Greg J. Smith & Erik Loyer

 

Greg J. Smith and Erik Loyer were awarded the “Jury’s Choice” Award for the excellence of their submission to the ELO 2012 Media Art Show.


Greg J. Smith is a Toronto-based designer and researcher with interests in media theory and digital culture. Extending from a background in architecture, his research considers how contemporary information paradigms affect representational and spatial systems. Greg is a designer at Mission Specialist and a contributing editor at Creative Applications Network. His writing has appeared in a variety of publications including: Rhizome, Current Intelligence, Vectors, the Handbook of Research on Computational Arts and Creative Informatics and Vague Terrain (which he co-founded in 2005). Greg has presented work at venues and institutions including Eyeo Festival(Minneapolis), the Western Front (Vancouver), DIY Citizenship (Toronto), Medialab-Prado (Madrid) and Postopolis! LA. He is an adjunct instructor in the CCIT program (U of T Mississauga/Sheridan College) and has taught courses for CSMM (McMaster University) and OCAD University.


Erik Loyer uses tactile and performative interfaces to tell stories with interactive media. His work has been exhibited online and internationally at venues including MOCA Los Angeles, the Prix Ars Electronica, and IndieCade. Loyer's award-winning website The Lair of the Marrow Monkey was one of the first to be added to the permanent collection of a major art museum, at SFMOMA. As Creative Director for the experimental digital humanities journal Vectors, he has designed over a dozen interactive essays in collaboration with numerous scholars, including the Webby-honored documentary Public Secrets. Loyer is the founder of interactive design studio Song New Creative, and creates story-driven interactive entertainment under the Opertoon label, including the best-selling and critically-acclaimed iOS application Strange Rain. His current projects include the interactive graphic novel Upgrade Soul and the philosophical flight sim Languish.


In Critical Sections, the user draws with drawings—calling to the screen a collection of observations on domesticity in Los Angeles by triggering mashups of architectural renderings for eight prototype homes with images from eight films set in, or explicitly about the city.


Supported by a fellowship from Vectors: Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular.

“Critical Sections,”

by Greg J. Smith & Erik Loyer

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