George Aguilar is a multimedia consultant, writer, director and producer of pioneering and dynamic multimedia works for the educational market, the arts, film festivals, broadcast and the Internet.erging digital genres including online storytelling, video streaming, 3D Virtual Worlds and pod
For over 10 years he has created innovative literary-based
films, videos and animation programs and produced several groundbreaking
literary events. He started Literary
Television (LTV), a project of the National Poetry Association (NPA),
which showcased short, independent film productions to schools nationwide.
Under his direction, LTV aired shows on PBS, in major art houses and
international museums. He produced the Eyestruck TV series, a 12-week
series sponsored by Macromedia and Pixar Animation. He also
helped program an eight-week series for PBS's Living Room Festival
in collaboration with several independent media organizations from the Bay
Area. In 2005, he produced 22 half-hour
shows for Cable Ch. 29 titled ‘SomArtsMedia’, about the local arts cultural
center. National trade publication ‘Videomaker
Magazine’ has said of his efforts,
“If anyone can bring videopoetry to the masses, its’ George Aguilar.”
Mr. Aguilar is also a self-taught computer motion graphics designer with expertise in a wide range of computer software programs. From 1988-89, he was
coordinator of Digital Mission, a multimedia training collaborative
working to end the “digital divide” in San Francisco’s Mission District. Funded by Mayor Willie Brown’s Office of
Community Development, the Digital Mission collaborative included a diverse
range of nonprofit and educational providers such as Bay Area Video
Coalition (BAVC), the City College of San Francisco (CCSF) and Arriba Juntos. Mr. Aguilar designed a unique weeklong series
of technology workshops and educational open houses, which included Craig
Newmark, founder of Craigslist
From 1997-2000, Mr. Aguilar was Executive Director
and chief fundraiser for the National Poetry Association and produced several
live and Internet-based programs including the successful CELEBRATION OF THE
WORD event at the Masonic Auditorium featuring Maya Angelou.
At the time, The San Francisco Examiner wrote, “The association (NPA) has successes to celebrate. Aguilar
led a dramatic turnaround with a new board of directors, sponsorship of more
events (including poetry slams) and a plunge onto the Internet with a
sophisticated Web site that has
given the organization a national profile”.
Mr. Aguilar has presented new media tools
to educators and traveled extensively across the U.S. and overseas to instruct
teachers and students on new methods of creating original media content using a
computer and simple to use software programs.
He has taught workshops, conducted lectures and presented works to educators and students at the 91st Annual Convention of the National Council of Teachers of English in Baltimore
(2001), The Center for International Education (CIE), in St. Paul
(2004), The Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art, and the Circulo de Bellas
Artes, Madrid, Spain,, (2002) to name just a few.
In addition, Mr. Aguilar’s videos and educational methods are used in academic
venues by teachers around the world including the Center for Exceptional Children, Jacksonville, NC, George
Mason University, Franklin High School, Franklin WI, Santa
Barbara Film Study Dept., Santa Barbara, CA, and Universitat Dortmund,
Dortmund, GERMANY. He is also mentioned in several academic essays and books
including, Poetry Films and Film Poems, Essay, Prof. William C. Wees
2000, Techno-Poetry and
Virtual Realities, Essay, Sometti, Mantova 2002, Moving text in avant-garde poetry: Towards a poetics of textual motion, Teemu Ikonen, History
of Art on The Web, “Under the Happiest Dawn”, Prof. Jan Arabas, Middlesex
Community College.
He currently acts as Director of SomArts Media at the San
Francisco SomArts Cultural Center. He
writes, directs and produces short videos for the non-profit and consults on media-related projects. His
cinepoetry is being translated into Hindi for a major new festival in India.
Most recently, he has been exploring the creative possibilities within Virtual
Worlds as they relate to the arts and education. In 2008, he designed and built a virtual world simulation for the
South of Market Cultural Center, a 25,000 square ft. facility operated for the
San Francisco Arts Commission. This
simulation trains artists and curators on how to use virtual worlds for art
purposes.
ONLINE PRESS MENTIONS:
Virtually Art, “Artists untangle the Web of a new medium”, Debra Diblasi, 2001
The Cultural Connect: Profile
VideoMaker Magazine, Profile: "George Aguilar and
VideoPoetry" 1994
San Francisco Examiner, "CELEBRATION OF THE
WORD” September 2000
Berkeley Daily Planet on Aguilar film
Santa Barbara Independent “The Body Electric Journal and Cin(E)-Poetry”
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