Scott Fisher

Speaker: Flavia Sparacino, Founding Principal, Sensing Places
Time: Wednesday, January 16, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Talk Title: "Interactive Media Environments & Architectural Machines"

Contemporary digital information has led us to question the traditional
meaning of presence, matter, and the human body. When confronted with
virtual landscapes on the internet such as Second Life, architecture
potentially takes on a new process of redefining itself through the
exploration of new identities and new venues. Flavia Sparacino, a former
researcher at MIT's Media Lab, believes we are witnessing the birth
of a new architectural science, combining the research of exquisite
organic forms with increasingly complex functions and communications, all
tied into areas of sustainability. She will identify current areas of her
particular research and professional work which, she argues, call for
defining new professional roles, design methodologies, and educational
directions. She will present numerous examples that her company, Sensing
Places, is developing; media-enhanced responsive environments which
incorporate tactile and visually-immersive display technology,
architecture, and filmmaking.

Bio:
Flavia Sparacino, Ph.D., is a technology inventor, experience designer,
and fellow of MIT. She is the founder and director of Sensing Places,
a company based in Santa Monica, California, dedicated to creating
cutting-edge interactive architecture. She has designed
responsive media environments for museums, corporate headquarters,
retail stores, theaters, theme parks, airports and cities around the
world. Her emphasis has been on natural computational interfaces that,
through advanced computer vision algorithms and electronic sensors,
allow people to freely interact with physical objects, digital video
displays, graphics, and light. Her installations have been displayed
in MOMA, SFMOMA, and La Scala Opera Theater in Milan, and have been
featured in numerous newspapers, magazines, such as The New York Times,
the Boston, The Wall Street Journal, and television documentaries
aired on the Discovery Channel, Japan's NHK, and
Italy's RAI. A nominated Knight of the Republic of Italy, she holds
six academic degrees, a Ph.D. from MIT, and works as a technology
consultant for large architecture studios and museums around the world.

For more information on Flavia Sparacino, please visit:
http://www.sensingplaces.com
and also review some of her publications here.

BACKCHANNEL LOG from presentation: Download file