Event: FREE DAY! Bradley FUSE Interactive Exhibition
Time & Date: April 29, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Location: Peoria Riverfront Museum · 222 S.W. Washington St. · Peoria, Ill.
Free Day! Bradley’s FUSE Brings Award-winning Interactive Design & High Tech Fun to Riverfront Museum April 29
Teleport to another world, escape a booby-trapped tomb, go on an augmented-reality scavenger hunt, experience far-out planetarium shows and a giant screen portfolio presentation – and meet the creative, cutting edge Bradley University students behind FUSE, an annual all-out interactive extravaganza that’s the only one of its kind in Central Illinois.
Bradley’s 4th annual “FUSE: Play • Watch • Interact” experience will be held at Peoria Riverfront Museum, April 29, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. FUSE activities take place throughout the museum and are free and open to the public. Entry is also free to all museum exhibits, the Dome Planetarium and the Giant Screen Theater.
The one-day show is produced by the students of Bradley University’s Interactive Media Department, Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts, and is a collaborative effort among the department’s four majors: Game Design, Animation, Interactive Media and User Interaction/User Experience.
“I am so excited for FUSE! We've been working on some innovative projects that we can't wait to share. This just might be our best show yet,” said Executive Producer Brianna Kastner, a sophomore majoring in animation at Bradley.
“FUSE provides insight into the ever-changing and ever-growing industry of Interactive Media that the Peoria area would be hard pressed to find elsewhere,” said Advisory Producer Quentin Young, a senior who’s majoring in game design at Bradley. “It’s a collective representation of each student’s creative interests, designs, and talents, as well as faculty work.”
The giant screen theater is the only place in Peoria to see a custom, student-designed compendium reel featuring current work from award-winning interactive media students. The high-resolution video previews departmental projects and the senior Animation students' capstone films.
For the first time at FUSE, students will give a presentation in the theater about their time and experiences in the department. Seniors Gage Melton, Sanaa Fidahussai and Brandon D'Adam will discuss their respective majors of Game Design, Animation and User Interaction/User Experience.
Bradley’s Interactive Media Department program has produced award-winning games and is ranked among the among world's best. Students are currently working on three NASA-funded projects for CubeSat satellites – miniature satellites used for educational and research – developing an augmented reality testing tool, a mobile satellite control app and an informational game about the science behind CubeSat missions.
The interactive FUSE show, which gets its name from a fusion of art and technology, is intended to engage visitors of all ages with artists and developers, as well as the latest hardware, innovation and applications.
The FUSE experience includes:
Video Showcase
The Giant Screen Theater is the only place in Peoria to see a custom, Bradley-designed Compendium Reel featuring current work from award-winning Interactive Media students. The high-resolution video previews departmental projects and the senior Animation students' capstone films.
Creativity Up Close and Personal
Stop by and chat with one of our Interactive Media majors; we love sharing our work and enthusiasm and we’d be honored to meet you. The department's Junior and Senior classes will be on hand to display the work they have created.
Green Screen Magic Experience
To experience a green screen is to be implanted in another world, another realm of reality in which you abide by your own rules. Experience the quintessential video special effect: See yourself placed in a virtual environment. Take center-stage, and allow your imagination to run rampant as you go wherever your mind can take you!
Catapult Projects
Groups of students developed, designed, programmed, and engineered original concepts that offer unique opportunities to watch and interact with not only the exhibits, but with the student body who made them.
Egyptian Escape
Egyptian Escape immerses you in an experience like no other where you will work, hands on, solving a variety of puzzles to escape the perils of a booby trapped excavation site.
Race Trek
Race Trek is a race through space where three players using networked tablets will be able to customize their own ship and navigate it through a course full of obstacles to cross the finish line first!
Tom's Treasure Trove
Tom's Treasure Trove is an augmented reality scavenger hunt where users, utilizing tablets, roam around the room to help uncover Tom the Pirate's lost treasure by interacting with 3D virtual objects in real space.
Ursa Major
Ursa Major is a cooperative bullet hell shooter for the arcade cabinet in which one player controls a rampaging grizzly bear and the other uses a bear-mounted cannon to defend the forest against an invading robot army.
Vs. Pinball
Vs. Pinball is an old school pinball experience with a twist of head to head competitive gameplay set in dynamic settings such as Arabian Nights, Up in the Clouds and even Celtic Tales!
The Dome Experience
The Dome Experience is a set of unique films created by sophomore animation students, specifically for Riverfront Museum's Dome Planetarium.
Starcats
Starcats is a 4 person local couch co-operative / competitive game where players must figure out a way to stay alive and escape the planet that they have crash landed on.
More FUSE information, including portfolio samples, can be found at: bradleyinteractive.com. The FUSE event and all museum exhibits are free and open to the public on April 29, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information about the event at the museum call309.686.7000 or visit RiverfrontMuseum.org.
Bradley University Department of Interactive Media
In 2017, The Princeton Review selected Bradley as 12th of the Top 25 Undergraduate Schools for Video Game Design. The Interactive Media Department prepares its learners to be critical thinkers in a continually evolving field that requires interdisciplinary, theoretical, and applicable knowledge in the design, development, and production of interactive media.
The department maintains a strong focus on creative and conceptual problem solving in the authoring of material for aspiring new-media professionals within a sound theoretical framework. Students learn the importance of content research and project planning while becoming familiar with aesthetic conventions and the production environment within each of the component media types. Interactive Media majors and minors incorporate the various forms that media can assume into stand-alone projects with authoring tools designed for the Internet and modern-day devices and operating systems.
Riverfront Museum
Peoria Riverfront Museum is a privately funded, AAM accredited nonprofit museum fostering an interest in art, science and history. The Museum features traveling exhibits, the Dome Planetarium, Giant Screen Theater, interactive galleries and unique programs and community outreach efforts that offer hands-on educational experiences for Central Illinoisans of all ages. Our mission is to inspire lifelong learning for all - connecting art, history, science and achievement through collections, exhibitions and programs. For more information visit RiverfrontMuseum.org.
