The New Media Caucus, an official affiliate of the College Art Association, was formed in 2003 as a means for people teaching "new media" at the university-level to form connection. I found the caucus at the 2006 CAA conference, just after my arrival at UTSA where I had landed to begin a New Media Program in the Department of Art & Art History. At that time I was trying to name the program... "digital?" "intermedia?" "new genre?" "transmedia?" ... so I was grateful to have that choice practically made for me by deciding to join forces with the caucus.
This year brought a distinct sense that the New Media Caucus is gaining momentum. Our president Paul Cantanese teaches at Columbia College Chicago, has a lot of energy and vision, and was on the ground in the conference city, which simplified the planning and execution of all our events. In addition to the 1-2 panels we have in the official conference every year, we plan a few at an off-site location as well as an exhibition of some kind.
I really went to town this time around in executing my duties as the chair of the NMC exhibition committee with my brainchild: the Live Cinema Summit. This one night only event featured nine back-to-back realtime demos of A/V performance, with lots of discussion and q/a. The lineup featured Barbara Lattanzi, Sabine Gruffat and Bill Brown, Robert Martin, Potter-Belmar Labs, jonCates, DataIRJ, Jon Satrom, Alessandro Imperato, and Noisefold.
A link to Nicholas Sagan's blog posting on the official CAA conference blog.
Other events that I presented during are the NMC Colloquium Meet and Greet, and the New Media Curriculum Development roundtable discussion, chaired by Mike Salamond.
