CSAIL Event Calendar

Processing

Speaker: Ben Fry, Processing
Date: Friday, May 16 2008
Time: 2:00PM to 3:00PM
Refreshments: 1:45PM
Location: Patil/Kiva Seminar Room G449
Host: Rob Miller, MIT CSAIL
Contact: Michael Bernstein, x3-0452, msbernst@mit.edu
Relevant URL:

What began as a domain-specific extension to Java targeted towards artists and designers has turned into a full-blown design and prototyping tool used for large scale installation work, motion graphics, and complex data visualization. Ben Fry, co-developer of the ‘Processing’ project will discuss work being developed by artists, designers, programmers and scientists who make use of Processing to create everything from experimental interfaces to beer commercials. Fry will also discuss his own information design and visualization projects that range from genetics to politics to understanding how software works.

Speaker Bio:
Ben Fry received his doctoral degree from the Aesthetics + Computation Group at the MIT Media Laboratory, where his research focused on combining fields such as Computer Science, Statistics, Graphic Design, and Data Visualization as a means for understanding complex data. After completing his thesis, he spent time developing tools for the visualization of genetic data as a postdoc with Eric Lander at the Eli & Edyth Broad Insitute of MIT & Harvard. During the 2006-2007 school year, Ben was the Nierenberg Chair of Design for the the Carnegie Mellon School of Design. He currently works as a designer in Cambridge, MA.

With Casey Reas of UCLA, he currently develops Processing, an open source programming environment for teaching computational design and sketching interactive media software that won a Golden Nica from the Prix Ars Electronica in 2005. In 2006, Fry received a New Media Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation to support the project.

His personal work has shown at the Whitney Biennial in 2002 and the Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial in 2003. Other pieces have appeared in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, at Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria and in the films “Minority Report” and “The Hulk.” His information graphics have also illustrated articles for the journal Nature, New York Magazine, and Seed

See other events that are part of HCI Seminar Series Spring 2008

See other events happening in May 2008