As of January 2007 I have extended my stay at UC Irvine. I will pursue a PhD in Informatics with Paul Dourish as my advisor. I'll be continuing the work on Datascape that I began during my MFA research.

My M.F.A. Thesis, Landscape Denatured: Digitizing the Wild.

Latest Projects

Datascape - A periscope device that allows its operator to view invisible data about the surrounding city. As the user travels through geographic space, they simultaneously explore a 3D virtual topography built from invisible datasets, such as demographic marketing segmentation. As they explore the city, they control a dynamic soundtrack that is generated from local data including the "listening preferences" of the surrounding community. A typical commute or drive around town is turned into a sonic and visual exploration of hidden narratives that surround us and envelop the city.

Discovery Science Center - Working on the online/offline integration for a dinosaur-themed museum installation at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, CA.

Sonic Panoramas - This project is a sonic journey through California landscapes. From expansive desert to sprawling suburbia, viewers are surrounded by fully panoramic landscape imagery. Movement around the space navigates datasets which have been abstracted from the imagery, enacting the underlying data into various sound mappings. Go on a solitary journey, or explore collaborative and merging paths with others. This is an initial exploration into the use of landscape as structures for navigable interactive music experiences.

Unexceptional Netviz - I am working on a visualizer for a multi-modal game for Robert Nideffer. With wireless, GPS, online, and game engine the game has a complex backend and network system. I am working to create a real-time graphic and sonic visualization of the network activity and game/player state information.

SignalPlay - Interaction with coded objects encourages exploration and discovery of gestural sound interfaces through the metaphor of play. Sensors form an ad-hoc network that detects gestural motion as well as environmental factors such as light and magnetic. Your interactions with the sensor network cause both immediate and systemic changes in the soundscape.

DSP projects - Check out my DSP webpage for some projects.

Publications and Presentations

My ACE Thesis show will be at the Beall Center for Art and Technology May 18-27. Opening reception on Thursday, May 18. http://beallcenter.uci.edu/calendar/0506.php

I presented a paper on the research component of my sonic panormas project at the International Conference on Artificial Reality and Telexistence (ICAT 2005 in New Zealand) .

My sonic panormas project was accepted into the Soundwalk 2005 exhibition in Long Beach, CA. In addition to the one-day event, it will be on display for a month at Koo's Gallery. A large photo and short blurb about my piece made it into the LA Times and another article on Calit2's web site.

An extended version of our CHI paper was accepted for publication in the Ubicomp 2005 conference proceedings. I will not be able to attend but Amanda will be delivering the paper. The Ubicomp paper has been published online.

I received a Medici Scholar grant from the School of the Arts to support my travel to Brazil this summer. While in Brazil I will be participating in workshops; viewing many exhibitions; and meeting with artists, curators and researchers.

I have taken a freeze-frame of my current ideas and research to create an installation for my 1st year ACE exhibition. This project is tentatively called sonic panoramas and is being shown in the upcoming Eccentric Orbits show.

A short paper by myself, Amanda Williams and Paul Dourish was accepted into the extended abstracts and as a poster for the CHI 2005 conference in Portland, OR. It is also published online in the ACM digital library.

SignalPlay, a collaboration with Amanda Williams, was displayed at the Calit2 building opening at UCI. It is also being shown in the Arts, Culture and Technology building for several opening events.

Classes

// Spring '06
Ubiquitous Computing and Interaction (website) - Paul Dourish
Collaboration Infrastructures for Game Culture and Technology (website) - a UCHRI Residency - Robert Nideffer
Micromarketing - Connie Pechmann
Assistant teaching: Interactive Arts Programming (website) - Christopher Dobrian

// Winter '06
Emergence, Complexity, Artificial Life and Generative Art- Simon Penny
Game Culture and Online Collaboration - Robert Nideffer
Independent Study - Christopher Dobrian
Assistant teaching: Computer Audio and Music Programming (website) - Christopher Dobrian

// Fall '05
Hardware Intelligence: Advanced Gizmology - Simon Penny and Tom Jennings
Programming for Interactivity (website) - Bill Tomlinson
Independent Study - Simon Penny
Project: Discovery Science Center Installation Online Integration - UC Game Lab

// Summer '05
Instructor: Digital Multimedia (website) - Eric Kabisch

// Spring '05
Thesis Research Planning and Design - Simon Penny
Principles of Virtual Reality (website) - Falko Kuester
The Archive - Seminar (website) - Peter Krapp
Gaming Theory and Design- Robert Nideffer
Assistant teaching: Interactive Arts Programming (website) - Christopher Dobrian

// Winter '05
Interactive Installation and Performance Design - Simon Penny
Musical Applications of Digital Signal Processing (website) - Christopher Dobrian
Tactical Media & the Politics of Information (website) - Beatriz da Costa
Assistant teaching: Digital Arts Core (website) - John Crawford
Internship with Robert Nideffer

// Fall '04
Machine art and the Aesthetic of Behavior - Simon Penny
Performance Theory: Emotion (website) - Bill Tomlinson
Ubiquitous Computing (website) - Crista Lopes
Visualization Seminar (website) - Falko Kuester and Jorg Meyer
Graduate Student Researcher with Robert Nideffer