Angela Lee – Looking Outwards – 08

For this Looking Outwards, I decided to focus on the designer Alexander Chen (http://chenalexander.com/), who is a creative director at Google Creative Lab. He studied Engineering and Digital Media Design at the University of Pennsylvania and is currently working in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also is a musician, and much of his work integrates his passion for visual design and music. One of his key projects was MTA.ME, in which he translated the New York City subway map into a string instrument. He has also created visualizations of the first Prelude of Bach’s Cello Suites. I particularly enjoy his Bach’s cello suite visualizations because how sophisticated yet natural looking the motions are. I enjoy how his works are very explorative and experimental in nature. While they may not act as solutions to a defined problem, they suggest new and thoughtful ways of visualizing sound that may influence other people’s work. What I enjoyed about his presentation was his conversational tone–it made him as a designer and his work seem very friendly and approachable. Also, he constantly referred to the work and specific parts of a piece he was talking about, so I didn’t have to speculate but could see it for myself. I also admired the straightforwardness and simplicity of his website. I found it easy to navigate and it allowed the work to shine rather than my focus being on the website.