Jenna Kim (Jeeyoon Kim)- Looking Outwards-8

Alexander Chen is a creative director at Google Creative Lab. He did various works including MTA.ME, which altered the NYC subway map to a string instrument, and invented “Les Paul Doodle” with his Google Team. He worked with different companies such as The Barbarian Group, Modernista, and Google, where he currently works in. As a both musician and a creative interaction designer, he does body of work that combine both music and coding. He says that seeing his children discover different instruments and playing around with melody inspires him to create coding that lets him see music in inspiring, new ways. One of his project called the “Pianophase” is a visualization that demonstrates Steve Reich’s 1967 piece Piano Phase into lines with different colors and patterns. He made two pianists repeat the the same note in different speed; one musical pattern draws faster than the other one. I really admire his work because as of lover of both coding and music, he figured out a way to make a harmony between the two. Also, the way he tries to show invisible thing, music, into a visual form is a very fresh idea. He presented most of his work and their descriptions in his main portfolio website. His website is generally very easy to interact because of the simplicity and the visuals that are easily accessible. I learned that simplicity in presenting works can help the audience understand the projects much better.

Link to his website: http://chenalexander.com/