Latest news with #VisualArts
The Hindu
30-04-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Shivaji K. Panikkar-chaired Commission recommends overhaul of Kerala's fine arts education
An expert commission, chaired by renowned art educator Shivaji K. Panikkar, has recommended a complete revamp of the existing curricula in Kerala's fine arts colleges. Major reforms in admission processes, evaluation methods and administration structures have been recommended, along with a transition to a credit and semester framework. Prof. Panikkar, former Dean and Founder Member, School of Culture and Creative Expressions, Ambedkar University, presented the commission report to Higher Education Minister R. Bindu here on Wednesday. Kerala State Higher Education Council member secretary Rajan Varughese was present on the occasion. The commission was mandated with making recommendations to reform fine art education in the State. Under single entity A significant recommendation involves bringing fine arts institutions, currently affiliated under various universities and functioning under the Department of Technical Education, under the Directorate of Collegiate Education or a single administrative and academic authority. Nomenclature changes The commission has recommended changes in the current nomenclatures, including modifying the terminology of fine arts as visual arts. It has also proposed renaming the College of Fine Arts as College of Visual Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) as Bachelor of Visual Arts, and Master of Fine Arts (MFA) as Master of Visual Arts. New college The panel also mooted the establishment of a new visual arts college in northern Kerala, named after acclaimed artist K.C.S. Paniker. It further recommends elevating the Department of Painting at the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit into a separate faculty from its current placement under Arts and Social Sciences. Several colleges are also proposed to be re-envisioned as visual arts colleges. The RLV College of Music and Fine Arts, Tripunithura, is proposed to be restructured as a specialised visual arts college, while the Raja Ravi Varma Centre of Excellence in Mavelikkara is to be developed into a dedicated department of visual arts. The report proposes introducing postgraduate programmes like Intermedia Practices, Curatorial Practices, Art History and Visual Studies, and Interdisciplinary Media and Design Practices. It also calls for establishing Departments for Graphics/Printmaking across all fine arts institutions.
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
24 Games We're Stoked For In March, Great Switch Games On Sale For Mario Day, And More Of The Week's Top News
This week, we got some insight into what prompted Ubisoft to add a 'canon mode'—which strips out all narrative choices in favor of adhering to one set story path—to the upcoming Assassin's Creed Shadows. Also, we looked at 24 games coming out in this fairly packed month that we can't wait to try, shared the details on Nintendo's current Mario Day sale which has some pretty great Switch games available at a nice discount, and covered a big change that the upcoming Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 is making to THPS 4, which has some fans concerned. Read on for all this and more. Popular streamers Valkyrae, Emiru, and Cinna were stalked and attacked by a young man during a livestream as they walked around the Santa Monica Pier. Thankfully, nobody was hurt during the encounter. - Zack Zwiezen Read More The PlayStation-owned studio Visual Arts was hit with fresh layoffs this week amid a further restructuring of Sony's U.S. game development operations. While some of the cuts included staff who had contributed to recently canceled projects like an upcoming live-service game at Bend Studio, a source told Kotaku the layoffs were more widespread than that. - Ethan Gach Read More The day of Mario is nearly upon us. In celebration of the overall-wearing plumber and his ongoing gaming franchise domination, Nintendo has marked down a bunch of Switch games that are normally $60. It's also released a new Super Mario Bros. Wonder Switch OLED bundle, in case you wanted to pick up the eight-year old console right before Nintendo starts selling the Switch 2. - Ethan Gach Read More Twitch has temporarily banned Hasan Piker for a fifth time on Monday, shortly after the leftist streamer talked about how if Republicans really cared about Medicaid they would kill Florida Senator Rick Scott. 'Big shout out to the right wing free speech lovers who took time out of their day screaming about dei & immigrants, to cry abt this!' he posted on X after his stream was taken down. - Ethan Gach Read More Peak release season for the first half of 2025 is officially upon us. The February flood picks up into a tidal wave in March with dozens of new games both big and small to check out, as well as tons more that will blow up or be discovered in the weeks ahead. Assassin's Creed Shadows is the big tentpole blockbuster this month, but there's plenty more I can't wait to check out on either side of the recently delayed open-world RPG's release. - Ethan Gach Read More After a few delays and leaks, Ubisoft's next main entry in the Assassin's Creed franchise, Assassin's Creed Shadows, is nearly here. And, in a series first, it comes with a mode that removes many choices, instead adhering to one 'canonical' narrative path. Now Ubisoft has explained why this option was added and also clarified that you'll still be free to kiss whoever you want even if you pick the Canon Mode. - Zack Zwiezen Read More Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 was officially announced earlier this week and while it looks to be a great remake of some popular PS2-era skateboarding games, one big change involving timed challenges in THPS4 might be a dealbreaker for some players. - Zack Zwiezen Read More A 10 a.m. restock of Pokémon cards led to aggressive pushing and shouting between two men inside a store in front of a card-selling vending machine. The video has since gone viral on TikTok and social media. - Zack Zwiezen Read More FragPunk is a first-person hero shooter where you use deckbuilding card mechanics to augment your characters' strengths and weaknesses. It's the next free-to-play game from NetEase, which also produced Marvel Rivals, and it's coming out this week, just not on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S where it was suddenly delayed just 24 hours before launch. - Ethan Gach Read More I've been waiting a long time for a game like Avowed. In fact, you might have to go back to 2002's The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind to find another first-person fantasy role-playing game that so utterly captivated me with its world. I've seen some people grouse that it's not as full-featured as the likes of Skyrim, but I actually like that about it! Developer Obsidian knew what it wanted to achieve with this game and focused its resources where they mattered most: on creating a world that's fun and rewarding to explore; on developing combat that's hard-hitting and offers all kinds of player agency; and on a narrative that has deeply developed themes, expressive choices, and the potential to experience significant consequences. I didn't realize just how significant until I failed to prevent a catastrophe in the game's second area, and you know what? I'm glad I made this huge mistake. Let me explain. (Spoilers concerning the second area of Avowed follow.) - Carolyn Petit Read More For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
PlayStation Hit With More Layoffs Following Recent Game Cancellations
The PlayStation-owned studio Visual Arts was hit with fresh layoffs this week amid a further restructuring of Sony's U.S. game development operations. While some of the cuts included staff who had contributed to recently canceled projects like an upcoming live-service game at Bend Studio, a source told Kotaku the layoffs were more widespread than that. Earlier this week, an unknown number of staff at the Visual Arts group based out of San Diego were informed that their last day at Sony would be March 7. The team provides internal art and technical support to first-party PlayStation studios, and worked closely with Naughty Dog on the recent Last of Us Part 1 and 2 remasters among other projects. Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 'It was tough waking up to messages that many friends and former coworkers from PSVA were laid off this morning,' former PSVA project manager Abby LeMaster, now at Riot Games, posted on LinkedIn on Monday. 'The layoffs today hit hard. PSVA let go of developers with decades of subject matter expertise; talent that will be extraordinarily difficult to recoup. This industry can be unpredictable, but the skill, experience, and passion of the people I worked with at PSVA are undeniable.' The layoffs come after an expensive failure in last year's Concord, new rounds of live-service project cancellations including a reported God of War spin-off at BluePoint Games, and a reorganization within the top echelons of Sony leadership. In January, Hiroki Totoki became the company's new CEO and Hideaki Nishino became the sole CEO of PlayStation, with Hermen Hulst, who had previously been co-CEO, reporting to him as the ongoing head of PlayStation Studios. The latest cuts at the PlayStation Studios Visual Arts group follow an emerging trend of game companies pulling back development resources from expensive U.S.-based offices. Last year during a business briefing, Hulst said there had been 'pressure on the cost side' as Sony laid off hundreds amid spiraling first-party blockbuster game development budgets. 'For every title, we have really rigorous review processes where we focus on the sustainability of our investments in these titles,' he said at the time. 'We include areas such as looking at what can be outsourced, for example, to avoid too high peak resource on development teams because costs can be sticky. We're looking at co-development options in areas where the costs per resource is maybe somewhat lower than the average or on the American west coast.' . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
