Introduction

First posts — always awkward, right? There’s so much to say, so little context. Best to just get it right out of the way and pretend like all of my non-existent readers have known me for years and are up to date with my goings-on? Or should we start from the beginning?

Well, what do we know so far? I can be a bit wordy – a bit long winded, but my intentions are usually good. I intend to use this blog to record the details of the techy/artsy part of my life. For everything else, I suggest heading over to jeffish.org, which although inactive since September 29 and nearly incoherent even when it is updated, it is still the best resource for all things jeffish.

A bit of history is probably in order.

I am a graduate of the now defunct Information Design and Technology (in name only – it is now called “Digital Media”) masters program at Georgia Tech. I am very proud of my title as a Master of Science and frequently remind people of my masterhood at random and inappropriate times throughout the day. It’s kind of like Tourettes and as such, calling attention to it or ridiculing me for it is not socially acceptable. My thesis is called “Real-Time Art”, and is focused on artwork that is generated in real time by external information sources. You can check it out here. Unfortunately, soon after I finished my thesis, Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn at Tale of Tales wrote a very interesting Real Time Art manifesto, which is a great read, but has little to do with my definition.

I am currently a fellow at Eyebeam Altier, “an art and technology center that provides a fertile context and state-of-the-art tools for digital research and experimentation.” So most of my posts will probably involve the work I am doing there. I started in December, and plan to stay until they forcibly remove me from the building 11 months from now. As a production fellow, I work with commissioned artists (currently Trevor Paglen, and eventualyl Mongrel), as well as working on my own projects, which currently include development of the Switchboard toolkit, and a few other new projects which will eventually be mentioned here.

I am also starting a small side business with David Jimison, tentatively called “Just Two Scientists”, or “The Never Ending R&D Party”. Actually I just made those names up, but we will come up with something cool, I promise. We worked together on quite a few projects while we were both at Georgia Tech, and this company is a way to roll all of our side projects together and pool our resources. If we end up taking over the world in the process, then so be it. Here at JTS/TNERNDP, our goal is to explore and develop social technology. And to party. Both, at the same time, if possible.

I guess that’s all for now. I’m antsy to start writing about my Google Earth ideas, which is what finally inspired me to suck it up and install MT in the first place, so enjoy.