Dan Paluska and Jeff Lieberman come from a background with MIT (The Massachusetts Institute of Technology), one of the most pioneering science and technology institutes in the world. In addition to their academic careers, they have also been part of numerous art, music and design projects, merging artificial intelligence, cutting edge robotics and kinetic sculpturing.
DAN PALUSKA
Dan was born in 1974 in small town Michigan as the youngest of three brothers. Childhood was a comfortable, low-stress Middle American experience. His parents made numerous failed attempts to turn Dan into a classical musician - by enrolling him in piano, violin and oboe classes - but Dan was more into lego, skateboarding and playing in rock bands.
At the age of 18, he went to study at MIT, during which time he took a year out for daily snowboarding in Colorado. He went from 240 to 180 lbs, and came back to school with a new desire to learn and work hard.
In his senior year, Dan began working on walking robots, and he also discovered the work of Arthur Ganson and other modern kinetic sculptors. At the same time, he formed several bands, hosted radio shows on WMBR and programmed a lot of algorithmic techno music. Today he makes music with his band Electric Laser People, whose independently released album climbed the college radio charts last summer.
In 2000, Dan graduated with a master's degree in mechanical engineering. In the following years, he was part of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Biomechatronics Group, working on walking robots, prosthetics research, etc. Dan's research was highly acclaimed, and with his walking robot he even made the cover of Wired Magazine. His work has also been published at several academic conferences, in journals and books.
During his years with MIT, Dan started Collision Collective, an arts and tech group putting on shows in Boston and beyond. The work of Collision Collective includes the Holy Toaster, which miraculously produces a perfect image of holiness on every piece of toast that emerges. Together with some MIT colleagues, he also created the Fotron2000, a robotic sketch artist producing LED light drawings with long-exposure Polaroid film. Fotron2000 has been shown at ArtExpo 2004, and at several galleries, and it was used to produce the cover for The Juan Maclean CD "Less than Human", out on DFA Records in 2005.
In 2006, Dan left MIT to pursue art and installation full-time. One of his more spectacular creations is the Totemobile, a project where he worked with Amorphic Robot Works to create an 18-meter, 4,800 kg transforming car sculpture, currently installed at the Citroën showroom on Champs-Elysèes in Paris.
For more info on Dan Paluska and his projects, visit http://plainfront.com
JEFF LIEBERMAN
Jeff was born in 1978 in big city Miami. After trying many sports, Jeff realized he was more into music and the arts. He started playing drums at the age of six, then sax at 11 and piano at 14. Jeff also played a lot with lego.
After a random attack by a schoolmate in 8th grade, Jeff left public school and took off to a private school where he made the state ranking in many math competitions.
Jeff went to MIT at 18 and gained a double major in Physics and Math. During his time at MIT, he also started the MIT improvisation music group Listen-Silence.
After graduation, Jeff tried his talents with several startup companies, but decided to focus on the arts and technology, so he returned to MIT to work at the Media Lab in the Robotic Life Group. He was head of design on the Cyberflora installation, a large-scale robotic piece featuring 20 robotic flowers - investigating the subject of emotional intelligence. Other robotic works include The Huggable Robot, a teddy-bear robot intended to supplement pet therapy in hospitals and for the elderly, and the Motor Learning Robotic Wearable Suit, a robotic suit teaching motor skills (dance, sports, rehab, etc.). He has also produced kinetic art sculptures and his robotic research has been published in several papers and publications. To date, Jeff has a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering and a master's in Media Arts and Sciences.
Jeff's first international showing was the Light Bulb at the Sonar Music and Arts Festival in Barcelona. Light Bulb is an electromagnetically levitated and wirelessly powered light bulb, floating steadily in mid air and remaining switched on for years without any physical contact, charging or batteries. The project was heavily blogged in most major art and tech blogs.
Jeff is a passionate high-speed photographer. He has been on several concert and performance tours and has also released an album with his duo Gloobic, with a second album due in early 2008. Jeff is currently hosting a TV show for the Discovery network about high-speed video and time elapse technologies, called "Time Warp".
For more info on Jeff Lieberman and his projects, visit http://bea.st
MEMBERS:
Jesper Kouthoofd
Bengt Sjölèn
David Eriksson
Jens Rudberg
Teenage Engineering is a Swedish studio working with future commercial products, communications and entertainment. The group consists of four young visionary men in their thirties, with a mixed background from the Atari/Amiga demo scene, hacking, programming, design, advertising and game development.
In the Yellow Pages, Teenage Engineering is filed under Research & Development, but they also take on commercial projects as well as art. Currently, Teenage Engineering's portfolio includes electronics and hardware design, media art, game development, music production, product design, film production, sound software development, and research.
Previous projects from Teenage Engineering and its members include:
Elektron
Elektron is a Swedish manufacturer of electronic musical instruments. Their first synthesizer, SidStation, was built on the sound chip from the classic Commodore 64. Other Elektron products include the Machinedrum, the world's number one beat box, and Monomachine, a modern beat box synthesizer. All Elektron products generate cool sounds you would never have heard before. They also look great, with stunning design by Teenage Engineering's Jesper Kouthoofd. Elektron's products are known to be used by artists such as Autechre and The Knife. More info at www.elektron.se.
Netbabyworld
The members of Teenage Engineering developed this online gaming community. All games were built around a group of characters living on the Nettown-Peninsula. Netbabyworld was a global success with several design awards to its name. More info at www.netbabyworld.com.
Brainmirror
Brainmirror is an interactive experience where the image of the user's brain appears mixed with his or her mirror image, using natural head movement as an interface to explore volumetric visuals of the human brain. Brainmirror is a co-production by Teenage Engineering's Bengt Sjölèn together with Daniel Lundbäck and Adam Somlai-Fischer. Brainmirror has been shown at Ludwig Muzeum in Budapest, Kulturhuset in Stockholm, Trøndelag Senter for Samtidskunst (Center for Contemporary Art) in Trondheim, and is currently being exhibited at World Culture Forum 2007 in Monterrey. More info at www.brainmirror.se.
Aleph
Aleph is a kinetic display system, consisting of 200 motorized mirrors, which tilt and turn in their search for colors. The matrix of small mirrors produces images from fragments it finds in the environment - and by reflecting what is there, it can shuffle the present and show images that are not really there. Aleph was co-produced by Teenage Engineering's Bengt Sjölèn and Adam Somlai-Fischer. More info at www.aether.hu/aleph.
Wifi Camera
Wifi Camera was constructed to capture and form the images of wifi waves in public spaces and homes. It takes real time "photos" of wireless networks, revealing the electromagnetic space and showing how our physical structures are illuminated by this phenomenon. Wifi Camera has been shown at the Waves festival in Riga, at Folly in Lancaster and at World Culture Forum in Monterrey. Images taken with the Wifi Camera have been published in the scientific publication Journal of Visualization. More info at www.aether.hu/2007/wificamera.
