About

Janell Baxter is an Assistant Professor in the Interactive Arts and Media department at Columbia College Chicago, and is the coordinator of the Game Design major’s Art and Animation concentration. She has a MS degree in computer science from the University of Chicago, and a BFA in studio arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago. For over a decade she has worked with teams building simulations and educational games, and is currently developing mobile games.

Recent artistic work has been focusing on emergent and adaptive systems, including a series of small bots that analyze visuals in search of meaning and inspiration for their own "artwork". The last iteration, "bios", produces portraits of people based on their biographical information it finds online.

Academic Positions

• Associate Chair, Interactive Arts and Media Department, Columbia College Chicago, 2010 (until 2012)
• Assistant Professor, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2009 to present
• Artist-in-Residence, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1999 to 2009
• Part-Time Faculty, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1998 and 1999

Education

• University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, M.S., Computer Science
• University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, B.F.A., Studio Arts

Certifications

• Core Instructor Certification, McCarthy Technologies, Inc.
• Core Certification, McCarthy Technologies, Inc.

Technical Skills

• Languages: C#, XML, PHP, SQL, HTML/xHTML, CSS, Java, JavaScript and ActionScript
• Applications: Photoshop, Flash, Processing, Illustrator, and Maya
• Traditional studio arts: accomplished in drawing, printmaking, painting and sculpture

Research Interests

• Algorithmic art
• Emergent and adaptive systems
• Interface design and interactive application development
• Teamwork (best practices for high-performance teams)
• Virtual communities and collaboration

Recent Projects

• Colab Server: Developed backend application for the Colab art project. Built with MySQL and PHP.
• Hi-rise Evacuation and Learning Platform (H.E.L.P.): Sim trains office workers how to respond to a hi-rise fire, developed under a grant from the Department of Defense, Unreal Engine 2 Runtime.
• McCarthy Technologies Document Tracking System
• Education Enterprise Server (™), Versive, L.L.C.
• DAPME/Online: Senior Project Manager and developer for the online version of the "Dictionary for Artists and Performers and Managers and Entrepreneurs, 3rd Edition" by Charles Suber. Built by a team of nine, with ASP, SQL Server 2000, CSS, and XHTML.
• Dragon Dojo (Intranet): team connection application built with ASP, SQL Server 2000, JavaScript, CSS and XHTML.

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships

• Faculty Development Grant, Columbia College Chicago, 2007
• Faculty Letters of Commendation, University of Chicago, 2006
• Nominated for the Excellence in Teaching Award 2003
• Renaissance Outstanding Achievement Award, Columbia College, 1997, 1998
• Artemesia Mentorship, Artemesia Gallery, 1996
• Oxbow Fellowship, The School of the Art Institute, 1993
• Phi Theta Kappa National Honor Fraternity member, 1990

Professional Memberships

• Rhizome
• International Game Developers Association (IGDA)
• International Digital Media and Arts Association (iDMAa)
• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), with add. memberships in: SIGART, SIGGRAPH, and SIGSIM
• College Art Association (CAA)
• New Media Caucus (NMC)
• Chicago New Media Alliance