Jonathan Feinberg •


I was born in 1967, when computers looked like .
At the time of this writing, computers mostly look like , but to me, computers are actually supposed to look like , so I'm kind of perpetually bewildered.

I found all of these little images by using a web site created and maintained by my employer.

Wordle Thumbnail

I created the Wordle word-cloud layout algorithms while working on a social bookmarking application at IBM Research, in 2005. I created the “Wordle” web application in 2008. Since that time, hundreds of thousands of people have saved over 7,000,000 word clouds to Wordle's public gallery, before the gallery was turned off.

Beautiful Visualization I contributed a chapter about Wordle to the O'Reilly book “Beautiful Visualization”. You can buy the book—all royalties go to Architecture for Humanity—or you can download a copy of the chapter I wrote by clicking on this.

News and philosophizing about Wordle go to the Wordle Blog.

Supraphonic, yo

I used to be a musician, in New York City. From about 1990 to 2003 I played drums, guitar, and bass on many records and at shows.

Here are a few samples of my work as a musician.

Round Band - Hypocrites on TV

by Dan Seiden
  • Dan Seiden‑guitar, vocals
  • Joe Quigley‑bass
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums

Church of Betty - Comedy of Animals

by Chris Rael
  • Chris Rael‑guitar and vocals
  • Deep Singh‑tabla
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums and Vibra‑Tone
  • Joe Quigley‑bass
  • Kenny Siegal‑GRYARNK GRONK

Samsara - I'm Sorry

by Tim Bright & Paris Hampton
  • Paris Hampton‑vocals
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums
  • Tim Bright‑everything else!

Michael Holt - Singing Part

  • Michael Holt‑acoustic guitar, piano, vocals
  • Cora Simone‑back vocals
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums and percussion
  • Joe Quigley‑bass
  • Chris Rael‑electric guitar
  • Erik Pearson‑electric guitar
  • Dan Seiden‑electric guitar and Yeah yeah!

Pajama Garden - Ernie Pie

by Michael Holt
  • Michael Holt‑Fender Rhodes and vocals
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑objects strewn about the room

Ed Pastorini - I Love New York

  • Ed Pastorini‑piano and vocals
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑traps

Brian Woodbury's Popular Music Group - I Burn the Flag

  • Brian Woodbury‑vocals and acoustic guitar
  • Marc Muller‑guitar
  • Erik Boyd‑bass
  • Elma Mayer‑keyboards
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums

Fluffer - Slick

  • Anna Kim‑guitar
  • Janet Treadaway‑guitar
  • Laura Galpin‑vocals
  • "Kasual" Lineberger‑bass
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums

Mike Errico - God

  • Mike Errico‑guitar, hamonica and vocals
  • John Abbey‑bass
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums

Church of Betty - Red Line

by Chris Rael
  • Chris Rael‑sitar and vocals
  • Deep Singh‑tabla and tuning hammer
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑fretless bass
  • Gregor Kitzis‑violin
  • Matthew Goeke‑cello

Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories - Stay

by Lisa Loeb
  • Lisa Loeb‑guitar and vocals
  • Tim Bright‑guitar
  • Joe Quigley‑bass
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums
  • With Paul Schaeffer and the Late Night band!

Church of Betty - Electric Chair

by Chris Rael
  • Chris Rael‑guitar and vocals
  • Deep Singh‑tabla
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums
  • Joe Quigley‑bass
  • Gregor Kitzis‑violin

They Might Be Giants - The Statue Got Me High

by John Linnell and John Flansberg
  • John Linnel‑accordian and vocals
  • John  Flansberg‑guitar and vocals
  • Tony Maimone‑bass
  • Kurt Hoffman‑sax
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums

I've made a few little pieces of free software, which I maintain on github. These include:

  • processing.py - Write real Processing sketches in Python.
  • cue.language - A small Java library for simple text analysis - counting strings, identifying languages, and removing stop words.
  • haikufinder - A python library for locating accidental haikus in unstructured text.
  • Patchy - 3D parametric surfaces—“patches”—for Processing.
  • PeasyCam - easy-peasy camera control for 3D sketches in Processing.

In fact, they do speak English in What.

Hi, Reddit. The user JonathanFeinberg is really me.