essays ("The Video Game as a Medium", "Space in the Video Game", "Time in the Video Game", "Narrative in the Video Game", and "Genre and the Video Game"), Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 2001.  (Also designed the book's front cover.)

Abstracting Reality: Art, Communication, and Cognition in the Digital Age, Lanham, Massachusetts: University Press of America, 2000.

Publications

"Game Studies and Beyond", forthcoming in Games & Culture: A Journal of Interactive Media.  [Solicited by the editor.]

"Assessing Interactivity in Video Game Design", forthcoming in Mechademia: An Interdisciplinary Journal for Anime, Manga and the Fan Arts, 2006.  [Solicited by the editor.]

�Space, Time, Frame, Cinema: Muybridge, Frozen Time, and Beyond�, under review at American Cinematographer.

"The Subcreation of Transmedia Worlds", forthcoming in the "media culture" issue of Compar(a)ison, the international review of comparative literature.  [Solicited by the editor].

Entries for "video games" and "special effects" in the Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics, edited by Carl Mitcham, forthcoming from MacMillan Publishing. [Solicited by the editor.]

"On the Future of Video Games", in Messaris, Paul and Humphreys, Lee, editors, Digital Media: Transformations in Human Communication. New York: Peter Lang, forthcoming, Fall 2005.  (Solicited by the editors.)

Book review of Espen Aarseth's Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature forthcoming in Breakthrough Books. [Solicited by the editor.]

"Genre and the Video Game", in Joost Raessens and Jeffrey Goldstein, editors, Handbook of Video Game Studies, forthcoming from Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2005. [Solicited by the editor.]

Entries for "digital video", "computer imaging", "computer simulation", "indexicality", and "subjunctive documentary", in Ian Aitken, editor, Encyclopedia of Documentary Film, forthcoming from Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers in 2005.  [Solicited by the editor.]

"The Technical Challenge of Emotional Realism and James Cameron's Titanic", in The Titanic in Myth and Memory, edited by Tim Bergfelder and Sarah Street, London: I. B. Tauris Publishers, October 2004.

June 2004, Discover Magazine, "Small Fractal Maze" used in Scott Kim's "Bogglers" column, page 86.

Interviewed by Jonathan Coley for Nintendo Insider, interview conducted by e-mail March 9, 2004, and available at http://nintendoinsider.com/site/EpZllZlVyZwQFLHJFd.php.

"The Technological Construction of Performance", Convergence, Winter 2003, Vol. 9, No. 4, pages 48-59.

December 13, 2003, "Chess Maze" published on Ed Pegg Jr.'s www.mathpuzzle.com.

December, 2003, "Abstraction: An Untapped Potential", a guest column for The Ivory Tower Column, edited by Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Staffan Bj'rk, and Frans Mayr", in the International Game Developers Association on-line newsletter, available at http://www.igda.org/columns/ivorytower/ivory_Dec03.php. [Solicited by the editor.]

November 18, 2003, "Small Fractal Maze" published on Ed Pegg Jr.'s www.mathpuzzle.com, and also used in his November 24, 2003 "Multi-state Mazes" Math Games column for MAA Online: The Online Home of the Mathematical Association of America, available at http://www.maa.org/editorial/mathgames/mathgames_11_24_03.html.

October 18, 2003, "Fractal Maze" published on Ed Pegg Jr.'s www.mathpuzzle.com.

Book review of Andrew Darley's Visual Digital Culture: Surface Play and Spectacle in New Media Genres, in the "Film Quarterly Annual Film Book Survey, Part I", Film Quarterly, Volume 55, Number 4, Summer 2002, pages 67-69.  (Solicited by the Film Quarterly book review editor.)

Guest Editor for CIVASEEN, March 2002 issue.  Solicited by the newsletter's regular editor to edit an issue on the theme of moving imagery.

"Sculptor of Time", CIVA SEEN, Volume 1, Issue 1, 2000.  (Solicited by the editor.)

"On Video: Collecting and Film", CIVA Newsletter, Volume 8, Issue 2, Summer 2000, pages 8 and 9.  (Solicited by the editor.)

"A Brief History of Morphing", in the anthology Meta-Morphing: Visual Transformation and the Culture of Quick Change, edited by Vivian Sobchack, Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2000.

"Subjunctive Documentary: Computer Imaging and Simulation", in the anthology Collecting Visible Evidence edited by Michael Renov and Jane Gaines, University of Minnesota Press, 1999.  (Solicited by the editors.)  This essay was also reprinted in Carolyn Handa, editor, Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World: A Critical Sourcebook, Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's Publishing, 2004.

"Robin Nelson's TV in Transition" (Book review), Screening The Past (an on-line journal),  uploaded April 16, 1999, at http://www.latrobe.edu.au/www/screeningthepast/shorts/ reviews/rev499/brmwap.html.  (Solicited by the editor.)

"Myst and Riven: Cinema for the Small Screen" (CD-ROM review), Film Quarterly, Volume 52, Number 1, Fall 1998, page 98.

"Virtual Sub-creation" (CD-ROM review), World magazine, December 16, 1997, page 23.

"Inventing Space: The Use of On-screen and Off-screen Space in Video Games", Film Quarterly, Volume 51, Fall 1997, pages 11-23.

"Animating Culture and Disney Discourse: A Review" (Book review), Film Quarterly, Volume 50, Winter 1996.

"Pedro Meyer's Truths and Fictions" (CD-ROM review), Film Quarterly, Volume 50, Winter 1996.

"In the Frame of Roger Rabbit: Visual Compositing in Film", The Velvet Light Trap, No. 36, Fall 1995, pages 45-59.

"Eisenstein, Bazin and Kracauer on HDTV", The Spectator (Vol. 11, No. 2, Spring 1991), pages 72-77.

As "Enigma" Columnist for Extropy magazine:

• "Squared Deal", Extropy #15, 2nd-3rd Quarter 1995, page 46.
• "Murder at the Liar's Club", Extropy #16, 1st Quarter 1996, pages 48-49.
• "Fractal Mazes", Extropy #17, Fall 1996, pages 66-67.

Honors, Awards, and Service

Book proposal reviewer for Palgrave MacMillan Global Publishing at St. Martin's Press

Essay reviewer for Critical Studies in Media Communication

Mechademia: An Interdisciplinary Journal for Anime, Manga and the Fan Arts, senior editorial board member, 2005-Present

Games and Culture: A Journal of Interactive Media, editorial board member, 2004-Present

The Journal of E-Media, editorial board member, 2004-Present

CUW Quasquicentennial (125th Anniversary) Committee member, 2004-Present

sim/iotic@ magazine, editorial board member 2003-Present

Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA), board member, September 1999-Present

Society for Cinema Studies, member, 1991, 1993, 1995-Present

Videotopia Advisory Board Member, 1997-Present

CUW Computer Use Committee member, 1998-Present

WCUW Radio Faculty Advisor, Fall 1996-Present

CIVA Board Secretary, 2003-2005

CUW Faculty Development Committee Co-Chair, Fall 2002-Summer 2003

CUW Faculty Development Committee Member, 2001-Summer 2003

Essay reviewer for Film Quarterly and Cinema Journal

Book proposal reviewer for University of Kansas Press

Book proposal reviewer for Routledge Press

Saint Adalbert Parish Council Member, South Milwaukee, June 2000-December 2002

CUW Honors College Committee, 2001-2002

Concordia Bioethics Institute, Board for Campus Outreach, 2001-2002

The 1994 George Cukor Scholarship, USC School of Cinema/Television

(1994) Associates Scholarship, USC School of Cinema/Television

(1993) Phi Kappa Phi Research Mentorship Award for work on USC's Roger Rabbit project

Golden Key National Honor Society Membership

University of Southern California Outstanding Student Scholarship

Dean's Lists, University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee and University of Southern California

(1987) UWM English Department Letter of Recommendation

(1987) Outstanding Academic Achievement Award as a UWM Sophomore

(Fall 1985 - Spring 1989)  National Merit Special Scholarship

(1985) NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) Writing Award

Other Areas of Interest:

Graphic Design, Technology Studies, New Technologies, Animation (Traditional, Experimental, & Computer), Science Fiction, Multimedia, Narrative Theory, Game Structure & Design, Film History, Literature, Architecture, Philosophy, Philology, Logology, Cultural Studies, Film and Video Production, Still Photography, Fiction Writing, Subcreation (world-building), Science, and Recreational Mathematics.

Software Used:

Microsoft Word 2001               Adobe Premiere 6.0                   ClarisWorks 5.0 Bryce 5.0

Superpaint 3.5                        Ray Dream Designer 4.0 Fontographer                 Amorphium

Hyperstudio                            SoundEdit 16                             Dramatica 1.0                Poser 4.0

PageMaker 6.0                       Adobe Photoshop 7.0                 PowerPoint 2001            Cubasis

Adobe AfterEffects 6.0             QuickTime VR Authoring            BASIC programming

Film, Video, and Multimedia Projects:

One Blessing After Another: CUW's 125th Anniversary, video, August, 2005.  Work in progress.

CIVASILVER Anniversary: 25 Years of Faith and Vision, video, June, 2005.  Work in progress.

River of Love: 40 Years Together, video and DVD, 61 minutes, May 2005.

January-May, 2003, Editor of Upon this Rock, Parts I, II, III, 30 minutes total, and designer and creator of a computer-generated video logo, 35 seconds.  Paid job solicited by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation [LHF].

Concordia University Wisconsin Recruitment Video, 12 minutes, Summer 2000.

The Candle (music video for Three James Morgan), 5 and a half minutes, Summer 1999.

Spring 1995, Latvian film scholar Yuri Tsivian's CD-ROM project, Immaterial Bodies: A Cultural Anatomy of Early Russian Cinema (from Cine Disc), animator.

Spring 1995, Research Assistantship on USC's The Changeling Project CD-ROM (from Cine Disc), Co-chaired by Marsha Kinder, Professor of Critical Studies, USC, and Mark Harris, chair of the Production department in USC's School of Cinema/Television.

Spring 1995, Designed corporate logo for Cine Discs.

Fall 1994, Marsha Kinder�s Blood Cinema CD-ROM (available from Cine Disc) on the history of Spanish Cinema, Production Assistant.

1991-1992, One of nine main collaborators on USC's "Reframing Roger Rabbit" interactive project, which included cross-linked databases in an interactive framework and included an anthology of essays and was demonstrated at the 1991 Society for Cinema Studies Conference.

Short Films:

• Ransom, 7 minutes, black & white, sound, Fall 1989.
• Doppelg'nger, 9 minutes, black & white, sound, April 1988.
• Stillness of the Afternoon, 3 minutes, black & white, sound, March 1988.
• Killing Time, 3 minutes, February 1988.
• The Procrastinator, 5 minutes, January 1988.

Animation:

• Back To The Drawing Board, 5 and a half minutes, 1991-2002.
•    This film combines hand-drawn animation, computer animation, and live action.
• Weltanschuaang, 3 minutes, black & white, sound, (unfinished).
• Wild Bill, 1 minute, black & white, April, 1990.
• CNTV 548 Projects, black & white and color, sound, Fall 1989.
• Child's Play, 5 minutes, March 1988.
• Water, 1 minute, silent, Fall 1987.
• In The Garden, 80 seconds, Spring 1987.
• On Wisconsin, 10 seconds, color, silent, February 1987.
• Touch, 45 seconds, color, silent, December 1986.