Daily Loaf

Check out the full schedule of the Ybor Festival of the Moving Image, which runs through Sunday, for more events.

Friday

7-9 p.m. – Opening reception for USF MFA Graduation Exhibition at USF Contemporary Art Museum. Artists include Kimberly Adams, Jeremy Chandler, April Childers, Rebecca Flanders, Chad Harmon, Shane Hoffman, Lauren Howard, James Reiman, Ivan Reyes-Garcia, Marta Slaughter, Jonathan Vaughan and Wesley Wetherington.

7-10 p.m. – EMERGE! Art Party: Photo with guest artists Carolina Cleere, Michael Bowles, Bob Pomeroy, Bob Parsons, Dave Pritchard, Deborah Muller, Dorian Angello, Colleen Gorlewski, Melisa Taylor, Stephen Bivens, Mark Paulissen, Kristi Stiff, Joel Perez and Jerry Feightner at Tampa Artist Emporium.

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Mastering the financial and creative challenges of a career as an artist is never easy—and it’s especially challenging in the context of a recession. On Sat., Mar. 21, the 3rd annual Self-Employment in the Arts Conference at the University of Tampa aims to give practitioners in the visual, literary, performing and film arts a leg up on the climb to self-sufficiency. The daylong lineup includes sessions on marketing, networking, work-life balance and intellectual property led by professional artists, writers, filmmakers, professors and an attorney. This year’s conference is organized by Suzanne Williamson, a recent transplant to Tampa Bay whose experience as a visual artist makes her uniquely suited to the task.

You’re new to Tampa– what brought you here?

I moved to Tampa last July from New York City with my husband, John Capouya, who accepted a full-time position as an assistant professor teaching journalism and writing at the University of Tampa. We love New York, but we wanted to change our lives. I was the photo editor of ARTnews magazine, and I am a photographic artist. I wanted more time to work on my art, and John wanted to teach full-time and write. We were drawn to Tampa and the university when we visited. We have really enjoyed meeting artists and participating in the cultural life here in Tampa. The photographic possibilities in Florida are so rich—I enjoy working here.

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Still from Léche Vitrine (music by The Pigtails, visuals by Bluelucy), one of many short video/film/animation works to be screened at ARTpool’s 2nd Annual Local Film Festival & Hollywood Fashion Show. Courtesy Bluelucy.

Thursday

7-9 p.m. – Lecture by Dr. Sean Roberts, assistant professor of art history, University of Southern California, at USF Tampa, FAH 290. Roberts’ research focuses on the exchange of images and ideas, especially printed material, between the Italian city-states and the Ottoman world in the fifteenth and sixteenth century. His lecture “Ornament and Exoticism in Venetian Renaissance Painting” focuses on works by Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese.

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A rendering of the new TMA, currently under construction in Curtis Hixon Park. Image courtesy tampamuseum.org.

Times are tough. This morning the Tampa Museum of Art announced that its finances were in enough of a bind to merit slashing the institution’s budget for the 2009 fiscal year by 29%, including the elimination of three full-time staff positions. Among those whose jobs will be coming to an abrupt end on Friday, curator of contemporary art Elaine Gustafson.

Complete email from Todd Smith, executive director, Tampa Museum of Art, after the jump.

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The Playhouse, starring Buster Keaton (above), will be paired with a postmodern film score during Ybor FoMI 2009.

The seventh annual Ybor Festival of the Moving Image (what the hell– let’s call it FoMI) has released its schedule of events. The always interesting film-art-performance showcase takes humor and satire as its theme this year, and the laughs begin on 4/1. (April Fool’s Day, get it? I’m in stitches already!) Performers include New York performer-choreographer Claire Porter and Vermont-based circus clown-mime-magician Rob Mermin. Opening night marks the debut of an exhibit of work by local artists Lori Ballard and Steve Smith and a special screening of Buster Keaton’s The Playhouse with live accompaniment by Ray Villadonga. (As a kind of recurring joke/homage, the silent film will be screened several times during the five-day festival with a different musical accompaniment each time.) With plenty of free events– especially on opening and closing days– getting your jollies on at FoMI is looking like a steal.

Full press release after the jump.

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Patrick Fatica. Somehow I Thought You’d Save Me, Somewhere in January. 2009. Oil on panel.

C. Emerson Fine Arts‘ latest exhibit, Under the Influence, showcases the genre of contemporary art often dubbed ‘pop surrealism’ and occasionally ‘lowbrow’ because it bridges practices including illustration, screen-printing, custom toy production (or decoration), and so on. As such, the show may be a bit of a departure for the gallery, where offerings are frequently a touch more cerebral. (Only one artist in this show, Austrian Isabel Czerwenka-Wenkstetten adds a conceptual twist. After filling a TV frame with a distorted, fun-house-esque mirror, the artist photographed visitors as they regarded themselves in it during the exhibit’s opening reception; the sculpture remains installed on one of the gallery’s walls. In a statement, she describes the project as an attempt to “resist and fight back” against media images of the body.)

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Laura Mae Dooris. Cornucopia of Discovery. Mixed media on canvas, 36″ x 24″.

I just learned today about TampaArtist.com, which has an extensive image gallery featuring work by about 200 Bay area artists. About 75% of the names were new to me (unlike, say, Laura Mae Dooris, whose work I’ve seen in several exhibitions over the past few years), so I recommend checking it out– you may discover someone new to admire or collect.

Megan Voeller is Creative Loafing’s visual art critic. She teaches at the University of Tampa and The Art Institute of Tampa and blogs at Artsqueeze.com.

Thomas Allen. Fancy, 2006. 20 x 24 inches, chromogenic print. Courtesy Foley Gallery.

Who says pop-up books are for kids? Just check out artist Thomas Allen’s sly constructions, crafted from pulp fiction book covers and beautifully photographed to produce images that resonate with adult concerns: eroticism, repression and the enticements of nostalgia’s mirage.

Learn how to make your own paper pop-up books Mar. 21 & 22 at a Florida Craftsmen workshop led by book artist Carol Barton. (Registration deadline: Mar. 19.) While pop-up books may be poised to become the next hipster craft du jour, it could be that you just want to make something cool for Little Johnny’s next birthday. And that’s okay, too.

Workshop info and registration form after the jump.

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From the press release:

Selecting from a field of more than 300 acclaimed artists displaying their works, juror Martha Connell, owner and director of Connell Gallery/Great American Gallery in Atlanta, has named the recipients of 39th annual Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the Arts cash awards. This year, the Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the Arts awards total $75,000, the highest amount ever awarded in a single year.

Connell has selected the following pieces as to be recognized and the artists to receive the cash awards:

Raymond James Financial Best of Show Award ($15,000)
Presented by Geoffrey Simon, Senior Vice President, Raymond James Financial
“Wearable Art,” a sculpture by Nancy Cervenka of Gulfport, Fla. (Booth #180) – pictured above–

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The Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tenn., has commissioned five proposals for public sculptures, two of which will be constructed and placed in Chattanooga’s Renaissance Park. St. Petersburg-based artists Carol Mickett and Robert Stackhouse are among the artists in the running. Click here to vote for their proposed sculpture, Place in the Woods (pictured above), through Mar. 27. Visitors to the museum’s website may vote for up to two sculptures, but only one instance of voting from a given computer will be counted. Winners will be announced in April.

Megan Voeller is Creative Loafing’s visual art critic. She teaches at the University of Tampa and The Art Institute of Tampa and blogs at Artsqueeze.com.

A 2001 installation by Jin Soo Kim. Courtesy Selby Gallery.

Friday

5-7 p.m. – Opening reception for What’s Next?: Installations and Digital Films by Jin Soo Kim at Selby Gallery, Ringling College of Art and Design.

6 p.m. – View & Review with guest critic Joe Mitchell, retired Art Supervisor for the Polk County School District, at the Polk Museum of Art.

View & Review is one of Polk Museum of Art’s newest monthly programs. Local artists are invited to bring one piece of artwork for feedback from the guest critic. Art lovers are welcome to come listen to and join in the discussion. Admission is $15 for artists who are presenting artwork, and $5 for the audience. A cash bar will also be available. Artists must pre-register.

6-10 p.m. – Opening reception for dis/Order, recent work by Melissa Fair and George Byers at the West Tampa Center for the Arts.

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Not sure whether to think of this development as a thrilling breakthrough in the accessibility of art or yet another scary, scary reason why I will never be leaving my desk again. Now in Google Earth, tour the Prado Museum and a selection of its masterworks without crossing the Atlantic.

If you aren’t already a Google Earth user, you can see some of the images online at Google Maps.

Check out the YouTube video above for more information. (Watch in hi-quality if you want to be really impressed.)

From Very Short List:

Last month, the Prado became the first museum to open its collection to Google’s mapping technology, allowing you to take a virtual trip to Madrid and see super-mega-resolution views of 14 masterpieces.

The paintings include Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, Rubens’s Three Graces, Fra Angelico’s Annunciation, and El Greco’s Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest, and you can zoom in so closely, it’s like putting your nose right up to the canvas (without angering security guards). Other museums, take note: It’s time to Google yourselves.

Megan Voeller is Creative Loafing’s visual art critic. She teaches at the University of Tampa and The Art Institute of Tampa and blogs at Artsqueeze.com.

Target by photographer Ryan Prado.

This weekend’s visual art prospects include a solo exhibition of work by photographer Ryan Prado, the David LaChapelle of Tampa’s burgeoning art-fashion-hipsterdom scene, and DFAC’s annual Contain It!, inspired by Art Positions, the shipping container showcase at Art Basel Miami Beach.

Friday

6-9 p.m. – Opening reception for the Juried Art Show 2009 at the Studio@620.

7-9 p.m. – Reception for The (Police) State at the William & Nancy Oliver Gallery at USF Tampa.

7-9 p.m. – Closing reception for Fascicles: New Work by Lauren Garber Lake at [5]art.

7-11 p.m. – Opening reception for Ryan Prado SHOT Me! presented by Square One at Gallery Live, 1901 15th Street, Ybor City. Live models, photo shoots, music and more.

7 p.m.-late – Contain It!, an exhibition of site-specific installations in 11 PODS storage units, and Trashy Treasures, an art garage sale, at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center. Contain It! artists: Yoko Nogami, Allen Hampton & April Childers, Stephen (AG) Carey, Kim Michelle Coakley, Rocky Bridges, Jason Leigh, Jeff Whipple, Brandon McLean, Christine Renc-Carter, and Victoria Block. DJ, hot dogs and Giddy Up Helicopter!; $10.

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This life-sized work by UF alum Matt Schaffer is featured in Florida Fire at Florida Craftsmen Gallery.

Dunedin collector Mindy Solomon, who curated Florida Fire: the UF Ceramic Faculty Experience, currently on view at Florida Crafstmen Gallery, will speak tonight on a panel about collecting contemporary ceramics with UF professor Anna Callouri-Holcombe, whose work is featured in the show, and Sherrie Riley Hawk, owner of Sherrie Gallerie in Columbus, OH, who specializes in contemporary ceramics, art jewelry and regional contemporary art.

Mindy is a local educator whose passion for collecting contemporary art, especially ceramics, hit full throttle a few years ago following an exhibition of contemporary ceramics at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center. Since then, she has amassed an amazing (and still growing) collection with an emphasis on figurative works.

Passionate About Crafts: Collecting Ceramics
Thurs., Feb. 12, 6-8 p.m.
Members, $10; Non-memembers, $12; Students w/ ID, $5
Florida Craftsmen Gallery
501 Central Ave., St. Petersburg
floridacraftsmen.net

Megan Voeller is Creative Loafing’s visual art critic. She teaches at the University of Tampa and The Art Institute of Tampa and blogs at Artsqueeze.com.

Tonight’s the last chance to check out a performance by St. Petersburg-based “image-maker” Alice Ferrulo of Black Horse Theatre, whose creations meld theater, dance and visual art. Portraiture: In Three Movements is her take on Olivia, a composite personality inspired by portraits of former substance abusers by painter Thomas Murray (formerly of the Bay area, now of Edinburg, Tex.). In addition to Murray’s influence, the project incorporates work by fashion designer Rogerio Martins and artist/cutting-edge jewelry designer Donna Sweigert. Click here to read the story from CL’s print edition. Get your tickets for tonight’s 8 p.m. performance at the Studio@620 ($15 general; $10 students/seniors) online or at the door.

Megan Voeller is Creative Loafing’s visual art critic. She teaches at the University of Tampa and The Art Institute of Tampa and blogs at Artsqueeze.com.

This just landed in my inbox this morning:

Ringling Student Art Sale Comes to Campus Saturday, January 31!

On Saturday, January 31 from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., Ringling College of Art and Design presents a one-day creative collaboration of emerging artists work along with an art materials showcase featuring top brands.

The art exhibition and sale will take place at the Ulla Searing Student Center Exhibition Hall at the main entrance of the Ringling College campus. The showcase will be outside on the deck. This is a rare opportunity to purchase artwork from tomorrow’s rising stars and to learn about the hottest trends in art suppliers.

Participating Artists:

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Leslie Shows. The Au Layer/ Storm Reflecting in a Pool, 2008. Collage and acrylic on canvas. Image courtesy of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, via SFGate.com.

If you don’t already keep an ear out for visiting artist/scholar talks at the University of South Florida’s College of Visual and Performing Arts on a regular basis, you’re missing a chance to hear and speak with some of the most interesting artists to pass through Tampa Bay. (If only everyone they hosted was also exhibiting here…)

On Thurs., Feb. 5, emerging San Francisco-based painter Leslie Shows gives a talk at 7 p.m. in FAH 290 on the Tampa campus. Listen to a conversation she had with the folks over at Bad at Sports last summer by clicking here.

Megan Voeller is Creative Loafing’s visual art critic. She teaches at the University of Tampa and The Art Institute of Tampa and blogs at Artsqueeze.com.

Sean Erwin. The Gardener, 2008. Porcelain, Glaze, Luster and Mixed Media. Courtesy Florida Craftsmen Gallery.

Not a bad weekend for the visual arts if you can stand the Super Bowl traffic. Just a heads-up, this is also the LAST WEEKEND to see Lights On Tampa 2009 installed downtown. Click here for CL coverage; visit the Tampa Public Mood Ring online and watch for it on ESPN.

Thurs., Jan. 29

8 p.m. – Portraiture: In Three Movements by Alice Ferrulo. “A solo performance art piece inspired by a series of portraits by fine artist Thomas Murray.” At the Studio@360; $15 general admission, $10 students. Repeat performances Friday and Saturday.

Fri., Jan. 30

5:30-7:30 p.m. – Opening reception for Jasper Johns Prints: Things the Mind Already Knows at The Arts Center.

6-8 p.m. – Opening reception for Florida Fire: The UF Ceramic Faculty Experience and MOST HIGHLY recommended: Sean Erwin at Florida Craftsmen Gallery.

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Mark Bradford’s Mithra. Photo / Frank Rodriguez

On Saturday, we hopped in the car and went for a self-guided tour of Prospect.1 projects in the Lower Ninth Ward. (The biennial offered a shuttle bus for visitors throughout the day, but our experience trying to catch it the day before at 40-minute intervals was something we decided we could live without.) Armed with the official Prospect.1 map, we drove around the alternately devastated/deserted and resurgent neighborhood until we saw a(nother) cluster of white folks snapping photographs of something– and then we began to look for the art.

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Pecan bread pudding at Antoine’s. Photo / Frank Rodriguez

Don’t ask me how, but we ended up at Antoine’s for lunch in the French Quarter before our tour of the Lower Ninth Ward. Once sticker shock wore off, really delicious pompano and beef tenderloin were the order of the day, followed by the extraordinarily rummy pecan bread pudding pictured above. Yum.

Then, as if we couldn’t pack enough socio-economic contrast into one day, we went to Palace Cafe for dinner upon our return. As we chowed down on roast duck and Cotes du Rhone, we contented ourselves with the thought that we’d done exactly as Prospect.1 founder Dan Cameron intended by dropping into the city and dropping a wad of cash, all in the name of contemporary art.

Anyway, that’s our story, and we’re sticking to it.

Megan Voeller is Creative Loafing’s visual art critic. She teaches at the University of Tampa and The Art Institute of Tampa and blogs at Artsqueeze.com.

Lee Bul’s Untitled (After Bruno Taut series), 2008, pictured in the window of CAC. Photo by Frank Rodriguez

We’ve thrown caution to the wind and a duffle bag in the trunk and ditched Tampa for New Orleans this weekend during the conclusion of Prospect.1– the largest biennial in the United States, according to the event’s organizers. The official number of artists taking art in the city-wide exhibition is 81, but many, many more are being showcased in unofficial satellite exhibits (sometimes at the same venues).

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[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/246107[/vimeo]

Tomorrow, Tampa Bay Creative Network (not the same as Creative Tampa Bay, a different local group whose advisory network I sit on) presents Jelly, a casual co-working experience. More and more of us these days (especially artists and creative industry workers) seem to be living the free agent lifestyle, either out of layoff-driven necessity or the hope of never having to attend another staff meeting again. But despite its benefits (no pun intended), the freelance life can be lonely. Jelly aims to remedy that by providing “a cool location with workspaces, wireless Internet and interesting people to talk to, collaborate with and bounce ideas off of.” Stop by Cafe Hey in downtown Tampa to check it out.

Jelly!
Thurs., Jan. 15, 1-4 p.m.
Cafe Hey
1540 N. Franklin St. just north of I-275 (free parking under the overpass)
Downtown Tampa
813-221-5150
myspace.com/cafehey

Tes One. Change We Made. 45”x60”, 2008.

Artworks by four Tampa Bay artists—Tes One, Bask and Phillip Clark and Chad Mize of Bluelucy—are headed to Washington, DC, where they will be featured in Manifest Hope, an exhibit celebrating the election of Barack Obama.

Shepard Fairey’s now-iconic, red-and-blue portrait of the president elect will serve as the centerpiece of the show, which includes work by more than 100 artists.

If you’d like to get your hands on a limited edition print of Tes One’s painting, Change We Made (pictured above), visit the artist’s e-commerce site on Inaguration Day (Jan. 20).

Megan Voeller is Creative Loafing’s visual art critic. She teaches at the University of Tampa and The Art Institute of Tampa and blogs at Artsqueeze.com.

Martha Whittington, “Nonpareils” (detail), sewn vinyl, 2008. Courtesy C. Emerson Fine Arts.

Truly an insane amount of great art to see this weekend. Please leave a comment if you’d like to have your event included and it’s not here. Unless otherwise noted, events are generally free.

Thursday

4-6 p.m. – Symposium featuring the artists of Lights On Tampa 2009 at Tampa Theatre.

7-9 p.m. – Artist talk and reception for Brody Condon, whose work was featured in a solo exhibition at USF CAM last fall, at FAH 101, USF College of Visual & Performing Arts.

Friday

3 p.m. – Artist talk and discussion for Werner Reiterer: Raw Loop at FAH 290, USF College of Visual & Performing Arts.

6 p.m. – Artist talk and discussion for Radcliffe Bailey: Between Two Worlds at Polk Museum of Art; members free, guests $10. (Read the review in CL here.)

6:30-10 p.m. – Artist talk and opening reception for Nonpareils: a solo exhibition of Martha Whittington’s new work, to include works on paper and installation, at C. Emerson Fine Arts.

7-9 p.m. – Opening reception for Werner Reiterer: Raw Loop at USFCAM.

7-10 p.m. – Opening reception for Fascicles: New Work by Lauren Garber Lake at [5]art.

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Steel sculpture by Dominique Labauvie.

Friday

5-7 p.m. – Opening reception for László Horváth at Gallery 501, Blake High School, 1701 N. Boulevard, Tampa.

7-9 p.m. – Opening reception for Je veux l’art, an exhibit of work by USF undergraduate and graduate students and faculty who traveled to Paris in June 2008, at Centre Gallery, USF Tampa.

7-10 p.m. – Opening reception for Dominique Labauvie: Sculpture Scale and Tales at [5]art; exhibit runs through Dec. 19.

Saturday

10 a.m.-4 p.m. – Made by Hand Art Show, a fundraiser for the Friends of Tampa Recreation, Inc., which supports city parks and recreation programs, at Kate Jackson Community Center, 821 S. Rome Ave, Tampa.

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Radcliffe Bailey, Tobacco Blues, 2000, Aquatint, etching, drypoint, photogravure, and chine collé, Collection of the McNay Art Museum, Gift of the Friends of the McNay, 2006.56.

I’m gonna drop this week’s roundup early because there are some Thursday events here folks should know about. Text in italics is taken directly from press releases. If I’m missing your event, I invite you to leave a comment.

Thursday

7 p.m. – Squared by Square One Creative, fashion show with music by Jeremy Gloff and a preview of art-fashion-music-dance extravaganza Virgin 2.0 (Dec. 6).

7 p.m. – Preview of FMoPA’s 2009 Nature Photography Safaris, including excursions to Costa Rica and the Amazon.

Friday

3 p.m. – Gallery talk and opening reception for 50th Anniversary Visual Arts Alumni Exhibition, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg.

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Passersby in downtown Tampa – or anyone with a view of the waterfront just north of the Platt Street Bridge – may have been wondering about the giant, red steel sculpture sprouting up in MacDill Park this week. It’s part of Chattanooga-based artist John Henry’s Peninsula Project, which brings his monumental sculptures to seven Florida cities: Boca Raton, Miami, Naples, Orlando, Sarasota, Tallahassee and Tampa.

Technically, I have to file Henry’s Big Max under plop art (not my favorite species of public art) but it’s nice to see something – anything – new downtown. Between this piece, the offerings of Lights on Tampa and the opening of the History Center, the city’s core should be significantly spiffed up in time for the Super Bowl.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/2220381[/vimeo]

Megan Voeller is Creative Loafing’s visual art critic. She teaches at the University of Tampa and The Art Institute of Tampa, edits the weekly online newsletter of CreativeTampaBay and blogs at Artsqueeze.com.

Rendering via tampabayhistorycenter.org

The newly constructed Tampa Bay History Center is now set to open Jan. 17. (Up until last week, I’d heard December, but the History Center’s PR person recently sent me the January date.)

This is not only exciting news for those of us who live in downtown Tampa and are glad to see the former void between Channelside and the St. Pete Times Forum fill with a cultural attraction, but for everyone in the Bay area, history buff or not.

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Late-breaking weekend roundup so you can get your art on.

Friday

6-10 p.m. – Mind the Gap, a one-night exhibit and fundraiser for the Ellis-VanPelt Santaella Cigar Factory at 1906 N Armenia Ave (home to the West Tampa Center for the Arts, 5[art] and Three04). Additional information available at www.five-art.com and www.three04.com.

7-9 p.m. – Opening reception for Stranger Things, a exhibit of sculpture by USF undergrad Matthew Schlagbaum at Centre Gallery.

Saturday

12-5 p.m. – Make Art Not War Workshop with artists Diana Leavengood and Marina Williams. Learn how to make artists’ books, recyclable art, jewelry, artists’ trading cards and more. Attendees may display their work at artPOOL’s next art party (Nov. 29) free of charge.

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Wolfmother poster and album art by Keith Burnson

Last week, the second round of Artistik Envy – the online reality show about ten International Academy of Art and Design students competing to be named the best – focused on a 70s revival challenge. Two of the previous contestants Corey Garlow and Jerrodoemie Winters, were eliminated after Round One. (That’s not, in my opinion, to say they were the weakest competitors – I thought there were a couple of others who could just as easily have been cut. And, in fact, two weeks ago I voted for Corey – but apparently not everybody felt the same way. If you check out the site now, it looks as if another round of cuts have already been made, claiming Jovani Coleman and Rick Timpe as the latest designers to be auf’ed.)

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The artists of Doppleganger?

As always, please let me know if I’ve forgotten your event. Otherwise– Happy Halloween!

Friday

7-9 p.m. – Doppelganger: a USF PhotoClub Exhibition at USF Centre Gallery. Come dressed as a Doppelganger, get photographed in the PhotoShak (who knows what else will happen while you’re in there) and eat candy.

8 p.m.-12 a.m. – Halloween ART pARTy at ARTpool. Dress up as your favorite artist and win prizes; special award for best Andy Warhol.

Saturday

9 a.m. – Sketchcrawl with Tampa Realistic Artists (TRA). Meet at the Ybor Saturday Market, go sketch, then regroup for lunch and sharing work. For more information on Sketchcrawls in general, click here; for more about the Tampa version, click on the TRA link.

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Shown: Madden 09 screenshot

It’s lunchtime on the third and last day of the Sarasota International Design Summit, and some conferees are playing video games (literally). We’ve just listened to Phil Holt, general manager of EA Tiburon, offer insights into some of his company’s recent successes and where gaming as an industry is headed in the future.

A few things seem certain: gaming is headed toward being an increasingly important global industry (already at $37.5 billion worldwide per year), even with the economic challenges ahead; gaming is increasingly taking place on a variety of platforms including online, on gaming systems like Wii, on iPhones, on cell phones, within social networking sites, etc.; the audience for gaming is growing beyond hardcore fans to include demographics like children, seniors and women of all ages.

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A lot of what I’m doing – and what I assume other people are doing – during the Sarasota International Design Summit is listening for great ideas and thinking about to adopt and adapt them in my own practice. Two of the summit’s late morning panelists today were great sources for inspiration in regards to Web 2.0-based business practices and how to engage consumers/community with social networks, blogs, interactivity, etc.

Josh Hallett of Voce Communications spoke about his firm’s experience creating social media-based marketing strategies for corporate clients including Sony. Some takeaways:

-If you’re going to have an interactive site like a social network or blog, you need the backend manpower to maintain it adequately, to reply to comments, provide feedback or service, etc. Hallett cited the Sony Playstation blog and described an employee whose job is to reply to comments (which can number in the hundreds per post).

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Courtesy Sarasota Int’l Design Summit/Pininfarina

Today and tomorrow, the Sarasota International Design Summit continues. (Click here to read an earlier overview of the event.)

At this point, the ideas start coming fast and furious, which is why the summit’s “visualization maestro,” Tom Wujec of Autodesk, plans to recap yesterday’s big ideas (memes, if you will) in sketches this morning. Throughout the conference, Wujec and a team of Ringling College students transcribe the speakers’ main arguments and/or research insights into digital tablet-drawn graphics. Believe me, by mid-Tuesday a mnemonic device or two starts to come in handy.

More of yesterday’s highlights:

Franco Lodato of Pininfarina described his company’s design for an electric car, Sintesi, that engages with the surrounding environment (i.e., the city) as a network. Hair-raising concepts included the absence of mirrors from the car – why have them when the automobile could network with a city’s omnipresent surveillance cameras? – and the obsolescence of stoplights when the cars themselves are able to negotiate who will stop when.

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Greetings from the Sarasota International Design Summit, where I’m sitting in the ballroom of the Ritz Carlton Sarasota listening to the summit speakers.

Bruce Damer (pictured) just finished discussing his work, including the development of the iDoublet—a renaissance-inspired garment that holds all of your “wearz” or gadgets, like iPods. (In addition to several music players, Damer was wearing a prototype of a LED Twitter feed, with text scrolling across a small panel at his hip as he spoke.)

Damer spoke about his work simulating complex processes that are not yet realizable in real life. Through his work with NASA, he has—along with a team of collaborators—created animations modeling possible asteroid landing techniques, for example. One of his most recent projects is EvoGrid, an animated model of how a computer-driven artificial evolution environment might look and operate. Though Damer’s own work is quite science- and space-specific, the idea of modeling a process or prototype and experimenting in a virtual world has potential for application in a wide variety of industries. (Including architecture and construction, which the summit’s next speakers will address.)

Megan Voeller is Creative Loafing’s visual art critic. She teaches at the University of Tampa and The Art Institute of Tampa, edits the weekly online newsletter of CreativeTampaBay and blogs at Artsqueeze.com.