People

Jeff Burke, co-architect
jburke@hypermedia.ucla.edu

Jeff Burke is a Research Fellow at the HyperMedia Studio and a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media's Lab for New Media. He is also on the faculty of the graduate industrial design program at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He has undergraduate and masters degrees in Electrical Engineering from UCLA, where his emphasis in graduate study was on signal processing and the innovative application of technology to live performance. He has designed interactive systems for numerous media installations exhibited internationally and worked in technical production in community, academic, and professional theater. His most recent work with the UCLA Department of Theater was as the Interactive Systems Designer for a production of Ionesco's Macbett in the 2000-2001 subscription series. The installation Beloved Mnemosyne, a collaboration with University of Iowa professor Anne Deane and Santa Barbara sculptor Bill McVicar, will be shown in September 2002 as part of the International Computer Music Festival in Göteborg, Sweden.

Jared Stein, co-architect
jared@hypermedia.ucla.edu

Jared Stein is an Artist-In-Residence at the HyperMedia Studio and a recent graduate of UCLA's MFA playwriting program. He started working as an actor in New York at the age of eleven, and six years later, retired to study directing at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama (BFA, 1995), where he originated pieces that were later performed at the Sanford Meisner Theatre in New York, the Dublin University Players Theatre in Ireland, and Pittsburgh Theatre Laboratories. Since then, works have been written for the Samuel Beckett Theatre in Dublin, the Pakistan International Puppet Theatre Festival in Lahore, the Los Angeles Playwrights Project, and the Gorilla Repertory Theatre in New York. Jared has continued to work in other aspects of the theatre, as a director, staging works at many theatres in Los Angeles, and as an assistant director at theatres including the Rice New Play Workshop in Houston and the Theatre Satire in Sofia, Bulgaria. His first attempt at filmmaking, Secrets Revealed, can currently be seen at Zero One Films.com. In addition to his work on The Iliad Project, Jared is a visiting artist at the Rhodopes Drama Theater in Smolyan, Bulgaria, where he is conducting a series of summer performance workshops in preparation for a production of his work that will join the company’s repetoire and tour Central and Eastern Europe.

Fabian Wagmister, executive producer
fabian@hypermedia.ucla.edu

Fabian Wagmister is a filmmaker and digital media artist. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Film and Television and the creator of the Hypermedia Studio and the Lab for New Media. Recent international exhibitions include Behind the Bars, a confrontational interactive environment about Latin America's "desaparecidos"; Time&Time Again..., with Lynn Hershman, a distributed interactive media environment exploring technological dependency and cultural identity; and the database-driven exploratory installation ...two, three, many Guevaras, examining the legacy of Ernesto Che Guevara. In these works and in his writings he combines a strong ideological voice with explorations into the protean media structures emerging from digital technologies. Originally from Argentina, he collaborates with artists and theorists in Latin America, lecturing and presenting his work throughout the continent. At UCLA he created and chairs the Program on Digital Cultures at the Latin American Center.

Jose Luis Valenzuela, executive producer
joseluis@hypermedia.ucla.edu

A Professor in the Department of Theater, director, and performer. Jose Luis Valenzuela's directing venues include the Los Angeles Theater Center, where he planned and developed the Latino Theater Lab, El Teatro de la Esperanza, the Mark Taper Forum, and Teatro Jorge Negrete where his production of Hijos won Drama-Logue Awards for Best Direction, Ensemble and Actor.

Edit Villareal, executive producer
edit@hypermedia.ucla.edu

Vice-Chair and Professor in the Department of Theater, Edit Villareal is a playwright and screenwriter whose original works have been produced at the Yale Repertory Theater, Los Angeles Theater Center, and include Visits with MGM (My Grandmother Martha) published in Shattering the Myth: Plays by Hispanic Women, The Language of Flowers, an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, and Crazy from the Heart. Television credits include the critically acclaimed Photo-Novelas for PBS and the American Playhouse film production of La Carpa.

Eitan Mendelowitz, control system architect
eitan@hypermedia.ucla.edu

Eitan Mendelowitz is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Computer Science from UCLA and recently took a break to receive an MFA (2002) from the Department of Design | Media Arts. His interests include the use of intelligent environments, sensor networks, and behavior-based artificial intelligence in the arts. He has collaborated on interactive art installations exhibited internationally at venues including SIGGRAPH, ArtFutura, and ArsElectronica. In addition to The Iliad Project, his most recent collaboration was Coexistence, a collaborative mixed realities space commissioned for the opening of the new Institute for Interactivity in Ivrea, Italy.

Jason Brush, cinematographer and media designer
jason@hypermedia.ucla.edu

Jason Brush recently received an MFA in film directing from the UCLA Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media, where he was a Wasserman Scholar. He also graduated magna cum laude in 1995 with a BA in Film and Television, has been awarded both the MPAA and Hollywood Foreign Press Association Awards for achievement in film directing. Jason has been involved in the creation of the department’s Lab for New Media and HyperMedia Studio. Recently returning as Visiting Assistant Professor, his creative work explores ways in which new technologies can be used to both enhance and transform the dramatic experience. After producing the original website for the Independent Film Channel, Jason continues to work in professional web production for clients including The Content Project.

David Beaudry, sound designer
david@hypermedia.ucla.edu

David Beaudry recently earned his Doctorate of Musical Arts in clarinet performance from UCLA. His current work explores the sociological relationships between performer, audience, and composer in performance through interactive music, spatialized sound, and open, non-linear scores. His installation work has been shown at many international venues, including the La Bienalle di Venezia. David is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the UCLA Department of Theater as well as the Virtual Reality Audio Specialist for UCLA’s Visualization Portal. He is also on the faculty of the Graduate Program in Industrial Design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He performs extensively, without his computer, throughout Southern California.

William Standish, technical director – media systems
william@hypermedia.ucla.edu

William Standish is currently the technical director of Killingsworth Presentations in Lake Forest, California, where he designs, specifies, and integrates live production systems for large scale corporate events and exhibits of clients including Pioneer, Suzuki, Altera, Hilton, Toyota, and many others. He is also an experienced systems administrator and worked for several years in professional sound reinforcement for concerts and large scale live events.

Joseph Kim, lead developer
joseph@hypermedia.ucla.edu

A computer scientist by training and a technologist at heart, Joseph Kim has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from UCLA. While attending college, he has held positions at international firms including Nortel Networks and IBM. At IBM, he participated in the Extreme Blue program, where he researched topics in artificial intelligence and developed work presented to the company’s Vice Chairman. Joseph's primary interest in computer science lies in the integration of artificial intelligence, user interaction, and content management.

Other team members:

Rex Lorenzo, developer, undergraduate student in Computer Science.
rex@hypermedia.ucla.edu

Aaron Garcia, stage manager, undergraduate student in Theater.
aaron@hypermedia.ucla.edu

Brian Mohr, technical assistant, undergraduate student in Theater.
brian@hypermedia.ucla.edu

Jonathan Snipes, technical assistant, undergraduate student in Theater.
jonathan@hypermedia.ucla.edu

Patricia Lee, database and web development, B.A., University of California, Berkeley.
pat@hypermedia.ucla.edu

Caroline Ekk, web designer, B.A., Design|Media Arts, UCLA.
caroline@hypermedia.ucla.edu

Laura Hernandez-Andrade, web designer, undergraduate student in Design|Media Arts
laura@hypermedia.ucla.edu

Stephan Szpak-Fleet, web designer, B.A., Theater, UCLA.
stephan@hypermedia.ucla.edu

Performers participating in summer experiments:

Rafael Agustin, undergraduate student in Theater.

Jeff Gelber, undergraduate student in Theater.

Michelle Haner, MFA, Theater, UCLA.

Jim Merson, undergraduate student in Theater.

Sharon Wezelman, undergraduate student in Theater.