UNC Asheville Courses
Introductory Interactive Media
Intermediate Interactive Media
Digital Weaving, Textile Design and Production
Teaching Summary
I have developed and taught university courses in immersive media, new media and interactive art and design.
I also run public workshops and hacks that activate creative applications of code, materials, and physical computing.
Working with VR research student on Blue Boar VR project, 2019.
Troubleshooting a circuit for an Aphrodite 'love sensor' prototype. Photo by Paris Davis, 2019.
Student Project Samples from Virtual Reality Courses,
UNC Asheville
CSCI and New Media undergraduate student VR projects.
Link to UNCA Interactive Media and Student Projects:
Hack it! DIY Divine Tools:
Asheville's First Mini Maker Faire, 2019
Hack it! DIY Dystopia:
Surviving a Techno-apocalypse
Arts Fest 2017
Teaching Aims
- Facilitate implementation of interdisciplinary projects at a variety of scales.
- Generate discussion around contemporary practice, theory, and diverse histories.
- Spark creative excitement among individuals and collaborative groups.
- Teach students to integrate writing code and using software in their practice.
- Mentor through instruction, knowledge sharing, and self-motivated skills-building.
- Encourage experiential learning through outside partnerships.
Teaching Philosophy
My central aim as a new media educator is to teach students how to be creative with fluctuating technologies in a changing world. Meeting this goal enables careers where critical thinking is incorporated alongside steady streams of technical knowledge. To achieve this, I give students opportunities to practice working efficiently on their own and collaboratively; they must keep their greater community in mind as they engage with projects at a variety of scales.
My course projects require students to develop different types of technical skills. A key part of the semester are technological demonstrations that I plan and deliver in the classroom while students follow along. These demos lay the foundation necessary to complete each assignment. In addition to technical skills, I also emphasize foundational visual concepts, particularly typography and color theory. These are embedded into projects and we engage with accompanying readings and lectures, covering artists and designers such as Josef Albers and Ellen Lupton.
Alongside of project creation, I aim to foster open dialogue in my classroom through critique. This helps students learn to speak about their own work and that of others, including peers and professional artists and designers. Learning to apply constructive criticism helps students to think critically about the popular and artistic media around them and improves their own practice. They will take these skills into their professions as makers and creative practitioners or into graduate school.
Teaching in a time when digital tools are ubiquitous, but their inner workings are increasingly 'blackboxed' and hidden, it is important to impart to students how to create from scratch with digital technologies. I do this by teaching code and visual skills that allow students to make projects that give them a voice in a broader dialogue around technology and its use in society; they become critical makers rather than consumers.
Academic Appointments
Associate Professor and Chair of New Media | 2022-present
Assistant Professor of New Media | Appointed 2016
Visiting Assistant Professor of New Media and Contemporary Art History | 2015 - 16
Ball State University
Assistant Professor of Electronic Art | 2010 - 12
Faculty Fellow | Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts | 2010 - 12
Previous Courses
Alfred University Courses:
Art in the Age of Digital Recursion (graduate seminar)
Games in Art
Issues and Debates in Contemporary Art
Art and Social Ideals
Ball State University Courses:
Video Live!
Collaborative Electronic Performance with Max/Msp/Jitter
Visual Communication Technologies I and II
Digital Arts
University of Florida Courses:
Programming for Artists
Video Art
Time Based Media
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Metabellum
Metabellum
This was a large-scale collaborative project that I initiated between Dance and Electronic Art.
BFA and PhD Students created "patches" (programs) with MAX/MSP/Jitter to live-process video for a dance performance. The piece was performed at Ball State University and at venues in Buffalo and Brooklyn, New York. I was awarded competitive university funding to implement the project. Leading up to the performance, I developed and taught 2 special topics courses for students to learn to work with live video processing.
A paper on this project was published in Media-N journal: http://median.s151960.gridserver.com/?page_id=402
Ball State University, 2011-2012
Assistant Professor of Electronic Art
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Event Scores
First-year students
Group performance scores instruction-based work project.
Students structured time using event-scores. Learning instruction-based tactics alongside more traditional techniques, such as storyboarding, provided the students with a variety of practical strategies that they later applied to new media art projects.
Time Based Media
University of Florida, 2009
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Digital Media
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Difference and Repetition Photo Montage Project
First-year student
Photoshop montage: a series that repeats imagery and uses digital collage techniques.
Intro to Computer Art
Ball State University, 2012
Assistant Professor of Electronic Art
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8-Channel Video (still image)
Third-year student
8-Channel synchronized video project. Students created 8 videos that played simultaneously. This is a complex process that asks them to compose across multiple fields of time and space.
Junior Video
Alfred University, 2009
Teaching Assistant
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Physical Computing and Processing Project
Third-year student
Physical computing, Processing with face tracking (openCV).
This student used face detection in the Processing programming environment to link celebrity faces with those of a participant. Physical computing mechanisms were at work in a custom-built foot pad.
Programming for Artists
University of Florida, 2010
Co-Instructor
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Book Project
Third-year students
Printed and assembled book project emphasizing type and folded paper.
Junior Graphic Design
Alfred University, 2009
Teaching Assistant
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Physical Computing Project
MFA student
Using Arduino, Max/Msp/Jitter and conductivity, this student created an accupuncture form as a physical computing experiment that emits sound.
Network Practices and Interactivity
Alfred University, 2008
Teaching Assistant
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Stop Motion Animation 1
First-year student
Stop motion animation project. Students learned various techniques to work with time, including patterns for repetition. They additionally drew on digital imaging, video editing, and sound techniques, all of which were taught during this course.
Intro to Computer Art
Ball State University, 2012
Assistant Professor of Electronic Art
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Interactive Kiosk Project
Fourth-year students
Students took a field trip to the Indiana Medical History Museum where they were tasked with creating an interactive kiosk that would enhance visitor experience of this highly analog museum. Final projects resulted in video renderings showing how the kiosk screens would work. This pair of students show medical documents from the museum archives that can be read and adjusted on-screen.
Visual Communications Technologies II
Ball State University, 2011
Assistant Professor of Electronic Art
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Interactive Kiosk Project
Third-year and fourth-year students
In a collaborative project with curators at the David Owsley Museum of Art, students developed tablet-based interactive kiosk projects. They met with the museum staff throughout the project and held a public showcase of their final work.
Visual Communications Technologies II
Ball State University, 2012
Assistant Professor of Electronic Art
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Stop Motion Animation 4
First-year student
Stop motion animation project. Students learned various techniques to work with time, including patterns for repetition. They additionally drew on digital imaging, video editing, and sound techniques, all of which were taught during this course.
Intro to Computer Art
Ball State University, 2012
Assistant Professor of Electronic Art
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Student Web Project: Non-Linear
Third-year student
Web design project (hand-coding in HTML/CSS). This student investigated typography, color, and hyperlinks.
Visual Communications Technologies II
Ball State University, 2012
Assistant Professor of Electronic Art
***Click the image - the link will open a new tab in your browser. Click through the webpage (many of the links are hidden, so hover over the images until your cursor turns into a hand, then click. When you are finished browsing, close the tab to return to this site.***
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Student Web Project: Open Theme Final Web Art Project
First-year student
Web art project (hand-coding in HTML/CSS). Investigating personal history, this student used web links to carry a visitor though a poetic diaglogue with her family's past.
Intro to Computer Art
Ball State University, 2011
Assistant Professor of Electronic Art
***Click the image - the link will open a new tab in your browser. Click through the webpage (many of the links are hidden, so hover over the images until your cursor turns into a hand, then click. When you are finished browsing, close the tab to return to this site.***
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Student Web Project: Experimental/Poetic Web Art Project
Fourth-year student
Experimental/poetic web art project inspired by William S. Burroughs (hand-coding in HTML/CSS).
Visual Communications Technologies II
Ball State University, 2012
Assistant Professor of Electronic Art
***Click the image - the link will open a new tab in your browser. Click through the webpage (many of the links are hidden, so hover over the images until your cursor turns into a hand, then click. When you are finished browsing, close the tab to return to this site.***
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Student Web Project: Open Theme Final Web Art Project
First-year student
Web art project (hand-coding in HTML/CSS). This student enacted the psycology of choosing paths and making decisions when navigating an interactive space.
Intro to Computer Art
Ball State University, 2011
Assistant Professor of Electronic Art
***Click the image - the link will open a new tab in your browser. Click through the webpage (many of the links are hidden, so hover over the images until your cursor turns into a hand, then click. When you are finished browsing, close the tab to return to this site.***
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Student Web Project: Experimental Web Art - Final Project
First-year student
Experimental web art project - final project for the course. This student examined generational differences in exposure to technology, using the technology of the web and linking as his medium.
Intro to Computer Art
Ball State University, 2012
Assistant Professor of Electronic Art
***Click the image - the link will open a new tab in your browser. Click through the webpage (many of the links are hidden, so hover over the images until your cursor turns into a hand, then click. When you are finished browsing, close the tab to return to this site.***