NYU’s Daily Student Newspaper
WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS Vol. 41, No. 37
THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2013
Students develop NYU event aggregator app By KIMBERLY SCHU
Imagine an app for your phone that informs you of every university event at NYU. Acting as a central bulletin board for students, Skrounge is a new application that launched on April 4 at NYU by two students who recently graduated from Skidmore College. NYU is the application’s first campus. Inspired by the lack of re-
gional emphasis in many of today’s social media platforms, the duo began designing an app that would allow people to post events exclusively viewable by the university community. Nicolle Bennett, a Gallatin graduate student and the app’s content manager, said that Skrounge allows students
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Dorm Room Fund looks to back promising student startups By NEELA QADIR
April marked the start of a search for the next Mark Zuckerberg. Led by 11 students, including four NYU students, the New York City Dorm Room Fund Investment Team is on the lookout for students capable of launching an innovative and successful startup. The New York City Investment Team members were announced Saturday, when the New York site launched.
The Dorm Room Fund, the parent company of the New York City Investment team, encourages business ventures while still in school. The Dorm Room Fund first began providing financial support for startups in Philadelphia in September of 2012. New York City marks the first expansion of their funding efforts. “This is a huge advantage to students who want to pursue their idea or validate their
concept while they are still in school,” said Ricky Berrin, Dorm Room Fund member and second-year MBA student at the Stern School of Business. The Dorm Room Fund, which is backed by venture capital firm First Round Capital, also tries to expand current startups by providing money to students who already have businesses.
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ANTOINE MARIE COMBELLES/WSN
Mika became green, mean, everything more at Le Poisson Rouge Performing for a packed crowd of excited fans at Le Poisson Rouge on April 9, Mika played a mix of classic hits like “Grace Kelly” and deep cuts from behind the piano.
Tribeca Film Festival to engage audiences with interactive storytelling By JEREMY GROSSMAN
“Audiences are way ahead of us,” said Ingrid Kopp, director of digital initiatives at the Tribeca Film Institute and programmer of the Tribeca Film Festival’s new Storyscapes initiative. A first-time project for the festival, Storyscapes is an interactive showcase in which audiences experiment with the medium of film in several unique ways. Through five different installations, Storyscapes allows audiences to become “part of the story” and experience movies in a non-traditional manner. “I think Tribeca’s always been really interested in looking to see what’s coming down the pipeline and making sure the festival is really part of the conversation of where media is going, what audiences are getting excited about,” Kopp said. When choosing the five installations for
Storyscapes, Kopp considered anything that is not labeled as a linear film. What she ended up choosing was a mixture of installations that covered a number of diverse topics, from insomnia to Hurricane Sandy to “Star Wars.” “Sandy Storyline” is a growing documentary where audiences can share their own stories of the hurricane that occurred this past October, through the use of audio, photography, text and video. “A Journal of Insomnia” is a space de-
signed to look like a bedroom where participants can view real stories of insomnia and then share their own. “‘Star Wars’ Uncut” puts audience members in the director’s seat when designing “The Empire Strikes Back.” Using segments of the film broken down into 15-second segments and remade into animations and re-enactments by people across the world, audiences can be Jedi Knights in their own “Star Wars” film. Inspired by the parlor game commonly
COURTESY OF TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL
“Robots in Residence” encourages users to explore the A.I.-human relationship.
known as exquisite corpse, the “Exquisite Forest” exhibition allows players to piece together a picture of a forest by passing around a piece of paper and contributing to the final picture. “Robots in Residence” provides yet another collaborative experience, but this time the interaction takes place between humans and robots. Participants can check out a robot — each containing cameras for eyes — and then take the robot out on the streets of New York. The robots, which interview participants, help explore how people can open up to artificial intelligences in ways they cannot, or will not, to fellow humans. “I hope [audiences] get really excited about the potential for what stories can do,” Kopp said. Jeremy Grossman is film editor. Email him at jgrossman@nyunews.com.