The passion that introduced me to interdisciplinary art and computing to begin with was gaming. From a very early age, I recognized video games to be an extremely powerful new medium for storytelling and interaction and I decided at some point in my life that I definitely wanted to work in the business of producing them. But to merely work on video games is not enough for me. I am not satisfied with the idea of being tasked to code one of the many nameless racing or shooter games. My interest is in developing innovative games: games that push the envelope of what people tend to expect from ordinary video games, as opposed to just releasing rehashed sequels. It also frustrates me enormously that gaming has a fairly terrible reputation in general, often considered to be an antisocial activity that motivates teens towards violence, and I’m keenly interested in producing games that would actively change these opinions. It is my belief that gaming is an experience that can, and should, bring people together rather than driving them apart.

While innovative gaming is my primary interest and motivation for studying interdisciplinary art and computing, my time in the field has vastly increased my appreciation for a variety of other topics. The internet often plays a serious role in these other issues that I enjoy exploring, as it is a powerful tool for observing and encouraging social interaction. Online communities fascinate me with their ability to help bridge both geographical and cultural divides, allowing people who would never otherwise meet to communicate with and befriend one another. Artificial intelligence and how it may be used to improve the general quality of life is also a topic that I am involved in. While there is a great deal of film and literature that speculates about the potential of artificial intelligence in the future, there is very little evidence of useful A.I. being developed for everyday scenarios, a situation I would greatly like to see remedied. My most recent project is an AI whose intelligence evolves with input from the users who visit the chat room in which it resides, a venture that combines a number of my greatest interests into a single, mammoth endeavor.

As a former computer science major, my skills are largely technically-based. I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of getting a computer to do what I want it to do, so I naturally thought that I was after a computer science degree. Much to my surprise, it was my minor in interdisciplinary computing and art that interested me much more and I realized that I was better suited to this broader field, where both imagination and technical proficiency could be exercised. I’m also technically flexible. I have probably done more programming work since leaving the computer science department than I did when I was still with them and the majority of my understanding of new languages and commonly used applications has come from independent research for my own interdisciplinary projects. I have a deep interest in all things technical and believe that collaborating with like-minded individuals and faculty in a graduate interdisciplinary program will allow me to contribute to the interactive media world with what talent I may possess, while expanding my horizons and becoming a stronger artist overall.