Some New Experiments in Interactive Arts, Play and Education Systems
Speaker
Golan Levin
Associate Professor of Computation Arts, with Courtesy Appointments in Computer Science, School of Design and the Entertainment & Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University
When
-
Where
Newell-Simon Hall 1305 (Michael Mauldin Auditorium)
Description
I seek to shape culture through the design of open systems that awaken people to their potential as creative agents. This presentation will discuss a wide range of my projects, as well as those of my students and researchers in the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, with a particular attention to how the use of gestural interfaces, visual abstraction, and information visualization can support new modes of education, play, and self-discovery. I discuss how “speculative HCI” can frame a mode of inquiry in which novel interactions are proposed, implemented and evaluated, not for their applicability to solving problems, but for their inherent potential to pose new ones.
Speaker's Bio
Golan Levin is Associate Professor of Computation Arts at Carnegie Mellon University, where he also holds Courtesy Appointments in the Computer Science Department, the School of Design, and the Entertainment Technology Center. As an educator, Levin’s pedagogy is concerned with reclaiming computation as a medium of personal expression. He teaches “studio arts courses in computer science,” on themes like information visualization, interactive art, generative form, and audiovisual systems and machines. Since 2009, Levin has also served as Director of CMU’s Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, a laboratory for atypical and anti-disciplinary research across the arts, science, technology and culture.
Levin’s research explores new intersections of machine code and visual culture, combining equal measures of the whimsical, the provocative, and the sublime in a wide variety of media. Through performances, digital artifacts, and virtual environments, Levin applies creative twists to digital technologies that highlight our relationship with machines, make visible our ways of interacting with each other, and explore the intersection of abstract communication and interactivity. His recent work has included explorations in real-time gestural robotics; tactical media; and novel aesthetics of non-verbal communication. A two-time TED speaker and recipient of undergraduate and graduate degrees from the MIT Media Laboratory, Levin was named one of “50 Designers Shaping the Future” by Fast Company magazine in October 2012. He has exhibited widely in Europe, America and Asia.
Speaker's Website
http://www.flong.com
Host
Steven Dow