I had the opportunity recently to do some work on a new interactive album from a Philip Glass / Beck collaboration called _REWORK. Good friend David Wicks was hired by Snibbe Studio (of Bjork iOS app fame) to create the app.

I created a series of visualizations in Processing that were used as jumping-off points for several of the tracks on the album. I lucked out and got to spend most of my time on Beck’s 21-minute track NYC—easily my favorite track on the album. The tests above use keystrokes to choreograph connections between independent particle subsystems. Final iterations in the app were rebuilt by David in Cinder to leverage events and information from MIDI, SVG, and XML.

The mouse-reactive flash below was from an older exploration I built for CompostModern with Addis Creson a couple years ago. It provided inspiration for a couple of the other tracks on the album.

The music is amazing, and the app well-worth the spend. My part was small in the much larger effort to produce the app. You can read more about the development process from David at sansumbrella.com.

Purchase the iOS app here.
Purchase the album here.

My web host Site5 has informed me that unlinked files are verboten on my shared server. After removing many gigabytes of temporary files I’d posted over the years for family, friends and clients, the persistent employees from their “emergency issues” team insist that I must supply links to the remaining files in my /download folder or remove them entirely. Apparently rules meant to quell the misuse of file space are now infringing on the simple conveniences of their oldest customers.

So that I don’t disappoint, here are a few files I prefer to keep:

Ave Maria (166 MB)
My talented sister playing her violin accompanied by my nephew Jake.

Beanie Game Test (17 MB)
A friend wanted to see how his iPhone game played on an old 3G, so I filmed a test.
I mostly enjoy the way my kids peek into frame.

Binary Counter (223 K)
A type exercise for one of my MFA projects. (video below)

Binary Glove (47 MB)
Documentation from one of my MFA projects. More info here.

Christmas In Holland (8.4 MB)
A hilarious and true account by David Sedaris of Christmas traditions in Holland.
Full podcast downloadable from This American life.

Dota Items (5.1 MB)
A relic from many hours, days and weeks lost to the wonderful world of DOTA: an early item recipe cheat sheet.

The Falklands (78 K)
Me basking in the sun on the Falkland Islands with my penguin pals.

Five Step (9.1 MB)
A brilliant mashup by Overdub of Dave Brubeck’s Take Five and Radiohead’s 15 Step.
Available from the artist’s web site: overdubsound.free.fr/fivestep

Helvetica (short) (472 MB)
Excerpts from the film Helvetica. My typography students fall asleep if they watch the whole thing.

Oblong Shoot Em’ Up (10 MB)
A movie filmed by a coworker of Christopher Walken and Al Pacino shooting things across the street from my office.

Pine Cones and Holly Berries (1.6 MB)
An old recording of my family singing a favorite Christmas song.

Pugloaf (108 K)
This needs no description.

Qiuming (269 MB)
A crit from my grad program at DMA of Qiuming’s work in progress.

Sounds of the Hawkes Family (106 MB)
A treasured collection of old recordings from my family. Songs, stories, and music.

Swisspiration (215 MB)
A beautiful compilation of swiss design examples that I use frequently when teaching branding and graphic design.
Many thanks to the talented Dave Groom.

Binary Face Off creates a space of creative competition and learning. Participants explore pattern, sequence, and sound in configurations that encourage gesture and cooperation. The piece represents the culmination of ideas learned from the Binary Glove and Binary Pad. The installation was part of the UCLA Design Media Arts MFA Thesis Exhibition: Tell Them Nothing of the Things I Thought About and Created While I Was Sleeping at the New Wight Gallery in June 2011.

The interface uses an Arduino board to communicate with game software written in Processing. The structure was built out of MDF and plexiglass using a router, pin nailer, laser cutter, some good friends and a lot of patience.

Addis Creson approached me to create the motion graphics and interstitials for CompostModern 2011—a sustainable design conference in San Francisco presented by the AIGA. I rebuilt the tessellations from the brand into a code framework that allowed me to explore varied iterations and arrive at more natural constructions of form and motion. The final sequence was composed in AfterEffects using animation generated in AS3.

I enjoy animating on the timeline, but most of the motion here is driven by code. Interaction and motion design are strongest when given a little room to move and grow within natural and organic systems.

The Geeko Builder allows users to create and customize their own Linux mascot as part of a larger campaign by Novell to promote its involvement in the Linux community. The builder interface combines over 280 props, body parts, clothing items, backgrounds, and other accessories—many of which are colorable. Registered users save individual creations and then vote on their favorite Geekos from a collective gallery.

A robust, PHP-based backend dynamically creates avatars and desktop backgrounds for downloading and sharing using ImageMagick. The site is localized into 10 different languages and ties directly into social networking and merchandizing sites. Two years after the initial launch users are still adding new Geekos to the database which holds more than 8000 Geekos.

MonaVie needed a simple, clean microsite for a product launch. I leveraged existing brand elements to code generative droplets and ripple effects. The site won an AIGA 100 Award for Interactive Design in the Salt Lake City Chapter.

This game studio wanted a fun and tactile interface to recruit potential employees. The flash environment accommodates custom page layouts and seamless transitions between sections. Casual visitors can flip bottle caps for quirky messages that convey the personality of the workplace through controlled, random interactions and playful animation.

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