Anthony+Fontana

Anthony Fontana is an Instructor of Art and Learning Technologies Consultant at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Anthony's pedagogical research involves web 2.0 applications and modes of communication that combine with educational course management technologies to optimize learning outcomes by providing channels of content transfer most familiar to the student; something he calls "The Multichronic Classroom ". This work focuses on immersive learning environments such as [|Second Life] and the way in which students engage in socially motivated peer production.

As an artist, he has exhibited machinima and other artworks made in Second Life throughout the Midwest and in the virtual world. His current work focuses on the narratives and relationship between himself and his avatar, or the virtual representation of himself. Since 2008, Anthony has been collaborating on a series of machinima animations, images, and installation works with his wife, Sandra, as a collaborative team simply called "Fontana". Together, they are working on a series of stories that examines their individual and shared personalities in virtual space.

Anthony received his MFA from Northern Illinois University in 2004 and his BFA from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 2001. He has taught Foundations Art at Northern Illinois University and Wabounsee Community College before taking a position at Bowling Green State University. In the last year, Anthony has lectured about Second Life in Art at the University of Brighton, England, at the Foundations in Art: Theory and Education Conference in Portland, Oregon, and at SIGGRAPH 2008 in Los Angeles. He recenlty taught an Art 101 course at BGSU, which used Second Life as its main online tool.