US Ambassador and Dr Schlossberg tour AIE
AIE was honoured to host the United States Ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy and her husband Dr Edwin Schlossberg who visited the AIE Canberra campus yesterday. The visit included a tour of the facility including computer studios, Game Plus, Film Plus and AIE’s state of the art virtual production technology. AIE staff and students were excited to meet Dr Schlossberg, a renowned designer and author in the field of interactive experiential digital design. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy has a keen interest in education having been involved in education reform, promoting arts education and working with New York City public schools, amongst many other achievements.
During the visit, Ambassador Kennedy played Cheesepunk which was developed by students studying the Advanced Diploma of Professional Game Development. Cheesepunk is a chaotic couch party game where each player takes the role of a genius mouse engineer on the hunt to create a battlebot capable of destroying their opponents.
Another highlight of the tour included a demonstration of virtual production techniques in AIE’s Virtual Production Studio. Virtual production uses LED screens and real-time game engine technology to creative immersive film stages and reduce post-production times. AIE introduced this world-first accredited program integrating filmmaking and virtual production in 2021.
The visit was an excellent opportunity to explore potential synergies between the AIE's not-for-profit vision and Dr Schlossberg's exciting interactive design passion. Sharing a combined passion for creative arts and entertainment, AIE’s CEO and Chairman John De Margheriti shared AIE’s Campus Renewal Plans. The vision is to provide a tightly integrated living, learning and working environment that will transform AIE’s Watson campus into Canberra’s principal destination for games and film education, research and production. The first stage of the development will include a new Campus building, Student Production Hall with supporting workshop and film production amenities.
Media enquiries can be directed to AIE via info@aie.edu.au
Learn more about the Embassy of the United States of America here or visit their social media here.
For more information on Cheesepunk and the AIE student team behind the game (Bas Anderson, Ben Anderson, David Caruso, Lachlan Brown, Luna Botezatu, Jennifer McDonald, Thomas McMullen, Thomas O’Shannassy and James Mitchelson) go an visit their Itch.io page!