Culture   ¤   Technology   ¤   Space

By leading an online life we attain a global sense of connection to distant people and remote locations. Ubiquitous technology helps us keep in touch with each other, and in many ways also with ourselves. Yet digital methods of representing a person or a place are a far cry from the corporeal experience - good when representing an efficient, asynchronous connection, but not as useful when supporting a more authentic, deeper conversation.

Can intimacy be felt over a distance? How do we use technology for more meaningful interactions? There exists a zone of balance, which I find fascinating. A place where the interaction is not burdensome and not too brief. Where it actually takes some thought and effort to reciprocate. By drawing the experience away from the screen and into tangible objects, it is possible to maintain stronger bonds to distant people or places through interaction with these objects. Every culture has its own distinct set of customs and rules for interaction, a constant challenge when designing for the global village.

Through my work I explore the intersection between culture, technology and spatial design, made possible through new media. What gets me excited is finding ways to create and use technology as a tool to strengthen connections between people and to places. I build objects and design spaces that take advantage of embedded technology as a way to augments their base line functionality. I am fascinated with the potential to enhance a space by adding to its architectural design a technology layer of sensors and networking. This allows for a space to incorporate smart behaviors which enable a more complex set of user interactions. I explore innovative methods of representing online diversity within physical objects; extracting the multitude of perspectives available online into real-world spaces. By merging the richness of online content with physical objects it is possible to design a substantially heightened user experience, resulting in stronger overall bonds.

My background is in both computer science and design and my professional identity centers around bridging these two worlds. I am a seasoned traveler, anxious to learn about and experience new ideals and cultures. While I dream of a network that connects us all, social and cultural barriers are reproduced online. People tend to stay in their familiar neighborhoods, even when consuming through the safety of their screens. My goal is to create work that takes down these existing walls, and presents its viewers with a new perception for a diversity of cultural perspectives.