LookingOutwards-08

Mike Tucker is an Interactive Director at Magic Leap, a company focused on creating the future of Spatial Computing. Before he dived into the field of augmented reality, his focus of work moved from graphic design, website, mobile apps, media installation, and so on. He said in the speech that he always aspires to break the expectation of how medium should be experienced in general. In his day-to-day work, he mainly works on prototyping, designing, and shipping Spatial Computing projects alongside the new platform.

One of the Spatial Computing projects-“Tónandi”

Mike Tucker worked with different teams like the hand-tracking team, graphic team, and so on. I admire how they would prototype a lot before finally reaching a final result and they are willing to give up a concept that has been put a lot of work into if there is potentially a better one. I want to talk about the project “Tónandi” that he worked on together with Sigur Rós. This project explores the future of music through this interactive audio-visual experience in mixed reality. I admire how the team he directed experimented with a variety of ways to interact with virtual content and ways that music could be delivered. I especially admire how they make this design helpful to blind people. Users with visual disabilities could mark a specific spot in the space with a music note, which helps them to find the spot later on.

They started off presenting a video of the final work. It is not the most impressive version, but good enough to keep the audience engaged. Then, they went through a different phase of prototyping and what small elements they achieve at each stage. Finally, they present the most impressive version of the final work and left the audience admire how worthwhile those efforts put into this project are.

Link to the speech: https://vimeo.com/channels/eyeo2019/page:4

Looking outwards 08

Dan Shiffman is a professor at the ITP (interactive telecommunications program) at the New York University’s Tisch school of art. He is known for his youtube channel Coding Train where his focus is trying to make coding and scripting more accecible to people. He is also known to have co-created an open source graphics library called Processing, which is based on the JAVA language but aims to teach non-programmers the fundamentals of the world of programming. To me what is most admirable of Shiffman is his approachability and down to earthness. Programmers and computer scientists are stereotypically seen as these whizzes that are unapproachable residing in the ivory towers of whatever institution they are part of. But with shiffman, his ideals and actions break that stereotype and brings code to the people. Not only are his youtube tutorials funny and engaging, he isn’t afraid of making mistakes on camera. This is evident in the intro video of his youtube channel where he has a supercut of him saying “whoops” during his live and regular tutorials.

https://shiffman.net/

Looking Outwards: 08

Mike Tucker and his company, Magic Leap, are working on a unique variation of augmented reality: Spatial computing. Magic Leap One is a head-mounted virtual retinal display that superimposes digital imagery over real world objects through projecting digital “light fields” into the user’s eye. The device is stand-alone, and does not require an external computer / processing unit. The software can actively scan and create a digital representation of the surrounding environment to accurately superimpose 3D geometry over objects. Mike’s work often involves elevating spatial experiences, and creating new forms of interacting with spaces, something that I also explore as an architecture student.

Mike Tucker’s Eyeo festival presentation mainly focused on his installation work in San Francisco; The Microsoft Infinity Room. The room visualizes the data of a simple quarter, and how such a small, seemingly insignificant amount of currency can create effects that cascade into large changes that can affect the global economy. The experience is a 360-degree virtual tour that visualizes concepts and topics that aren’t easy to grasp.

Mike’s work does the talking for him. His presentations are clear and concise, condensing complex topics into digestible, relatable sentences. The accompanying behind-the-scenes visuals and images further convey the concepts he discusses.

LO 8 – Eyeo Speaker

Derek Watkins is a Graphics Editor at the New York Times and is a designer, developer, reporter, and geographer. He studied Geography for both his Bachelors and Masters degrees and seems to have learned graphics programming on his own (I am not 100% certain about this, but I don’t see any explicit education in programming). Watkins presents himself as a journalist first, and a designer, cartographer, geographer, developer second. His main goal is to understand the considerations of the reader and to effectively present the story, so he finds himself with the initial job of storytelling and uses his skill set to do so. I enjoy Watkins’ work largely because of his use of low-level interaction and how when done well, can give the reader control of the article. The cognitive shift from reading a story to controlling a motion graphic can be a lot, and I appreciate the fine line between being too ambitious and just ambitious enough that Watkins is able to walk along to create an enjoyable and meaningful experience all at once. The projects that stand out to me the most are his animations for the 2016 Rio Olympics and his dispatch about the current climate science on the Antarctic ice sheet. These projects vary greatly when it comes to content and the amount of information being shared, but they both include simple ways in which the reader can interact with the article.

Looking Outwards 8

Mike Tucker is the Interactive Director at Magic Leap, a company that focuses on Mixed Reality and Spatial computing. Before he started at Magic Leap, Mike was the Interactive Director at Universal Everything, where he created his most famous project. One that I will touch on later as one of the works I admire most from him. Before he launched his career as a designer/developer, he attended Virginia Commonwealth University where he received a BFA in Graphic Design.

The reason why I chose to highlight Mike Tucker and Magic Leap’s work is that interactive art is amazing already, but it just becomes even more captivating when it is immersive and interactive. The projects he describes in the presentation show the prototypes where the art work changes at the literal touch of your fingertips. This leads me to what I admired about how he presented his work. Such complex technologies are difficult to explain, but I found it easy to follow along since he showed so many graphics and “behind the scenes” work. He gave us a glimpse into every step in the process which I hope to try implementing in the future when describing my own work.

Now to discuss Mike Tucker’s art installation in San Francisco, the infinity room. It’s something that I’ve seen a lot on social media but finally being able to see the purpose behind it was amazing. The Microsoft Infinity Room was created as a visualization of big data as explained by a quarter. We have worked on projects that touch on data visualization so I found the room to be such a fascinating way of presenting complex data.

Looking Outwards 08

Catherine D’Ignazio

Catherine D’Ignazio at Eyeo 2019, Feminist Data, Feminist Futures

Catherine D’Ignazio is the director of the Data + Feminism Lab and an Assistant Professor of Urban Science and Planning at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. She also goes by “Kanarinka.”

Before MIT, D’Ignazio was an Assistant Professor of Data Visualization and Civic Media at Emerson College in the Journalism Department, and was teaching in the Digital + Media graduate program at Rhode Island School of Design. She has also done freelance software development for over 10 years. She holds an MS from the MIT Media Lab, an MFA from Maine College of Art, and a BA in International Relations from Tufts University.

Catherine is very passionate about social justice. One project I really admire is her creation of “DataBasic.io,” which simplifies data analysis for policymakers, journalists, and people who are unfamiliar with advanced data analysis tools. I admire how the program automatically finds patterns in data that people can incorporate into their storytelling. I think there is great potential for creating change and creates equity for people that are less familiar with code, computer science, and data analytics.

Another project I admire is Catherine’s book called “Data Feminism,” which discusses the importance and power of data in today’s society. Most of the discourse about data is dominated by white men, and are often used for militaries, war, and Catherine gives a feminist perspective on the topic, like incorporating emotion into data, and using data to further social justice causes for female equity.

Some strategies Catherine uses to present her work is the use of statistics and data to support her point. For example, she uses statistics of the percentage of white men who work in data analysis, to demonstrate how there is a need for more women in the data analytics field so there is less bias. I can learn from Catherine by using statistics to tell a story and support why there is a need for my work and why it is important.

LO 08 – The Creative Practice of an Individual

Sarah Groff Hennigh-Palermo

Sarah Groff Hennigh- Palermo is an artist, programmer, and data designer who explores the relationship between technology and information by creating work focused on an “aesthetic exploration of experience” (Hennigh-Palermo) rather than an information-instrumental output of data. Her talk centered on undermining computers—how can make computers less “machine-like” and more accessible, visceral, and contextual? Her piece Oublié/trouvé, or: Towards a Theory of Invested Objects is an app and product that visualizes data based on your feelings and experiences (temperature, proximity from home, humidity, weather, etc) at a specific moment or location as an attempt to implement the personal into the machine. She then developed LiveCode, a communal computing experience of visuals, music, dance, and games with code written and evaluated in real time. She is also a part of an algorithmic band called Codie, which codes live music and visuals at each performance, which I thought was pretty cool.

LO 08

Stephanie Dinkins

Stephanie Dinkins is an interdisciplinary artist whose work focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence and race, gender, and age, and how technology shapes history. She teaches at Stony Brook University, and was named an “AI Influencer” in the New York Times. Her work consists primarily of interactive installations that use AI algorithms to communicate issues of social justice and her own familial experiences while trying to make AI technology more accessible to underfunded communities. Specifically, her project “Not the Only One” centers around her multigenerational family history, helping to tell the story of her ancestors as a unique, deep-learning entity. I admire the way in which her work humanizes the world of AI, demonstrating how it can intersect with deeply personal topics. She also emphasizes the importance of using programming in a way that brings in audiences who might not otherwise be immersed in or have access to this technological setting, as well as people who might not recognize how it can relate to themselves.

Dinkins’ Eyeo 2019 Lecture

Looking Outward 08 – The Creative Practice of an Individual

Mike Tucker is a creative lead at Magic Leap, a company that makes an AR headset designed to be comfortable and maneuverable to use. Since the 1990s up to 2018 when he gave a talk at the Eyeo Festival, he transitioned across different mediums to produce work, starting 2D based mediums such as Hypercard and Adobe Flash, moving onto dynamic mediums such as interactive spatial exhibits and finally into VR development.

Mike discussed some main principles he learned from helping create Tonandi at Magic Leap – an interactive project featuring the music of the band Sigur Ros. He mentioned how head tracking, 6 Degrees of Freedom, Spatial Sound, Touch/Hand controls, Eye tracking, and Environmental Design were key, showing how each principle influenced the final version. Tonandi combined audio and visual elements to create an AR space with translucent, abstract, nature-inspired shapes that moved along to the music and changed the user’s perception of sound and their surroundings.

Having a slight interest in VR, I went into his talk mostly expecting him to talk about his work and the company in a very surface level overview without much of the guiding process. However, I came out of it amazed at how sound could be integrated into a spatial experience and immerse a user further than just visuals could, as well as how he demonstrated that spatial computing was ripe with versatility to overtake the future, including applications for impaired users and the possibility to develop experiences entirely through AR and VR.

Looking Outwards 08

Looking Outwards 08: The Creative Practice of an Individual

Catherine D’Ignazio’s Feminist Data, Feminist Futures lecture was interesting to me. Catherine is a professor at MIT, artist, and software developer who focuses on feminism and data literacy. She is from North Carolina and studied International Relations at Tufts University and received master degree in Studio Art, Design and Theory from Maine College of Art and a Master degree in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT. She has a variety of Art and Science background. In the beginning of her talk at Eyeo 2019, she talks about how “we often our work is looking 20 or 30 years into the future, what relationship between the human and technology will look like.” Her works embrace this idea. Her work “Data Feminism” was particularly interesting. Is is very interesting how she takes a feminist approach to data science. She focuses on how to put the data in the service of justice. I think this idea is admirable and fascinating that she is intersecting a humanities principle, feminism, with data science. I like how her work takes an approach in which to be more inclusive. Her other work, DataBasic.io is interesting too. One of the tools included in DataBasic.io is the WTFcsv, which is a web application that returns a summary of the fields, data type, range, and basic descriptive statistics of a CSV file. This tool helps to fill the significant gaps for people who do not know how to code and to help them understand data more easily. I like how she approaches the data science with humanitatrian view to make it more accessible to more people. I would like to create a work like hers, incorporating different aspects and perspectives to the data science.

Portfolio

link to Catherine’s portfolio