Bleecker/Paterson/Zurkow

Julian Bleecker
Born 1966 in the USA; BA in Electrical Engineering, MA in Computer-Human Interaction, PhD from the UC Santa Cruz’s History of Consciousness Board with a dissertation on technology, culture and entertainment; Assistant Professor in the Interactive Media Division and Critical Studies Department of the School of Cinema-TV at the University of Southern California; residencies at Eyebeam Atelier, the Banff Center for the Arts, and has had projects shown at the American Museum of the Moving Image, Bitforms Gallery, Art Interactive, and Times Square.
Bleecker has been involved in technology design, the development of mobile and networked technology systems, and scholarly work studying the mechanisms by which technology design and innovation occurs. He explores the relationships between place and social engagement through the use of 802.11 «WiFi» technology. «WiFi.Bedouin» is a mobile, portable WiFi node that serves as a wireless communications node, allowing one to have a personal web server disconnected from the public Internet. «WiFi.ArtCache» is a WiFi-based repository of smart art objects that users can download to their WiFi-enabled laptops. «WiFiKu» is a project that constructs interpretive maps representing urban neighbourhoods based on Haiku constructed from the names of WiFi nodes in those neighbourhoods. «NetMagnet» is a spatial networking experiment that performs file-swapping amongst computers that are physically proximate.

Scott Paterson
Information architect and interaction designer in New York. He teaches Interface Design, Multimedia Studio and Thesis Studio in the MFA in Design and Technology Program at Parsons. He also has taught a course, Interfaces for Public Space, at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture. His education includes a Bachelor of Architecture degree from University of Minnesota CALA and a Masters from Columbia University GSAP. After working as an architect for six years in New York, he joined Plumb Design (www.plumbdesign.com) as a site developer and technical producer. Independent work since leaving Plumb Design explores architecture as an interface protocol between the activity of our daily lives and the space of the network. He has received grants from the Walker Art Center, Parsons School of Design and The Design Institute at the University of Minnesota. Scott is an active member of the new media art community including Rhizome.org and Mindspace.net.

Marina Zurkow
born in New York City and lives in Brooklyn. After attending Barnard College, Zurkow received a BFA with honors in Fine Art from the School of Visual Arts. Multidisciplinary artist who works with character, icon, and narrative in several forms: animated works, interactive installations, and material goods. Zurkow’s icons and characters have been incorporated into diverse projects, from animated films to hotel design, lightboxes and clothing. She is an adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design in the MFA Design & Technology Department.

Collaboration with Scott Paterson for «PDPal.»