Albert Hwang

Credit, Amber Case: http://www.flickr.com/photos/caseorganic/

Okay, so my business card blew up on the internet last night.  It climbed all the way to number 1 on Reddit, in fact!  Here’s what I have to say in my defense to common critiques.

1) “Information Artist” is obnoxious and pretentious.

The first thing to clear up is that this is not a term like “code ninja” or “person who is actually just a front end dev who thinks he’s an artist.” I hate those people as much as you do. No, I probably hate them more.

This card is for my art career. This doesn’t mean the card is NOT obnoxious (art careers themselves are, by my definition, obnoxious), but it helps explain what’s going on here.

I do a lot of art work. I have a residency at an art and technology center. I exhibit my work around the world (*in fact, I’m exhibiting in NYC in a couple weeks!).   I give talks at conferences.  This is a serious title I give myself.

I will say that I have a difficult time pinning down exactly what it is I do, and “3d Information Artist” is the clearest way I’ve figured out how to do it. This is something I’m still working on.

As this card is for my new media art life, I need to cast a wide net. The tech art world is peppered with people who have never plugged in their own computer to people who code in assembly. While this is green-on-white console design makes me squeal with glee (as this redditor kindly mocked up below), I am not my intended audience. Museum curators, social media folk, internet art people… these are who I want to make a good impression on.

2) Well I’d never hire this guy!

I don’t give this card out to people who are looking for employees. I give it to people who have connections to arts foundations and organizations. If someone gave me this card and wanted to build my website, I’d also not hire this guy.

3) Saving XML as .txt file will make your computer blow up.

Continue reading →

I just recently became an honorary resident of Eyebeam!

Eyebeam is a new media art center in Chelsea. They do some really really incredible work, and it’s been a blast getting to know the people over there. There’s some really incredible work going on, and it’s amazing to see it first hand.

I also hope to help out and to share some of my work and perspective w/ these fine folk. Dance classes? : )

Went to Mexico for Modfest:

And Matt Parker and I made this:

Lumarca team setting up in Guadalajara from marco castro on Vimeo.

A few weeks ago Daniel Cooper of Ball State University invited me to take part in a study he was conducting on the topic of Augmented Reality. He emailed over a list of very smart questions.

Instead of writing out a response, I figured I’d post a video of my response. Here it is – me rambling on about some interesting topics from information design, 3d spaces, architecture, narrative, theater, etc…

Enjoy!

Hey Everyone –

So it’s been a while since I visited Spatial Computing. Spatial Computing 1 and 2 were packed with some good interesting ideas, and video number 3 is coming down the pipeline.

But I want 3 to be better. I don’t want it to be a result of rushed, work-night render sessions, and I don’t want it to take another six months to complete. I want to direct my full attention to this project to make it as awesome as it deserves to be.

And I need your help.

Whether it be pledging a couple of bucks or just spreading the word, any help I can get will get me one step closer to hunkering down and focusing in on the project that is Spatial Computing III.

To show your support, please visit my Kickstarter campaign, where you can pledge a donation and learn more about the project. There are also tools on that page that you can use to introduce Spatial Computing to your friends.

Thanks for your support everybody!