JEFF CROUSE
EDUCATION
2006 Georgia Institute of Technology, MS in Information Design and Technology
2003 New York University, Gallatin School of Individualized Study, BA in Individualized Study, with foci on Computer Science and Fiction Writing
INSTALLATIONS & PERFORMANCES
The World Series of ‘Tubing | November 2009
Performing the Web, Performa ‘09, New York, NY
The World Series of ‘Tubing is a conceptual augmented reality game combining the intensity of a high-stakes poker tournament with the bizarre world of sensational online video, the competition consists of two players trying to out-do each other by presenting a series of videos (rendered as an augmented reality layer on top of a real card) to an audience. The crowd decides which video/card wins, and the winner takes both cards. The process repeats until the deck is gone, and whoever has the most cards at the end, wins.
Inside the artist’s studio with JAMES Chimpton | March 2008
Neighborhood Public Radio @ Whitney Biennial, New York, New York
Inside the Artist’s Studio is a radio program hosted by a robotic Chimpanzee named James Chimpton. Chimpton’s brain is powered by a markup language I created called ABSML, or A Bull Sh*t Markup Language. The result is rather absurd - a clothed robotic monkey,
interviewing artists in the Biennial about their work, in a robotic english accent.
Anywhere But Here | February 2008
Eyebeam Mixer, New York, New York
Anywhere But HERE! is a playful examination of the use of party photography as social currency. Participants use an assortment of props, costumes, and computer-aided special effects to fake being at an imaginary location. Created with David Jimison.
Invisible Threads | January 2008
Sundance Film Festival, New Frontier Theatre, Park City, Utah
Consists of a virtual factory in Second Life where workers manufacture jeans which are sent to a large-format printer installed in a physical space. As real-world customers watch their jeans move down the assembly line, the real lives behind the avatar “workers” stationed at the machines begin to emerge. Created with Stephanie Rothenberg.
Dirt Party | May 2007 Eyebeam 10th Anniversary Benefit, New York, New York
An installation/performance that can occur at a social gathering where personal information about each attendee is gathered from the web (by a computer program or a moderator) and spun into a visual performance in real-time. The theme of the first Dirt Party was “Celebrity Mashup”. Background information (”Dirt”) about party-goers was gathered by roving reporters, photographers, and skilled Internet researchers, and crafted into biting tabloidstyle layouts by bloggers, journalists, and designers, and displayed on several screens around the venue. Created with David Jimison.
TOOLS
A Bull Sh*t Markup Language | 2008
ABSML is a language for creating English prose. It has been used for a variety of projects, including James Chimpton, the Befriend a Recruiter Project, and Fartsy - the Artist Statement Generator. Turbulence award winner in 2008. Created with Steve Lambert.
YouThreebe | 2007
Online tool that allows users to create and share triptychs made from YouTube videos. Launched in early 2007 and quickly adopted by a community of YouThreebers who made hundreds of triptychs.
Earthify | 2007
An online application that maps a set of geographical data onto Google Earth for easier Earth-based browsing via an easy-to-use bookmarklet. It currently works with Craigslist, but it will be relaunched soon with support for many other online services. Featured in many blogs.
Switchboard | 2006
Java library for Processing that allows artists and designers to easily use a variety of web and network data sources such as Flickr, Yahoo!, Google, and Amazon in their work. The library represents the manifestation of an idea inspired by Tim Berners-Lee’s “Semantic Web”, that online (or “live”) data sources can be combined to create semi-intelligent,expressive software art.
Interactive Frank | 2006
Narrative generator program built as the primary example of the capabilities of the Switchboard framework. The user enters a sentence, and then Frank takes over, building a narrative using text it finds on the web via a method based on the “Dissociated Press” algorithm. Frank then analyzes the text and finds an appropriate Internet radio station, and begins to play it while the text is read aloud using a text-to-speech service, creating an experience like listening to a radio monologue or story.
Real-Time Art | Masters Thesis | 2006
Emerging technologies have made it possible for artists to use a wide range of live, external data sources to give their work relevance and impact. Works that use these live data sources share certain strategies, values, and influences. Not only does this type of art have much artistic potential, but it can help the Web by encouraging the development of machine-understandable, Semantic data formats. What kind of tools would give some coherence to real-time art and facilitate its creation?
TEACHING
• Parsons School of Design - Code For Art, Spring 2010
• Bennington College - Web as Platform, Spring 2009
• Bennington College - Expressive Computing, Fall 2009
• Bennington College - Hacking 101, Fall 2009
• Hunter College IMA MFA Program - Tools and Techniques, Fall 2008 and Spring 2009
AWARDS & HONORS
• Rhizome Commission - Crowded, 2009
• Linden Prize Finalist - Invisible Threads, 2009
• Turbulence Grant -for ABSML, 2008
• Most Outstanding Thesis - IDT Program, Georgia Tech, 2006
TALKS & WORKSHOPS
• Cybersex: What’s Art got to do with it? at the New Media Caucus - February 2010 - Laborers of Love
• Crowdsourcing Labor: Digital Democracy or Centralized Sweatshop? - November 2009
• Laboral - FEDFORWARD - October 2009 to June 2010 - Invisible Threads
• No Longer Empty - New York, July 2009
• Open Video Conference - June 2009
• 2009 New Mexico Roadshow - April 2009
• Isea 2009 - Invisible Threads
• FACT mini-residency at Climate for Change - April 2009
• 2009 Chicago Roadshow
• New Media Caucus panel Space: The New Frontier at the National CAA - February 26, 2009 - Invisible Threads
• Eyebeam Mixer: Expo - March 6-7, 2009 - Praying@Home
• Social Media Weel - February 2009 - Art & Social Media: Beautiful/Critical
COMINGS-TOGEHTER
• Postmasters - January 14th, 2009 - Weirder Better - You3b triptych event
• 2008 California Eyebeam Roadshow November 14-22 - co-organized and participated in a week-long tour of California new media and aprt programs giving talks and lectures.
• Eyebeam Mixer - November 8 2008 - BoozBot
• video_dumbo September 26-28, 2008 - Screening of 10 Steps to your Own Virtual Sweatshop
• SL Convention September 2008 - Screening of 10 steps to your own Virtual Sweatshop
• Interactivos? June 26-July 3 2008 - Was a participant working on Digitally Fit with Andrew Mahon
• Eyebeam Summer School, July 22, 2008 - Gave a talk with Andrienne Wortzel titled The Uncanny Alley about my work with robots
• Windows Brooklyn, June 2008 - Invisible Threads - Our custom-made jeans were displayed in a storefront in Brooklyn
• Synthetic Times, April 15, 2008 - Invisible Threads - Full performance
• Eyebeam Mixer, June 2008 - BoozBot
• Futuresonic, Manchester, UK, May 1 & 2, 2008 - Dirt Party: LOLCat edition
• DC Filmfest, Wathington DC, April 26, 2008 - 10 Steps to Your Own Virtual Sweatshop
• GOOD Magazine Pop-Up Community Center, New York, December 6, 2007 - Invisible Threads
• Eyebeam Holiday Hackshop, New York, December 2007 - Make Your Own Print & Wear Clothes
• Come Out & Play, Amsterdam, 2007 - Bocce Drift
• New Street Gallery, Atlanta, 2007 - Secret Satan
• VersionFest 07, Chicago, Illinois, May 2007 - Artist Talk
• Upgrade! New York, New York, NY, September, 2007 - GearBox Free Media Toolkit
• Thinking Through New Media, Duke University, May 2006 - Artist Talk
