John Perkins-Buzo | SIU

Radio, Television, and Digital Media

My work ranges over the boundaries where Augmented and Virtual Reality, animation, cinema, and gaming narratives meet. My Fine Arts experience grounds me in aesthetics and the narrative arts, while my background in Computer Science provides a excellent technical position to approach research in the digital media arts.

Most recently, I presented my artist’s tools for Augmented and Virtual Reality in the VR Village exhibition at SIGGRAPH 2015. The use of AR and VR in building “Personal Networks” of wearable devices for consumers forms my main area of research at this point. Working with the Epson developers team, I have used the Moverio BT-200 and other wearable devices, as well as 3D-printable objects, in my research. I also recently presented on the social aspects of this at the Semiotic Society of America (October 4, 2015).

Game Design and Animation also form a continuing research area. Recent projects have included the mobile games, Cave Dude Run and droid Wars, and the medical app, Deep Brain Stimulator Battery Estimator (DBSBE) for both iOS and Android. In 1999, I was the lead programmer and technical director for “Sleights,” a game that was a Finalist in the Independent Game Festival at the 1999 Game Developer’s Conference. Game narrative construction and development forms an important part of my Game Design research. My publication, “A Deleuzian Approach to Game Design,” in the International Digital and Media Arts Journal (Spring 2014) focused on this aspect. In addition, I have worked professionally in the areas of live-action films and cinematography. My computer animated short, The Tortilla Moon, won the Jury Award for best short animation at the San Francisco Latino Film Festival in 2004. I continue to work on narrative animations.

I have run my own production company since 1996 which has designed and produced award-winning commercial media for mobile devices, the Web, CD-ROMs, and DVDs. I have also worked extensively with motion capture from high-end Vicon and Organic Motion systems to the Microsoft Kinect (coding the Kinect SDK).

I was the recipient of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts Fellowship as well as the Excellence in Art and Technology Award from the Center for Art and Technology, both from Northwestern University.

For several semesters, I have been the Faculty advisor to SIUC’s gaming Registered Student Organization, the Game Mechanics Research Studio (GaMeRS).