WPI Teams arrive March 20
Once again, Santa Fe Complex will host engineering teams from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The teams will be in Santa Fe from March 20 to May 7. They are working on six project in the community:
- Crash and Congestion
- Bus of the future
- Pueblo Sustainability Model
- High Speed Santa Fe
- Preserving Indigenous Languages
- Watershed Crowdsourcing
Please welcome the students, and watch for announcements of project presentations.
Jonathan Morse: BIONS
We are pleased to announce the installation of a new mini-show in our Alcove Gallery.
BIONS 1-15 is a series of imagined biological images inspired by Jonathan’s involvement as an invited artist in last year’s “Art of Systems Biology and Nanotechnology” at Santa Fe Complex. To see the entire BIONS series and other recent work, go to www.jmorseart.com.
Simtable Returns to TIME Magazine’s Techland for “5 Cool Inventions” List
First featured on the site in June, SimTable’s flagship wildfire training system returns for top-5 honors in the TIME magazines tech blog’s 2011 best-of list.
The brainchild of Stephen Guerin, Santa Fe Complex founder, Simtable developed in the Complex’s unique training-and-entrepreneurship environment. After attracting start-up money from LANL’s Venture Acceleration Fund, Simtable opened its own offices in 2011, and has now sold more than 20 sand table units to firefighting and emergency management organizations around the country.
Read the TIME articles here and here, or visit simtable.com.
Santa Fe Complex Moves to Second St.
Our new location is in Second Street Studios — 1807 Second St. #107. Turn in at Backroad Pizza and go halfway back — we are on your right, up a ramp, in the old Linda Durham Gallery. It is a great space for us, with a main hall similar in size to our old one, a classroom, and spaces for team collaborations.Our spaces are available for informal laptop work space and meeting space for technology-related entrepreneurs and project teams.
We are excited to be in Second Street Studios, and especially to work with CoLab. They have a great facility just across the way, with monthly rental of desk space.
THE STUFF THAT WORKS
Santa Fe Complex is getting ready for a busy year in 2012. We are focusing our efforts and events around specific research areas, with the objective of creating spin-off projects and companies employing Santa Fe residents. more…
The Virtual Dinner Guest Project is a SPREAD finalist
Complex member Eric Maddox is presenting his innovative citizen engagement project at Site Santa Fe’s annual micro-grant event. We wish him the best of luck, and please vote for the project if you are attending the event. For more information about the project:
Thank You for Supporting Us at City Council
Dear Friends and Partners of Santa Fe Complex
Thank you for your support of the Complex! On August 30, City Council unanimously approved renewal of the third and final year of our Economic Development contract with the City of Santa Fe. We want to thank the Councillors, City staff, and everyone who came out to support the Complex.
Founded in December 2008, Santa Fe Complex diversifies the local economy, supporting independent careers in technology with business development services, workforce training, event hosting, and a great collaborative workspace. In just four years, the Complex has become an internationally recognized center of excellence in applied complexity science and a valued community resource.
In the first two years of our City contract, we exceeded all measures of our impact on the region’s economy. We generated over a million dollars a year in new economic activity, and continue to host numerous ongoing projects and enterprises. Our partnerships in the community have expanded and formalized, with over 20 active partnerships and 260 events and meetings a year.
We believe that the Complex has a vital role to play in Santa Fe’s future economy. We are looking forward to another year of projects, partnerships and events!
Stephen Guerin and Roy Wroth, Directors
What We Do
Santa Fe is a place where creative people in science and the humanities come together to work on the world’s most complex problems.
Santa Fe Complex is a community organization that supports project-based teams working on important and interesting problems. We build and apply powerful digital tools, drawing on New Mexico’s expertise in complexity science and visualization. We believe that the process is as important as the results, and are dedicated to advancing careers in science, technology and the humanities for New Mexico’s students.
Our Activities
- We host project teams, bringing innovative technologies to market;
- We support our members with services, facilities, and events;
- We support education and workforce training in partnership with area schools.
Starting a Project
Every project begins with an idea and a person who believes in it.
Do you want to get a project started at Santa Fe Complex, but don’t have all of the people, resources, or money lined up?
Here are some first steps to go through to escape the chicken-and-egg conundrum.
1. Name and describe it.
Frame your idea into something that people can talk about. Use language that welcomes potential collaborators — but shows your own enthusiasm and commitment. And do it in writing.
2. Show-and-tell.
Make it real, even if it is just a mock-up. Put together something visual — or better, physical — to attract people to the conversation.
3. Funding vector.
Identify a few specific funding sources that the project could pursue. Even if you aren’t ready to apply, it encourages collaborators to know that resources might be out there.
4. Host an event.
Collaborations are a commitment of time and energy, so get started by committing yours to an introductory event.
Santa Fe Complex is here to support collaborations. Are you ready?
Mobile Apps Development Challenge Lauches
May 23, 2011
This weekend we hosted the launch and Jam Weekend for the NM Mobile Apps Development Challenge. The legendary Albuquerque apps developper Andrew Stone gave a kick-off talk, and teams formed around 4 challenge areas. On Sunday, preliminary prizes were awarded to two teams, “GO Santa Fe” and “Santa Fe Backstory”. But it’s not too late to enter the challenge and win prize money…the challenge ends June 16. Visit Mix Santa Fe for challenge details.
Created by Mix Santa Fe, the NM Tech Council, and the City of Santa Fe. Other sponsors include: Santafe.com, the NM Angels, TVC, America’s Finest News Source, The Onion, The SF Business Incubator, Co-Lab, The Santa Fe Chamber, and AIGA NM.
Steven Kotler’s Author Talk Available on Video
May 11, 2011
A Small Furry Prayer: Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life is Mr. Kotler’s newest book, exploring the neurobiology of the co-evolution of man and dog. Steven spoke at the Complex May 11. You can find the video on our Vimeo channel: http://vimeo.com/channels/sfcomplex
Mick Thompson and Tyler White win Alcatel-Lucent iPad App competition
Mick Thompson and Tyler White took first place and $10,000 in an Alcatel-Lucent contest to develop an iPad app using the Alcatel-Lucent location based service API. The app they made puts your friends (using smart and non-smart phones) on a map using new location-getting techniques and shows the closest Flickr image to their location. Mick (Collecta) and Tyler (Legend Apps) submitted the app named “Peer Peer” – named for it’s verb-noun meaning. For more information about the competition, visit the Alcatel-Lucent website.
Calling Technologists & Artists
On June 17-19, the Santa Fe Complex launched the first stage of a permanent installation demonstrating the power of ambient computing. Now that the launch is past, the Complex is inviting technologists and artists to come work with the Complex team to invent next-generation computer interfaces. The first state of this ambient computing demonstration featured works demonstrating new concepts in digital projection mapping and human/computer interaction.
The Complex was completely mapped in digital projection, and the projections were monitored by interactive sensors for human interaction and play through the use of Android mobile phones, iPhones/iPads, Wii controllers, and laser pointers. more…
ABQ Journal Reports on WPI Analysis
The Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) students working at the Santa Fe Complex for the past seven weeks made the front page of the Albuquerque Journal North for their analysis of what it might take for Santa Fe to someday operate its own electricity grid.
The Journal reports that one goal behind the idea is “the ability of the city to more quickly meet sustainability goals, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing renewable energy use.” more…
ABQ Journal Headlines WPI Project
A team of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) students working at the Santa Fe Complex made headlines in the Albuquerque Journal North for their work on the St. Michaels’ Drive redevelopment project.
The Journal reports that the student group is “spending two months this spring collecting information and creating tools for a long-term municipal project aimed at turning St. Mike’s into a ‘boulevard’ reminiscent of those seen in Europe’s greatest cities.” more…
We will miss you, James
James Brody 1941-2010: Composer and Friend
April 12, 2010: We learned the tragic news that James Brody was killed yesterday in an auto accident (news article). We have lost a good friend. James was a composer of electronic music for more than 40 years and would generously share his deep knowledge and talents with anyone fortunate enough to spend time with him. You can listen to some of James’s work on his myspace page or through his website. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends. Take care, James.
New Mexican Profiles WPI Projects
The April 5, 2010, Santa Fe New Mexican profiles the work of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) teams working for seven weeks this spring at the Santa Fe Complex. The article cites their projects as work that “might one day benefit the city of Santa Fe, which is considering a couple of long-range ideas for revamping St. Michael’s Drive and creating a municipal-owned power utility.” For the full article, click here.
Santa Fe Complex Awarded NSF Grant
The Santa Fe Complex is part of the New Mexico “brain trust,” along with the University of New Mexico and the Institute of American Indian Arts, awarded $597,220 in funding from the National Science Foundation’s Partnership for Innovation program.
The grant will fund the development of the hardware and software that make it possible to use “fulldome immersive environments”–such as the LodeStar planetarium at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science–to help people visualize, simulate, or experientially comprehend a wide range of information. more…
Pasatiempo Features Manipulated Image
Manipulated Image at the Complex captures the cover story of the March 12 issue of Pasatiempo, the arts and entertainment magazine of the Santa Fe New Mexican. The issue, available on newsstands now, previews the first anniversary of the show, titled “For Action’s Sake,” which is curated by Santa Fe video artist Alysse Stepanian.
NM Business Weekly Cites Simtable Award
In a report on the $100,000 award granted Simtable by Los Alamos National Laboratory, the New Mexico Business Weekly quoted Santa Fe Complex founder Stephen Guerin, who said the grant allows Simtable to “move research developed at the Santa Fe Complex out of a lab environment and into the market for real world validation.”
The article went on to explain that the fund provides seed money to “help northern New Mexico businesses with connections to LANL technology or expertise to further develop their products or services for commercialization.” more…
Simtable Wins $100,000 VAF Award
Simtable, a company that got its start at the Santa Fe Complex, has been selected as the recipient of a $100,000 award from the Los Alamos National Security, LLC Venture Acceleration Fund.
Chip Garner and Stephen Guerin shed new light on wildfire modeling. Photo Credit: Bill Stengel
Simtable is a technology developed for wildfire training, incident command, and community outreach that combines hardware and software to create simulations on sand. more…
Visualization Challenge Winners on Display at Complex
Five winners of the 2009 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge are on display at the Santa Fe Complex following the the Art & Science of Systems Biology which took place March 26-27.
Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the journal Science, this competition honors extraordinary photographs, illustration, videos, and graphics that reveal intricate details of life and the world around us—down to the smallest scale. more…
City Council Extends Complex Funding
The Santa Fe City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday, February 24, to fund the Santa Fe Complex for another year of operation. The City will contribute $150,000, with additional funding coming from other groups, including the McCune Foundation and the National Science Foundation.
According to Santa Fe Economic Development Director Kathy McCormick, the Santa Fe Complex is a “key” part of the city’s efforts to diversify its economy and create high-paying jobs in areas other than tourism and government.
New Mexican Covers New Contract
The Santa Fe New Mexican reported on February 21 that the Santa Fe Complex landed a defense contract to help the military optimize distribution of replacement parts on the battlefield. The article described the Complex as a “group of challenge-solving junkies who specialize in wickedly complex problems.” For the full article, click here.
SFX mentoree Recognized in Indian Country Today
Former SFX mentoree Daniel Pedro was recognized in a recent article in Indian Country Today for his work in integrating computer technology into anthropology. Pedro, who is now a freshman at the University of New Mexico campus in Gallup, knew his career as an anthropologist could run afoul of his native Zuni restrictions on handling human remains so he learned to create three-dimensional models that could complement traditional archeological field work. He began working on the project while he was a student at the Santa Fe Indian School and ultimately received a Judge’s Choice award for his work in the New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge. He was mentored on his project at sfComplex. The Indian Country Today article is here.
Beneficial Food from Beneficial Farms
Local food from Beneficial Farms CSA is now available downtown in a community atmosphere at Santa Fe Complex. Beneficial Farms worked with the Complex to open a fourth location for members to pick-up their food share each Thursday. This location will offer fresh farm boxes in an open atmosphere for members to not only receive their food, but also meet other CSA members and discuss recipes and cooking tips for the week’s food. the Complex creates community connections across science, technology and art. “The community connection is how Beneficial Farms CSA fits into the mission of the Complex,” said Dena Aquilina, Member of the Arts Group at SF Complex and Director of the 2009 Summer@The Complex program. more…
Intern Project Pays Off
Six interns from Worcester Polytechnic Institute worked at the Complex last spring to determine the feasibility of a Santa Fe Project Center for WPI at the Complex. Their work was successful and the newly announced Santa Fe Center will join WPI’s 13 other global project centers as a location for applied research in the WPI engineering program. Details are on the WPI website.
Re:porter on re:MAKE IT!
Santa Fe Reporter writer John Photos faced down Christian Ristow’s robotic warriors during his visit to re:MAKE IT! and emerged unscathed from the event, though with his own views on human vulnerability in the face of steel and iron: “very soft and fleshy,” in his words, as well as the other exhibits in Santa Fe’s first celebration of the make culture. His review is in the August 19 edition of the Reporter, available here. 
Journal North Reviews re:MAKE IT!
Vince Kong, staff writer for The Albuquerque Journal, visited re:MAKE IT! on Saturday, August 8 and recorded his impressions on the front page of the Journal North edition the next day. Calling it “heady stuff”, Kong highlighted the varied exhibits and the artists who created them. That included the plutonium countdown clock of Tristan Chambers; the Manipulatrix and Subjugator robots, built by Christian Ristow, and their “Robot Food,”
built by Meow Wolf’s Corvas Brinkerhoff; event organizer David Enoch’s Black Hole, built with plexiglass from the famous Black Hole in Los Alamos; and Oakland-based artist Alex Potts resonant gourds. more…
It’s Unanimous
The Santa Fe New Mexican joined the interest in re:MAKE IT! in Pasatiempo, its weekly magazine of arts, entertainment & culture. Calling Santa Fe Complex a “volunteer-based nonprofit where creativity and innovation don’t so much collide as conspire” and “the epicenter of Santa Fe’s aboveground tech-geek DIY movement”, the magazine featured re:MAKE: IT! in its August 7-13 issue. As the page 12 article says, “Curators David Enoch and Dena Aquilina have assembled a broad spectrum of scientists and artists working in audio and visual mediums to create a highly interactive showcase of installations and smaller works.” more…
Journal North on re:MAKE IT!
The Albuquerque Journal North profiled this weekend’s DIY festival at the Complex in an August 3 story by Kathaleen Roberts. Quoting organizer David Enoch, the article says re:MAKE IT! is “like a 21st-century fair with a lot of cutting-edge art [with] people using technology in interesting and new ways.”
Click here for the full story.
Santa Fe Radio Cafe Highlights Projected Light
Mary Charlotte sat with Orlando Leibovitz and Andrew Edwards for her Tuesday, July 7 show to discuss Projected Light, the second major event in Summer@The Complex. Projected Light was a drive-in theater for the 21st century, when eight artists projected their creations in sound and video on the interior and exterior walls of the Complex. The event’s new kind of fireworks occurred over two weekends, July 3-5 and July 10-12.
Click the arrow for Mary Charlotte’s interview:
Year Two Begins with the Flip of a Switch
The clock slipped past nine as organizer Phil Mantione let the anticipation build until he introduced SF Complex founder Stephen Guerin at 9:20 to flip the switch on a new year at Santa Fe Complex. Dressed in a white lab coat for the occasion, Guerin thanked the attendees for their support and stepped to the FrankenSwitch to animate seven distinct kinetic sculptures, compiled from repurposed mechanical parts and electrical circuitry. more…
One year ago @ the Complex
500 people packed Santa Fe Complex’s new home at 632 Agua Fria last Saturday, June 14. From 4:00 to 7:00, it was an SRO crowd, spilling out into grounds to enjoy the cool breeze as the evening progressed. At 7:00, the audience settled in for a one-hour Noisefold performance and lingered into the evening to savor the experience long after the lights went down on the live show. Click the licnk below to see some highlights from the event. more…
Cole & Lekden Win Supercomputing Challenge Award
Cole Tufti and Tenzin Tungtok won the Sandia National Laboratories Creativity and Innovation Award at the 19th New Mexico Supercomputer Challenge earlier this month. The students developed a virtual air-hockey game under the mentorship of Stephen Guerin and John Paul Gonzales at Santa Fe Complex. Here’s their YouTube video of the game’s construction: more…
You Can Still Donate to sfX
Thanks to you, the Complex has become a home for art & science in Santa Fe. You’ve come to our blenders to learn about triceratops and stereo imaging. You’ve enjoyed the best of underground theater and music. You’ve listened to ground-breaking artists like Woody Vasulka describe their journey through the technological frontiers of art. And, you expressed your support to the city council when it passed a major funding proposal for the complex. You can continue your support by click here and making tax-deductible donation to Santa Fe Complex to support our work in 2009. more…
Council Supports Complex
Last night, the Santa Fe City Council voted unanimously to support the work of Santa Fe Complex. It was a long night as the councilors grappled with some major issues before they got to our place on the agenda. But, when our turn came the council quickly and decisively voted to support sfX.
You Made the Difference
We prepared 80 ‘I support sfX’ name tags for the council’s meeting. They were gone by 7:30. The meeting was delayed about an hour and the council didn’t get to our topic until almost 11:00. Even so, when we stood up to show the council who was there on sfX’s behalf, almost the entire room stood up. After almost four hours of waiting, our supporters were still in the council’s meeting room. more…
Cafe Scientifique: A Cancer Vaccine?
At least 20% of all cancers worldwide are caused by viruses and bacteria. Eliminating infections with these agents is a primary approach to preventing the development of these cancers. Cafe Scientifique explores their connection this week. more…
