Hi, I’m Matías Ventura Bausero, a designer, web engineer, filmmaker, occasional philosopher, photographer, and painter. I work at Automattic and I’m the lead architect of the Gutenberg project in WordPress.
Cinema. I began making films from a young age, and I’ve directed, edited, and written several works. I work with my brothers on all things related to cinema. I made my first short film Jaula 8 in 2003, at the Dodecá Film School, which earned a few prizes at international festivals. I was selected to participate on the 2007 Talent Campus in Argentina as a filmmaker. I’ve directed several short films since then, some medium length films, and a feature-length documentary. I started a film production group called Poetica Kino. I’ve also worked on the montage and colour of Tan fragil como un segundo, the film written by Belén and Santiago. I also play the guitar and have composed music for some of my films.
Teaching. Cinema has been a big part of my development. I’ve taught direction, editing, screenwriting, and supervised the creation of more than fifty different short-films at the Dodecá Film School, where I’ve also given courses on sound design and film theory.
Code is Poetry. In 2011 I designed together with my friend and colleague Ian Stewart the WordPress theme that would later become Twenty Eleven. I’ve worked on many custom themes, themes for WordPress.com, and contributed to creating the underscores theme. This is me with Ian in San Francisco.
As an engineer and designer at Automattic I was part of the team that began working on the Calypso project in 2014, all the way until its public release. Calypso is a full JavaScript project written with React and other technologies that powers the WordPress.com user interface as well as the desktop app. You can read more about it in my post On the road to Calypso. I’m currently responsible for coordinating all the framework efforts.
I’m currently the lead architect of the Gutenberg project in WordPress.
Art. When I was younger I used to draw and paint extensively. Since then, I am captivated by art history. Also, I’m in awe of Leonardo da Vinci. I’ve made a solo exhibition of my photography and participated in group ones. I regularly post my photography work on this website, I keep a gallery selection but you can also just dive in the feed for all the photographs in order. I’ve also designed all the posters for my films and those I’ve worked on in Dodecá.
Philosophy. I’ve studied philosophy at the university and written thesis on theoretical philosophy, idealism, aesthetics, and language, among other subjects. In the field of aesthetics I’m working on finishing a comprehensive response to Danto’s end of art theory. I have a few short articles published in the blog.
Speaking. I’ve done presentations on design, WordPress, aesthetics, philosophy, and filmmaking. I spoke at WordCamp Europe in Vienna and WordCamp US in Philadelphia, both talks are available online.
I haven’t been able to keep up a regular journal so far, but who knows, that may change any coming day. So, be most welcome. This is a place subject to derivations and improvements — hopefully. If you want to read what I have published so far, go to my essays section or just start from the latest. As most things I’m involved with, this is in a state of flux. That means, nothing is completed until it’s abandoned.
If anything related to the words here springs your own mind into torrents of thoughts, please, do not hesitate at all to engage. Either by replying or contacting me directly.