Sarah Choi – Looking Outwards – 08

Jake Barton is a designer based in the United States. He is known for being the founder of Local Projects which is an experience design firm for different brands, museums, and public spaces in New York City. He majored in Performace Studies at Northwestern and continued to graduate school at New York University for Interactive Telecommunications. However, in between his Bachelor’s degree and graduate school, he first worked on Broadway for set design and later interned at Ralph Appelbaum Associates, a museum design firm. While in graduate school, he launched Local Projects as an inspiration from his internship. Jake Barton describes himself as someone who values storytelling and people. 

His video from the Eyeo Festival in 2012 talked about “Like Falling in Love” and how he truly believes people are more interesting than technology. He talked a lot about this interactive game called “Urbanology” he and his team made where people could choose from five different tokens of affordability, livability,  transportation, sustainability, and wealth. His players would then argue with one another on who is more right. Furthermore, he talked about “How Bodies Inspire Art” where he centered interactive interfaces to the middle of the exhibit. I admire his work because he wants the audience to experience more from just the art. He thinks of composition and perception when thinking about how to present his art to other people. 

Jake Barton shows a lot of media to show his work. He makes his talks very lighthearted to engage more with the audience. He also talks about doubts in his work which was really interesting. He talked about how he was unsure of using guiding principles as his work was shown to his audience, but talking about themes every person in the audience could relate to was definitely something that engaged me in his work.

https://localprojects.com/