Assistant Professor of Emerging Media Arts (Virtual Production) – Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts – University of Nebraska

The Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Emerging Media Arts that has experience in one or more areas, including but not limited to: 3D rigging and animation, motion capture, game design/development, or other area of virtual production. The candidate must have a professional industry experience in film, television, games or associated industries. We are looking for outstanding and potentially unconventional candidates.

We invite applications from candidates with diverse research and teaching perspectives based on-non-traditional educational backgrounds or from their personal experiences as members of groups historically underrepresented in higher education.

The Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts opened its doors in the Fall of 2019. We seek to be a pre-eminent interdisciplinary program in the emerging media arts, to attract and support visionary creative leaders, and to transform our world through technology and powerful storytelling in order to ensure a brighter and sustainable future for civilization. We have world-class international industry connections. We inspire people to dream bigger.

The ideal candidate will:

• Create courses and teach in the Carson Center’s undergraduate and, eventually, graduate programs
• Mentor undergraduate students
• Have experience in multi-disciplinary collaborations
• Commit to contributing to and promoting a culture of equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging including in teaching, research, creative practice, and service

Minimum Required Qualifications

• MFA or other terminal degree in film, animation, games, computer science, digital arts, or related field; or equivalent industry experience (a minimum of 5 years professional experience)
• A record and portfolio of professional experience in one or more of the following fields: 3D rigging and animation, game design/development, motion capture, or other area of virtual production
• Demonstrated expertise with multiple tools for authoring media in virtual environments, potentially including but not limited to: Unity, Unreal, Adobe, 3D modeling/animation applications, rigging, motion capture, coding/scripting languages.
• Demonstrated potential to achieve national or international recognition in creative research.

Preferred Qualifications

• An approach to virtual creation through modes of interactive narrative, storytelling, worldbuilding, critical gaming or design research processes.
• Experience in simulation, AI, or procedural animation using C#, Python, or other scripts in concert with visual, 3D, or interactive platforms.
• Clear and demonstrable awareness of and connections to the entertainment, technology, design and/or the arts industries.
• Experience in teaching, even if not in the formal setting of higher education
• Ability to learn and teach new software, course content, and professional practices.
• Strong interest in working collaboratively across disciplines
• Strong commitment to a progressive emerging media arts education and active engagement with the latest industry developments
• Demonstrated commitment to contributing to and promoting a culture of equity,diversity, inclusion and belonging including in teaching, research, creative practice, and service

Tenure-Track

This position will have an apportionment of 50% teaching, 40% research, 10% service. In addition to teaching, tenure-track faculty are expected to produce research, scholarly work, artistic work, and/or engage in emerging media arts practice that elevates the field. Examples of faculty activities include but are not limited to: a significant client base; creative research and production credits in emerging media arts such as filmmaking, games, XR; work published, in print or on-line, in scholarly, research, popular journals, and trade publications; invited talks/workshops at significant venues; patents held; items in production or collections; grants and sponsored research; professional honors and awards; participation in gallery exhibitions; installations and significant contributions to professional societies and organizations.

This position involves teaching at an undergraduate and eventually graduate level. We are looking for people who will continually re-invent the curriculum as an ongoing part of their own commitment to continued research and development.

All positions include a comprehensive benefits package, stipend to support research and creative activity, and competitive salary.

How to apply: The search committee will begin formal review of applications on June 15, 2021 and will continue until appointments are made. Interested applicants must first go to http://employment.unl.edu/postings/72019. Click on “Apply for this job,” complete the form, and submit the following:

• Cover Letter – include description of Research, Training and Teaching experience\
• Curriculum Vitae or Resume
• Names and contact information of three references
• Artist Statement and Portfolio – Upload a PDF document that includes a list of links OR one link to your online portfolio specifically curated for the search committee, prioritized with your most accomplished work with any writings/statements or notable reviews about your work. (Upload as “Online Portfolio”)
• Philosophy of Teaching Statement (Optional – upload as “Other Document”)

The Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts believes that diversity is important. We envision a faculty that will serve an increasingly diverse student body. To that end, we seek a diverse pool of candidates.

As an EO/AA employer, qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and/or political affiliation. See http://www.unl.edu/equity/notice-nondiscrimination.

About:

The Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, a newly established $57M facility and academic degree at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is re-envisioning the university for the 21st century and how students learn. Current areas of interest and research within the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts include: cinematic arts, virtual production, interactive storytelling, experience design, procedural content generation/generative methods, VR/AR/XR, machine learning for artists, physical computing, sonic arts, and immersive and interactive media.

We envision being the premiere destination for a faculty seeking a fresh social vision beyond today’s media environments that values inclusivity and diversity, plays to the innermost recesses of our imaginations, solves human-scale problems and tells breathtaking stories that stimulate, provoke and inspire.

We focus on experimentation and production both inside and outside of the classroom. Our approach to learning relies more on collaboration rather than competition so as to cultivate a creative environment in which exploration, analysis, risk, and failure can freely occur. Classes are run in a workshop-like environment facilitating active learning and encouraging discussion of concept, content, technique and impact. All faculty are expected to engage with students beyond the classroom through a culture of project assistance, advising, mentoring, and community.

Since launching in the fall of 2019, we have welcomed our first two cohorts of undergraduate students. This is an exciting opportunity to be part of the founding team and to set the culture of the Center.

Lincoln, Nebraska is the quintessential college community, with its University set in the middle of a dynamic downtown area consisting of restaurants, coffee houses, movie theaters, clubs, bike trails and urban residences. It is a creative, intellectual and vibrant community that loves the arts and is home to the Lied Center for Performing Arts, the Sheldon Museum of Art, and the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, an art house cinema adjacent to the new Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts.