Cellist Zoë Keating Headlines REBOOT:music Live Concert @ The Tech

7:30 p.m. – 1:00 a.m. 21+ only
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Lower Level of The Tech Museum of Innovation
$15 early bird presale / $13 for members
$20 presale / $25 at the door
Buy tickets

Zoë Keating, the well-known Canadian cellist and composer, will headline The Tech Museum of Innovation’s REBOOT:music LIVE! concert on Saturday, August 2. Keating will be joined by four other electronic musicians — Eskmo, Moldover, Nonagon and Rich DDT — as part of the closing event for The Tech’s exhibition, REBOOT:music, which ends its run August 17.

Keating’s mix of acoustic and electronic music — she plays the cello and a foot-operated laptop device — has captivated audiences worldwide. The artist’s DIY musical projects have attracted a wide following on social media despite the fact that she isn’t affiliated with any record label. View video of one of Keating's performances here.

The concert will also feature Eskmo, a Los Angeles electronic music producer; Moldover, known to the YouTube music community as “The Godfather of Controllerism”; Nonagon, performing alongside Colin Evoy Sebestyen with a combination of traditional and electronic music, mesmerizing designs and effects; and Rich DDT, who will play his ControlliTAR.

Before the concert, the artists will take part in a panel discussion about their inspirations and the technologies they use.

REBOOT:music Live! is the closing event for The Tech’s digital music exhibition, REBOOT:music. The exhibition features 16 installations by renowned artists that allow visitors to collaborate and explore the boundaries of music making. It is open through August 17.

Contributing Curators: LoveTech

The Photography of Modern Cuisine at The Tech (Jun 25 - Sep 1)

SAN JOSE, CA – Prepare for your close-up – with food like you’ve never seen it before.

The Photography of Modernist Cuisine: The Exhibition, a collection of more than 75 large-format photographs of food taken by Nathan Myhrvold and his Modernist Cuisine team, will be on display at The Tech Museum of Innovation from June 25 to September 1. Admission is free.

Myhrvold is the former Microsoft chief technology officer and author of the critically acclaimed Modernist Cuisine books, which are beloved by chefs. The photographs in the exhibition illuminate the fascinating, accessible science at work every day in our kitchens. “Cooking is the only science experiment we all do on a regular basis,” Myhrvold says.

"Nathan Myhrvold's passion for food and photography are on full display in this extraordinary exhibit,” said Tech President Tim Ritchie. “He enables us to see how wonderful and beautiful food really is, and how we can use technology to prepare it in delightful ways."

“I hope that others share with us the child-like wonder and curiosity I feel when looking at these photos,” Myhrvold says. “The exhibition and book are in many ways a culmination of my lifelong interest in photography, in much the same way thatModernist Cuisine was a milestone in my interest in food.”

Visitors will see the fractal structures and mesmerizing color gradations of vitamin C crystals through research microscopes with filters that polarize light. They’ll learn about the physics that propel and explode a bursting kernel of popcorn through the lens of a high-speed video camera that slows the action by a factor of 200. This unprecedented collection of images uses these innovations and other advanced technologies – including photographic techniques like panoramic stitching, focus stacking, and microscopy – to show the world of food in an entirely new way.

The Tech is the exhibition’s second stop in a three-year worldwide tour.

WHAT: The Photography of Modernist Cuisine: The Exhibition, a collection of more than 75 large-format photographs of food taken by Nathan Myhrvold and his team atModernist Cuisine

WHEN:  June 25 through Sept. 1, 2014

WHERE: The Tech Museum of Innovation, 201 S. Market St., San Jose, CA

Reboot:music Live! Tomorrow at The Tech

The Tech will be hosting unique musical event tomorrow in conjunction with their new "Reboot:music" exhibit. Several world-class electronic musicians will be performing beside the largest exhibition of interactive and collaborative digital music installations ever created. To get a feel for some of the performances, here are a handful of Youtube videos featuring the artists.

Reboot:music Live!

Saturday, May 10

7:00 p.m. – 1:00 a.m.

Admission $20

This event is 21 and over only. 

The Tech Museum of Innovation brings you a world-class lineup of live electronic musicianship, staged amid the largest exhibition of interactive, collaborative digital music installations ever created. Unleash your inner musician and immerse yourself in a new world of musical performances led by revolutionaries who are redefining the intersection of humans and machines.

Panel discussion with the artists moderated by ANI starts at 7:00 p.m. 

Performances by:  

• Daedelus
• Jeremy Ellis
• Onyx Ashanti
• Author & Punisher
• Daniel Bekman

Engage with instrument builders, fellow music enthusiasts, and creative tech luminaries. Inspire your creative spirit with 16 interactive installations in our REBOOT:music exhibition. REBOOT:music Live! is the ultramodern experience that you won't want to miss.

Contributing Curators: LoveTech

New Digital Music Exhibit at The Tech - REBOOT:music

The Tech is launching a new temporary exhibit focused around the art of making music in the digital age. This will include 14 installations by renowned artists that will let museum patrons collaborate and explore making music. They are also planning on having two evening concerts that will bring together cutting-edge live music performers from all around the world and various workshops to teach people more about music. The new exhibit is already open and will be available until August 17th of this year. More information in the press release below.

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SAN JOSE, CA –Time to turn up the volume! Bust out your maestro hat and mix it up. REBOOT:music, The Tech’s new interactive exhibition where you can partake in ultramodern digital music creation technology, debuts Friday, March 7, 2014. Unleash your artistic spirit with the help of 14 imaginative musical instruments created by visionary artists that allows you to explore the boundaries of how you experience music.

REBOOT:music provides collaborative, mesmerizing social music experiences with installations like:

• The Laser Harp Alembic: the musical sculpture that surrounds you with an orchestra of infinite sounds, each just a pluck of the air away.
• Red Hot and Sympathetic Resonance: two large-scale electro-acoustic experiences that bring a technological twist to familiar acoustic instruments.
• Stepping Tones: an immersive projection mapped out environment lets you create and visualize beats by hand.
• The Space Palette: the ultramodern musical and graphical instrument where futuristic soundscapes and digital designs are at your fingertips – literally!

To accompany the exhibition, the museum will create spin-off programs: two music performances and workshops featuring artists, musicians, instrument builders, and tech luminaries will be announced shortly.

WHAT:  The Tech’s new exhibition, REBOOT:music, unleashes your inner music-maker with 14 interactive digital music instruments. Free with museum admission.
WHEN:  Limited engagement debuts Friday, March 7, 2014 at 10 a.m. This temporary exhibition will run through Aug. 17, 2014.
WHERE: The Tech, 201 S. Market St., San Jose, CA
 
About The Tech Museum of Innovation
The Tech is a hands-on technology and science museum for people of all ages and backgrounds. The museum—located in the Capital of Silicon Valley —is a non-profit, experiential learning resource established to engage people in exploring and experiencing applied technologies affecting their lives. Through programs such as The Tech Challenge presented by Cisco, our annual team-design competition for youth, and internationally renowned programs such as The Tech Awards presented by Applied Materials, The Tech endeavors to inspire the innovator in everyone.

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The Tech Museum of Innovation
201 South Market Street
San Jose, CA 95113
1-408-795-6321
mtran@thetech.org

Visit: thetech.org
Like: facebook.com/TheTechMuseum
Follow: twitter.com/TheTechMuseum

Robots Taking over the Tech Tomorrow

Cutting-Edge Robotics Take Over The Tech Museum of Innovation

Museum hosts entire day of human-robot interaction activities on MLK day

SAN JOSE, CA –Bust out moves to your favorite tunes alongside a humanoid robot as your partner. Hear from experts leading the social robot evolution. Build a robot comedian and laugh out loud. There may soon be a day when robots are integrated into our everyday lives, and even be able to anticipate and adjust to human preferences.

For an entire day, The Tech showcases a variety of social robots and guest speakers at the forefront of their field. NAO, a programmable humanoid robot from France’s Aldebaran Robotics, will perform dances to popular hits throughout the day. Guests can also program Play-i' Bo the Robot to play a xylophone, as well as engage with Furby and Pleo and see how they respond to actions.

Over in the RoboTheater, visitors can try their hand at design by programming a human robot to perform a variety of tasks before heading into The Tech’s Social Robots experience to design and build their own robot that makes them laugh. The museum will feature a special theme in the experience that day – Robot Comedians.

Special speakers include Intuitive Automata’s Cory Kidd and Professor Andrea Thomaz. Thomaz is an Associate Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology and an innovator in the robotics field. Published in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Human-Robot Interaction, she is radically redefining how robots and humans interact.

WHO/WHAT: Special robot programming and special guests throughout the day featuring Georgia Tech’s Professor Andrea Thomaz, Intuitive Automata’s Cory Kidd, Play-i founders, NAO, and a bevy of engaging social robots. Free with Museum Admission.

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. MLK day, Monday, January 20

WHERE: The Tech, 201 S. Market St., San Jose, CA

For more information and programming schedule, visit: http://www.thetech.org/

Special Events & Programming for Star Wars at The Tech Museum

Stellar Programming Unveiled for

Star Wars^®: Where Science Meets Imagination

The Tech Museum of Innovation debuts new series of events

SAN JOSE, CA – An out-of-this-world lineup of lectures, workshops, and celebrations at The Tech will run alongside the popular exhibition, Star Wars^®: Where Science Meets Imagination, presented by Bose Corporation^®.

Beginning Saturday, October 19 through Sunday, February 23, 2014, the museum will host a variety of engaging special events, programs, and workshops that bring the magic of all 6 films alive. Guests will not only discover the science behind lightsabers and create their own flying hovercrafts, they will also explore the futuristic technologies depicted in the films and the real science behind them and the research that might someday lead to real-life versions.

The Tech’s Star Wars programming will include:

Jedi^™ Nights presented by ScholarShare College Savings Plan

Special evening celebrations of all things Star Wars! Grab your lightsaber and dress up in your favorite Star Warscostume. Re-create your favorite scenes, meet and take photos with Stormtroopers, R2-D2, and Jedi Knights, or train for the Jedi™ Academy. Tickets for Jedi^™ Nights include admission to the exhibition.

Hands-on Science Workshop - Jedi^™ Tech

Opening October 5, the science behind Star Wars becomes reality in The Tech’s hands-on workshops. Techsabers – where visitors will tinker with circuitry, LEDs, and various light diffusing and reflecting materials – and Skywalker Writing where guests leverage “the Force” for intergalactic light paintings and control their own hovercrafts. Workshops are free with museum admission.

The Tech Connects

An engaging new program that brings ideas and people together to explore and discuss the different intersections technology make with our world. Guest speakers will look at a range of topics including the phenomenon, visual effects, droids, and women of Star Wars. Lectures fees vary; members get discounted tickets. Tickets go on sale September 10.

“Hidden Universe”

Experience an extraordinary journey into space. Explore the earliest galaxies, travel the terrain of Mars, and peer deep inside the universe’s most mysterious nebulae where stars are born in The Hackworth IMAX^® Dome Theater – the largest dome screen in the West at 8-stories high. Extra fee applies to IMAX films

For more information on The Tech’s events, visit:http://www.thetech.org/ 

Tickets for the exhibition are on sale now. Tickets to the exhibition also includes admission to the regular museum galleries.

Schedule of Programming

Jedi^™ Nights presented by ScholarShare College Savings Plan

Thursday, October 31, 2013

6:30 – 9:30 p.m.

Friday, January 17, 2014

6:30 – 9:30 p.m.

Saturday, March 1 (for members only)

6:30 – 9:30 p.m.

Hands-on Science Workshop - Jedi^™ Tech

Please visit http://www.thetech.org/ for a schedule of workshop times.

The Tech Connects

Star Wars: Film to Phenomenon

Sunday, October 27, 2013, 2:00 p.m.

Steve Sansweet in conversation with Angie Coiro

The Star Wars Model Shop

Sunday, December 15, 2013, 2:00 p.m.

Lorne Peterson in conversation with Angie Coiro

Droids & Tales from the Set

Sunday, January 19, 2014, 2:00 p.m.

Don Bies in conversation with Angie Coiro

The Star Wars Women

Sunday, February 16, 2014, 2:00 p.m.

Kim Smith and Carol Bauman in conversation with Angie Coiro

“Hidden Universe”

Please visit http://www.thetech.org/ for a schedule of film showings.

STAR WARS Exhibit Opens This Saturday at The Tech!

This week, The Tech Museum of Innovation held a press conference for the upcoming exhibit, STAR WARS: Where Science Meets Imagination. If you've walked or driven past the Tech Museum lately, then you've seen the giant billboard with Yoda and Darth Vader wrapped around the corner of the building.

Well it's finally time to see what they've been hyping the last few months. Starting this Saturday, October 19th and running through February 23, 2014, fanboys and girls from all ages will have the opportunity to learn the science of Star Wars, and check out some pretty awesome movie props at the same time.

Throughout the 10,000-square-foot exhibition will be props, costumes, and models from all six Star Wars films. (Similar to the previous Mythbusters exhibit, if you attended it.)

"Visitors will be exposed to immersive, hands-on experiences and to topics ranging from space travel, mechanical prosthetics, robotics, and levitation technology."

There were many of these hands-on exhibits -- build a robot, ride what looks like a lawnmower that hovers a bit off the ground, and others.

One of the hyped features of this exhibit is the Millennium Falcon™ experience. It is a full-size replica of the cockpit. Which means it's fairly small since it only has four seats. If you or your kids are a big fans of Star Wars, try to sit in the front two seats to get the full experience. Inside this replica you get to learn about "real-world space exploration" narrated by Anthony Daniels (aka, C-3PO.) I glanced at my watch before checking this out and as it turns out it's about five minutes long. Because it's five minutes and only four people can experience it at a time, there might be a long wait to get in depending when you go.

Which is why there are separate tickets if you choose to check it out. At first, I thought it was merely a ticket that simply secured your spot in line at any point in the day. Let me clarify, I thought the ticket was free.

The difference between the two ticket packages, "Jedi Package" and "Star Wars" - tis that "Jedi" guarantees your voyage on The Millennium Falcon Experience while "Star Wars" does not. The price difference? Adult price for "Jedi Package" is $27, "Star Wars" is $22. If $5 is not much to you, buy the ticket and watch the 5 minute educational video on space. Or look at it as spending $5 to possibly sit in the front two seats and push fake buttons and watch the screen go all hyper-spacey in front of you.

I'm not a die-hard Star Wars fan (my husband is, therefore all my exposure to the movies is through his brainwashing influence) -- so personally, knowing what the "experience" is, I would not pay $5 for it. 

However, if you do decide, what the heck, and pay the $5 to sit in the cockpit (it does provide some fun photo opportunities and kids will enjoy it) -- then once you get into the exhibit, walk through the whole thing first, so you can check out the line at the The Millennium Falcon Experience (it's at the end, just before the merchandise area.) There were signs that will give you an idea of how long of a wait you will have - 30 minutes, 90 minutes etc. Check out the current wait, determine when you need to stand in line.

Overall it's a fun exhibit with plenty of things to entertain and educate everyone!

If you'd like to see a few more photos I took, follow this link to my Flickr set.

Where: The Tech Museum of Innovation
When: Oct 19 - Feb 23
Tickets: Various packages/prices

Record number of students shoot for the stars at 26th Annual The Tech Challenge

Record number of students shoot for the stars at 26th Annual
The Tech Challenge: Asteroids Rock!

Competition extended to accommodate more than 3,000 Bay Area participants

SAN JOSE, CA – More students than ever before will aim for top honors
at The Tech Challenge 2013 presented by Cisco, the Bay Area’s largest
team-design competition that harnesses the brainpower of innovative
youth to solve a real-world problem.

A record 3,000 Bay Area students will spill into The Tech Museum of
Innovation Saturday, April 20 and – in another first – Sunday, April 21 for
this year’s out-of-this-world challenge: Asteroids Rock!, in which students
must launch three delicate probes (read: eggs) intact onto the celestial
mass. Now in its 26th year, The Tech Challenge, a signature program of
the museum, reinforces 21st century skills of creativity, problem solving,
design, teamwork, leadership, presentation, risk-taking, perseverance,
and learning from failure.

“Learning happens through doing. Students engaged toward a common
goal increases learning and a connection with others,” said Tiffany
Strickland, program director for The Tech Challenge. “The Tech
Challenge lends itself to both high-tech and low-tech solutions: You can
be as successful with cardboard and rubber bands as others are with a
robot – but either way, students are engaged.”

The explosive growth of the program is the result of several key factors
that include: renewed academic focus on project-based learning, high
returns on deep community outreach, and broader program awareness,
museum officials explained. The extra day was added to accommodate
every student who wanted to participate, Strickland noted.

This year’s competition is already proving to be a landmark occasion: A
record 3,500 participants (1,400 last year), including 500 students from
San Diego and New York who will participate at their respective sites at
an earlier date; a record 49 percent of this year’s participants are girls (48
percent last year), and the highest involvement of Title I schools of any
science and technology competition in the region at 45 percent.

The Tech Challenge is an annual team- design challenge for students in
grades 5-12 that introduces and reinforces the science and engineering
design process with a hands-on project geared to solving a real-world
problem.

“Today’s students benefit from learning that promotes critical thinking
and collaboration,” said Sandra Wheatley, Cisco's director of global
community relations. “Students who use technology develop the technical
and learning skills that are necessary for success in higher education
and the workplace. And perhaps, most importantly, using technology
enhances students’ perception of what they can achieve.”

Designed to inspire the next generation of Silicon Valley innovators,
The Tech Challenge provides months of team learning in science,
engineering, and math, culminating in the Event Days on Saturday, April
20 and Sunday, April 21, 2013. Team efforts are celebrated in an awards
ceremony, recognizing everything from Best Overall Solution to Most
Spectacular Failure.

For 26 years, The Tech Challenge has allowed some 14,000 young girls
and boys throughout California, New York, and other regions to hone their
creativity and innovation on challenges that included building devices
to fight wildfires, remove invasive fish from a lake, explore an Egyptian
tomb, and survey craters on Mars.

For more information on The Tech Challenge, visit: http://www.thetech.org/

The Tech After Hours Tonight!

If you were ever curious to see what happens in a museum after the sun goes down, check out After Hours at the Tech tonight!

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After Hours

Join Us for the Next After Hours

Earth Night

Thursday, April 4

7:00 p.m. — Midnight 

The Tech Museum of Innovation

$10.00 / $8.00 for members

Buy Tickets

After Hours is the monthly evening event where adults 21 and older enjoy science, technology, entertainment, and cocktails together with their friends. Explore the entire museum with other adults under moody lighting and music. Each month provides an exclusive and fun setting of music, giant games, hands-on exhibits, and more! 

Every month you can discover more about science and technology, or just relax and have fun with friends!

• Giant games like 4-foot-tall Jenga-style blocks, over-sized chess, and giant Four in a Row.
• Live music and dancing.
• Glow-in-the-dark Techtinis from our no-host bar.
• Limited cafe menu available for purchase.

Join us on April 4 for our pre-Earth Day celebration: Earth Night! Compete with your friends to see who can be the first to answer all of our Energy Quest Scavenger Hunt questions. Learn about how to use light instead of heat to save energy and lower pollution at our Gelatin Fiber Optics activity. Also, find out how you can participate in Earth Hour and help make a real difference in your own community and the world.

When your energy runs low, you can stop by our no-host bar for a refreshing Terra-Tini , or sample some of the goodies from our food tables. After that, it’s time to dance, play games, or just relax in our Atrium Lounge, with tunes by DjKomodo.

Visit our After Hours Photo Booth and share smiles with your friends. 

Enjoy our bar menu, now with tasty appetizers for only $5 per item!

Celebrate your birthday with The Tech! If your birthday falls within the month of the After Hours event, you can get in for free (with a valid ID).

Like our After Hours Facebook page!  

Buy Tickets

Tickets are $10.00 / $8.00 for members. 

Call for group rate for 10 or more!

For more information or to buy tickets please call (408) 294-8324. 

Service charges may apply. Members’ service charges waived. 

Get directions and parking tips.

11 / 12

The first Thursday of the Month, 7p.m. to Midnight.

Save These Dates

May 2 - Star Tech

June 6 - Maker Shaker

Blockbuster partnership: Cinequest to produce inspiring films for The Tech Museum’s international awards program The Tech Awards

SAN JOSE, CA – A dozen top-flight international filmmakers today were dispatched to capture stories of the people who use technology to benefit humanity around the world, marking a new partnership between The Tech Awards and international film powerhouse Cinequest.

The 90-second films will be shown as part of Silicon Valley’s foremost technology awards program, The Tech Awards, presented by Applied Materials, in association with the Center for Science, Technology, and Society. A signature program of The Tech Museum, The Tech Awards recognizes 12 brilliant innovators who are changing the world with their technologies to eliminate hunger, do away with disease and combat illiteracy, among other global challenges.

The Cinequest partnership is neatly aligned with the goals of The Tech Awards, which seeks to raise awareness about the life-changing work that affects people from Uganda to Uruguay. Over the years, the 257 laureates of The Tech Awards have worked hard to erase stubborn global problems. Thanks to the international reach of Cinequest, these gripping stories will be relayed around the world.

“As we explored different ways to introduce The Tech Awards laureates this year, Cinequest's Film Festival and its Picture the Possibilities project caught our attention—and a new idea emerged,” David Whitman, vice president The Tech Awards.  “Why not convey the compelling stories of the laureates this year through the lenses of 12 diverse, imaginative, and daring filmmakers associated with Cinequest? We pictured the possibilities. And now we're making them into a reality.”

Cinequest has paired a filmmaker with each of the 12 laureates to feature the laureates’ fieldwork and illustrate how their innovations help people most in need. The films will serve as a creative introduction for the nearly 1,500 attendees at the annual The Tech Awards gala November 15 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. After the gala, the films will be available for the laureates to share with media, potential partners and donors or those simply interested in learning more about their work. The films will also be posted on the museum’s website, along with those of past laureates. The top three will be screened during the Cinequest Film Festival, February 26 – March 10, 2013.

“Cinequest and The Tech Museum share a commitment to integrating creativity and innovation. It’s a pleasure to engage Cinequest filmmakers to honor the innovation and powerful work of this year’s laureates,” Halfdan Hussey, director and co-founder on Cinequest, said.

The inspiring work of the laureates has included designing earthquake-resistant construction technology to creating a heat-sensitive label for vaccine vials to make sure children receive potent immunizations to building a simple, low-cost, mobile phone-based device that allows remote monitoring and operation of irrigation pumps.

This year, the laureates will be honored in six categories: Intel Environment Award; Microsoft Education Award; The Swanson Foundation Young Innovator Award; Nokia Health Award; Flextronics Economic Development Award, and The Sustainable Energy Award. The James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award will be presented to Indian philanthropist N.R. Narayana Murthy, who founded tech services giant Infosys along with six colleagues and went on to become one of India’s most influential advocates for health care and rural development.
 
The following lists the filmmakers’ names and short biographies:

* Abbey Luck, Awesome + Modest
Abbey is a director and animator whose work has been featured at the Slamdance and Cinequest film festivals and in the feature film, Waiting for Superman. She produced music videos and commercials for General Electric, Gerber, Scion, Nokia, and AOL

*Lee Lanier, BeezleBug Bit
Lee is a leading animator and visual effects designer who has served as a senior animator at PDI/Dreamworks, taught at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Hollywood, authored six high-end animation and visual effects books, was featured at 200+ venues worldwide, and is the executive director of the Dam Short Film Festival

*Landon Zakheim, filmmaker
Landon is a short-film programmer for the Sundance Film Festival and a filmmaker whose short films, Delmer Builds A Machine and Another Bullet Dodged, have been featured at over 60 international film festivals around the world

*Mike Blum, Pipsquek Films & Blumayan Films
Mike is an Emmy-nominated and award-wining director, writer, and producer who owns and operates the Pipsquek Films animation studio and Blumayan Films. Mike’s projects include the Emmy-nominated series, The Adventures of Baxter & McGuire (Comedy Central); live-action feature, The Playback Singer; and recent series, Samurai! Daycare (SMOSH/Alloy Digital)

*Evan Mather, filmmaker
Evan is an independent filmmaker and landscape architect based in Los Angeles. His 2007 film,So What?, received the 2008 Communications Award of Honor from the American Society of Landscape Architects and he is a Graham Foundation recipient for his 2009 documentary, A Necessary Ruin

*Mary Skinner, 2B Productions
Mary directs and produces documentary films and corporate media. Her most recent project Irena Sendler: In the Name of Their Mothers, an official selection at this year’s UN Film Festival, was broadcast nationally on PBS and won the 2012 Gracie Award for outstanding documentary for, by, and about women

*Oliver Cukor, Sleeveless Productions, Inc
Oliver has combined his passions for film, music and new technologies to create stunningly visual and immersive experiences. He has produced, edited, and directed several award-winning films, two of which, Sleeveless Heart and Blue Road, have been shown at the Cinequest Film Festival

*Kavi Raz, K.R. Films Hollywood
Kavi is an award-winning actor, writer, producer, and director as well as the founder of his production company. His directorial debut film The Gold Bracelet has been screened at many prestigious film festivals and has garnered several awards

*Vijay Vanniarajan, Siren Song Creations
Vijay is a co-owner of Siren Song Creations, whose work has been featured on national television, Oprah.com, Deepak Chopra’s website, several film festivals, and has produced for companies such as Adobe, ESPN, NBC, Sentilla, Cinequest and Plug and Play. Paramount Pictures also distributed his documentary.

*Sean McCarthy, Guerilla Wanderers Films
Sean McCarthy is the founder and director of Guerilla Wanderers Films, an award-winning, full-service production company that specializes in film, commercials, corporate videos, and music videos. His short films, Superhero, Boxed Up and Raging Cyclist have received high recognition and awards at various film festivals throughout the United States

*Sidney Sherman with Cliff Schmidt
Sidney is the founder and CEO of Rosa Entertainment, an independent film/television production and management company. Sherman produced the IFC Films released Go Tigers!, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and was an Academy Award Finalist and Independent Spirit Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature

*Thomas Mignone, filmmaker
Thomas is a leading filmmaker and music video director who has directed over 150 award-winning music videos for top industry artists and feature film, On the Doll, Thomas utilizes his electrical engineering background to fuse digital audio and video systems and technologies in his filmmaking

For learn more about The Tech Awards, click: http://thetechawards.thetech.org/

For more information about Cinequest, click: http://www.cinequest.org/indexCQ.php

About The Tech Museum
The Tech Museum is a hands-on technology and science museum for people of all ages and backgrounds. The museum—located in the Capital of Silicon Valley —is a non-profit learning resource established to engage people in exploring and experiencing technologies affecting their lives. Through programs such as The Tech Challenge presented by Cisco, our annual team-design competition for youth, and internationally renowned programs such as The Tech Awards presented by Applied Materials, The Tech Museum endeavors to inspire the innovator in everyone.

About Cinequest
CINEQUEST is a leading organization that fuses creativity with technological
innovation to empower, improve, and transform the lives of people and communities,
through Cinequest Picture the Possibilities (PTP), Cinequest Film Festival and Cinequest Mavericks Studio.
• CINEQUEST Film Festival (CQFF): showcases premier films, renowned
and emerging artists, and breakthrough technology—empowering global
connectivity between creators and innovators.
• CINEQUEST Picture The Possibilities (PTP): a transformative leadership
movement, where empowered youth create films expressing visions of a better
tomorrow that inspire global leaders to ignite change.
• PTP World Premiere Event during CQFF: multiple, simultaneous, worldwide
connections between media, business, entertainment, and political leaders where
interaction with PTP films and each other jump-start the ultimate realization of
these youthful visions for a better tomorrow.
Cinequest’s sister company, Cinequest Mavericks Studio LLC, produces, distributes
and markets innovative and transformative motion pictures.

New Interactive Art at The Tech!

The Tech is about to get a new interactive exhibit courtesy of Zero1 and they are doing a special opening with the artists. To learn more, just keep reading or click here.

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Be part of our opening of the new art installation Resolution
A newly commissioned work by Zigelbaum + Coelho
Part of the Zero1 2012 Biennial Program

Wednesday, September 12, 2012
General Reception, beverages and hors d'oeuvres: 7:00 - 7:30 p.m.
No host bar
Artists' Talk: 7:30 - 8:30 p.m.
$10.00 / $5.00 for members.
Buy tickets now.

Join contemporary art duo Zigelbaum + Coelho for the opening of Resolution, their newly commissioned work at The Tech Museum. The artists will introduce this new highly interactive and social piece with a talk describing the state of the art in materials and practices in tangible media. Learn how emerging forms of "computational materials" will allow visitors to explore, play, and create dynamic light compositions from the piece's 200 magnetic, physical pixels.

Artists' Talk:
Zigelbaum + Coelho
"Computational Materials"
A new class of objects has emerged — viscerally interactive and embedded with computational tools. As computers permeate whole new ecologies of connected physical objects, the language of interaction now finds itself entirely intertwined with tangible things.

In this presentation, polymath art duo Zigelbaum + Coelho will describe their approach to the physicality of computation. Discover how new modes of interaction are enabling the human body to become an integral part of the computation and communication process. Learn how materials with embedded computing are permeating human interaction — at micro and macro levels — and how this is reshaping the art, design, and technology trichotomy.

From the Artists:
In this world one can program computers to display patterns of light by using a series of tools to modify the electrical flow across doped silicon and one can program copper to display a green patina by applying acetic acid and a healthy dose of waiting around. Both of these programmatic behaviors have components that could be considered digital or analog. The polarized light seeping through the liquid crystal gateways enabling our ubiquitous display surfaces is as analog as any glimmer of sun off a car hood and the chemical mechanism of verdigris, some discrete changes of electron configuration across orbitals during oxidization, is as digital as the pits and valleys encoding music on the active surface of the 1986 compact disc pressing of Kraftwerk’s Computerwelt.

We look forward to discussing our practice and the debut of our new permanent piece for The Tech Museum and Zero1: Resolution.

For more event information please email info@thetech.org or call (408) 294-8324.

The Tech Silicon Valley Innovation Gallery
The Tech Museum
201 South Market Street
San Jose, CA 95113

¡VivaFest!, The Tech Museum of Innovation, and CasaQ Partner on Film Showcase and new Festival Events

San Jose, CA---  August 20, 2012 -- For the third year, ¡VivaFest! the San Jose Mexican Heritage and Mariachi Festival has partnered with the Tech Museum of Innovation on a series of films celebrating Latino cultural heritage from independent Latino filmmakers. New this year is a partnership for Cine y Cena™ dinner and movie events with CasaQ by Darlene.

“It has been a wonderful partnership for ¡VivaFest! and The Tech Museum to bring culturally appropriate and timely films to the festival,” said Marcela Davison Aviles, Executive Producer of the festival and President and CEO of the Mexican Heritage Corporation (MHC). “and we are delighted at the curatorial additions of Darlene Tenes of CasaQ, with film and food events celebrating the 20th anniversary of the film Like Water for Chocolate and the end of the Maya Calendar. “

An eclectic series of films will launch the week-long ¡VivaFest! from September 8 - 30. Screenings will take place at The Hackworth IMAX® Dome Theater at The Tech Museum.  Schedule and tickets are available at The Tech Museum box office or online atwww.thetech.org

"As The Tech Museum is committed to reflecting Silicon Valley's richly diverse community and collaborating with Bay Area institutions, we are proud to be part of the long-standing tradition of Vivafest!, serving yet again as a stage for America's largest celebration of Mexican culture and customs," said The Tech Museum President Tim Ritchie. "Vivafest! is a wonderful opportunity to recognize a vibrant tradition and culture while building bridges across communities in Silicon Valley and around the world.”

Series highlights include Mosquita y Mari, a Sundance Official Selection, and a screening and panel discussion of the documentaryTijuana Jews with Hollywood director/producer Isaac Artenstein (A Day Without A Mexican) and festival veteran Michael Ronstadt and Ronstadt Generations.

The opening film on Saturday, September 8, is a special screening that also comes from a Hollywood veteran -- Taco Shop, created by comedian/writer/director Rick Najera, will be shown at the Hackworth IMAX Dome Theater at 7 p.m., and will be preceded by actual taco trucks parked outside of The Tech Museum at 5 p.m.

On Monday, September 10, the classic Mexican movie night Doña Bárbara starring Maria Félix, the most iconic leading lady of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema.

On Wednesday, September 12, Tijuana Jews  portrays an authentic and living testimony set against conceptions and misconceptions of this near-mythic border city, and is a personal exploration of this unique community, which blended Jewish and Mexican cultures and customs in an unlikely place and time. Preceding the screening at 6 p.m. will be a musical performance by Ronstadt Generations, whose family is comprised of German, Jewish and Mexican heritage. A panel discussion and Q &A with the film’s director, Isaac Artenstein, Michael Ronstadt and other guests will follow.

Thursday, September 13 features a timely film, The Weight of the Nation™. Presented by Kaiser Permanente, The Weight of the Nation™ documentary series and public health campaign present a unique opportunity to spotlight the severity of the obesity epidemic, to showcase strategies that work and, most importantly, to catalyze action to end obesity.

On Friday, September 14, celebrating the 20^th anniversary of the movie Like Water for Chocolate, the festival screening will include a chocolate tasting.  An event curated for the festival by CasaQ, the evening includes a tempting array of chocolates by Casa de Chocolates.

Saturday, September 15 brings an amazing cross-cultural story of how an American adventurer and self-taught Mexican artist transformed a dying desert village into a home for world-class ceramics. Included in the event is a showing of Mata Ortiz ceramics by Victoria Martino, an expert and a dealer in these fine ceramics. The Renaissance of Mata Ortiz.

All screenings , except Mesquita y Mari, will take place at the Hackworth IMAX Dome Theater at The Tech Museum. Visit www.thetech.org  or www.vivafest.org to see the complete schedule and to purchase tickets.  Ticket prices range from $8 to $20 per event, with discounts available for The Tech Museum members.

Also, on Wednesday September 19, the series screens Mosquita y Mari, the Official Selection 2012 of the Sundance Film Festival, directed by Aurora Guerrero. It tells the story of a “first crush” between two Chicana girls growing up in Los Angeles. This film will be screened on the campus of San Jose State University, Morris Daily Auditorium, and is being sponsored by a Horizons Foundation grant, and the San Jose State Student Union. The film will be followed by a panel discussion with the director and the actors in the film.

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About The Tech Museum:

The Tech Museum is a hands-on technology and science museum for people of all ages and backgrounds. The museum—located in the Capital of Silicon Valley —is a non-profit learning resource established to engage people in exploring and experiencing technologies affecting their lives. Through programs such as The Tech Challenge presented by Cisco, our annual team-design competition for youth, and internationally renowned programs such as The Tech Awards presented by Applied Materials, Inc., The Tech Museum endeavors to inspire the innovator in everyone.

About the Mexican Heritage Corporation:  Now in its 21^st year, VivaFest! is Northern California’s leading Latino cultural destination event. With a mission to affirm, celebrate and preserve the rich cultural heritage of the Mexican community and showcase multicultural arts within the region and nationally, MHC both presents and produces a vibrant array of multi-disciplinary arts programs in theatre, dance, and music education and in the visual arts. Visit www.mhcviva.org or www.vivafest.org.

MythBusters Audition Tomorrow

Do you love science? Have you ever watched the popular show MythBusters on the Discovery Channel? Would you like to "bust" a few myths of your own? Well, come audition August 20 from 2 - 7 p.m. for MythBusters: The Explosive Exhibition, the blockbuster exhibition is making its West Coast premiere at The Tech Museum. You may earn a spot on the museum's team of "MythBusters" that perform live MythBusting demonstrations for hundreds of visitors!

This is a paid position. Rehearsals start in September and the exhibition runs October 13, 2012 through January 6, 2013.  Shifts available from 9 a.m. through 9 p.m. daily during the run of the exhibition.  Audition will consist of a reading from a provided script and an improv exercise so dress appropriately.

Please arrive 30 minutes before your scheduled time for registration.
Bring a current resume, headshot and your availability for September 2012 though January 6, 2013

Audition Location:
The Tech Museum
201 S. Market Street
San Jose, CA 95113

Please call:
(408) 795-6116