History of the Center for Creative Media
August 24th, 2004 - The first time I saw what was to be the first home of the Center for Creative Media, I found a water stained, dank little corner of the campus filled with stuff that no one else wanted. Billed the Campus Center Lounge, and was more of a large closet filled with other people's stuff than even a lounge. Still, it was used by students, after a fashion, as a place to sleep between classes, when it was open. Clearly the Lounge had seen better days. It also was going to take a lot of imagination to turn this room into a functioning multimedia lab.
On the bright side, most of the problems with the room were mobile. We took a survey of furniture, and found some nice stuff. Of course, the original owners of the nice stuff wanted it back. The stuff we were willed was all not so nice stuff. The desk in the middle was one such item. Any attempt to stick 500 pounds of media equipment would have resulted in its immediate collapse. Still, the original editing lab located in a closet in Bogel Hall had two particle board desks that would do in the short term, and the new building was only two years away (I would say this a lot over the years). In addition, there was the promise of some gray business tables, nice chairs, and support from our maintinence people to make the best of this place for the two years we had it.
Turns out the old place was ok. The blackboard, deadly to video equipment, came down, and was replaced with a small white board. The lights were rewired, and although leaking oil from the kitchen would blow the florescent tubes, we never really used them anyway. The walls got a coat of paint, and our wood mounted Hollywood posters were mounted on the walls, as were some magnetic board we scared up to stand in for a computerized checkout system. The gray tables we were promised disapeered, so we were given some brown torture models that would collapse with any weight put on them. A hint for future lab designers -- do not skimp on furniture, unlike computers it will be with you for decades.
Despite the trials and the whines of 'its only two more years' the lab quickly turned into a place where students could come for creative expression. Almost any given night would see two or three students at the computers. Since we only had two or three computers this is impressive. Students soon began to bring laptops to the lab, and we had to add wireless to the rather feeble networking we started off with. Nex we needed plug ins, and since florescents are so difficult to work under, students began to donate incadescent desk lamps.

I guess the picture below says it all about the end of this stage. Bad furniture, a bad room, poor lighting, bad carpet, and did I mention bad furniture, turned somehow into a working lab. Sure, it was cramped, but we had a lot of fun also, and did a lot of good work. Written at this is right before the new lab opens, the old lab will definately be a place of fond memories and lessons learned.