Michael Naimark

Michael Naimark is a media artist and researcher with more than 25 years of experience investigating 'place representation'. He has worked extensively with field cinematography, interactive systems, and immersive projection. He was instrumental in the founding of several world-renown research labs and his art projects exhibit internationally. He was on the original design team for the MIT Media Laboratory in 1980, and was a founding member of the Atari Research Lab, the Apple Multimedia Lab, and Lucasfilm Interactive (now LucasArts). He joined Interval Research Corporation, a long-term lab funded by Paul Allen, as it opened in 1992, and worked an additional year after it closed in 2000 on his webcam spin-off venture, Kundi.com. Several patents have been granted for his work. He was the 2002 recipient of the World Technology Award for the Arts and the 2003 recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation grant to direct a feasibility study for a unique, financially-sustainable Arts Lab. In 2004, he taught the first 'History of New Media' class at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications program, taught the first graduate thesis seminar at USCÕs new Interactive Media Division, and helped Columbia University write their strategic plan for Art and Technology. He also guest-curated the Ars Electronica 25th Anniversary Symposium in Linz, Austria. In 2005, the Art Centre College of Design in Pasadena organised a twenty-year survey of his work. He is currently a visiting associate professor in the Interactive Media Division of the USC School of Cinema and Television. He serves on the Visiting Committee of the MIT Media Lab and on the boards of the Zero One Network, Leonardo Electronic Almanac, and Presence Journal. He has been a member of the Society for Visual Anthropology since 1984.