2012 Judges

BRETT PHARES

Brett Phares is a media artist working in computer visualization and installation, exploring god-like awareness in digital space and blindness in physical experience. Most recently he had a one-person show entitled Undercast: navigating blindness at The Schneider Museum of Art at Southern Oregon University; he writes and has presented on our pre-disposed blindness in everyday experience; and is curator/co-founder of Alys Beach’s annual projected art festival, Digital Graffiti, going into its fourth year in 2011. After 18 years creating innovative interactive media for a variety of corporate brands, Mr. Phares is professor of Media Arts at Marist College; drop a line for more information.

JASON EPPINK

Jason Eppink creates interactive experiences, curates events and exhibitions, and throws raging art parties as the Assistant Curator of Digital Media at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City.

When he’s not doing that, Eppink engages in public space magic, open source scheming, moving image mischief, photon reappropriation, and linguistic subterfuge.

His doings have been seen worldwide because they’re all on the internet.  Also they’ve been seen worldwide in galleries, who goes to those?

Good Magazine proclaimed him one of the top 100 most important, exciting, and innovative people making our world better and changing the way we live.

LUCIA FISHBURNE

Lucia Fishburne is Florida’s State Film Commissioner. As Director of the Governor’s Office of Film and Entertainment, Lucia is responsible for leading Florida’s efforts to build, expand and retain the film, TV and digital media entertainment industry sector, which is considered a key growth opportunity for the state. In 2010 she played an integral part in the passage of legislation that revamped Florida’s entertainment industry incentive program into a five year program with $242 million in transferable tax credits to bring entertainment industry production jobs back to the state of Florida.  As a result, Florida is seeing resurgence in film, television and digital media production.

Prior to serving as State Film Commissioner, Lucia served as part of Workforce Florida (the state’s workforce policy board) and the Department of Education, where she administered the Florida Institute for Film Education.

Lucia earned a Masters Degree in Marketing Communication from Florida State University and an ABD in Communication Research and Theory. She also achieved APR accreditation; a national accreditation in the Public Relations field.

Prior to graduate school, Lucia toured as a professional musician and performer. Highlights of her creative accomplishments include an original composition featured in the Victor Nunez film, “Ruby in Paradise” (the top film at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival), and Composer/Performer/Producer credits for “Algebra TV,” winner of the Milia ’95 international multimedia conference in Cannes, France.

MARIEANNE KHOURY-VOGT

Khoury & Vogt Architects (KVA) was formed by Erik Vogt and Marieanne Khoury-Vogt in 2001 as a practice in architecture, urban design, and town planning. Their practice, engages projects in a variety of scales, programs, and locales. Each is linked by a common purpose: to contribute to and elaborate a worthwhile and memorable public realm. This is pursued through a firm grounding in local architectural traditions as well as the deployment and transformation of durable building types.

The couple have collaborated on projects around the globe. Khoury & Vogt Architects has designed award-winning commercial and residential projects throughout Florida and in such faraway places as Belgium, Poland, Dhabi and China.

Erik Vogt received his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Miami and Master of Architecture from Yale University. Marieanne Khoury-Vogt studied for her undergraduate degree in Paris, France and obtained a double Masters in Architecture and Urban Planning from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Both are licensed architects in Florida.

In addition to projects in South Florida, Khoury & Vogt Architects are currently Town Architects for Alys Beach, a New Urbanist resort community in the Florida panhandle.

As Town Architects, Erik and Marieanne have been instrumental in executing Alys Beach’s unique vision for marrying uncompromising architectural beauty with environmental sustainability and fortified building standards. Among countless other projects, Erik and Marieanne designed Alys Beach’s “Caliza,” one of the most beautiful new resort amenities in the world.

MAX WATMAN

Max Watman is working on a book about cooking for his friends and family, which will be out from W.W. Norton in 2013. He is the author of Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw’s Adventures in Moonshine (Simon and Schuster, 2010), and of Race Day: a Spot on the Rail with Max Watman (Ivan R. Dee; 2005).

Both were chosen for the Editors’ Choice list in the New York Times Book Review. He is a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post’s food and drink section. He was the horse racing correspondent for the New York Sun, and was a regular contributor to their Arts and Letters pages, where he covered books, music, food, and drink. For six years, he wrote the semi-annual Fiction Chronicle — an omnibus review of important novels and short story collections — for The New Criterion. He has written for the New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, Forbes FYI, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, Parnassus, Gourmet, and Fortune Small Business. He was raised in the mountains of Virginia, and earned a BA at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. He received an MFA from Columbia University. The National Endowment for the Arts named him a Literary Fellow in 2008. He lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife and young son.

Our 2010 Digital Graffiti festival was hosted by a panel of esteemed celebrity and industry judges, including Alan Hunter, film producer and MTV’s very first “VJ”; Brett Phares, a professor of interactive media at Marist College in New York; Lucia Fishburne, The State of Florida ’s Film Commissioner; Colleen Duffley, professional photographer for such clients as Metropolitan Home magazine and Nieman Marcus; and film executive and Director of The Torchlight Program, Paul Cohen.

The 2011 Digital Graffiti festival will be held in Alys Beach, Florida on Saturday, June 11.