Currently available for freelance and full-time roles in the experiential media space!
Jason Webb

Kelly Grant funding and what it means

May 2010

This week I found out that a sizable grant I applied for, along with Sherri Harms (Chr. of CSIS) and Mark Hartman of the graphic design department, has been funded! We applied for the grant way back in January based on a desire to bring cutting-edge research to the university (albeit for admittedly selfish reasons) by creating a mobile lab full of fun hardware for students to mess with.

The idea is to get together a group of any and all interested students and separate them into small groups consisting of at least one artist and one programmer. Through my own work and research I’ve come to the opinion that in the context of modern digital technology the seemingly divergent fields of design and science are equally essential to the final outcome of a piece of work. I believe the cognitive distinction between “artist” and “scientist” is an artificial one and hopefully others will feel the same way once they seriously work with someone from the “other side.” To me this suggests that there exists a wonderful balance (not a compromise) between form and function, but thats a topic for another time.

Needless to say, I’m super freaking excited and look forward to getting started. The funding takes into account a budget which will allow me to work on setting up the lab, developing projects and researching (and producing) computational art and interaction design principles to my hearts content or a full year (may even quit my job to do so, though that is a bit more complicated at the moment)! All I know is I’m going to turn my tiny one room apartment into my dream workshop over this summer, buying new equipment, tools, hardware and converting one of my walls into a super-huge white-board. This blog is about to get interesting :)