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Jon McCormack
Director of SensiLab, Monash University
Jon McCormack is a professor of computer science at Monash University and the founder and director of SensiLab, a creative technologies research space.12 He is an Australian-based artist and researcher in computing, with research interests including generative art, design and music, evolutionary systems, computer creativity, human-machine relationships, and creative Artificial Intelligence.23
McCormack holds an Honours degree in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from Monash University, a Graduate Diploma of Art (Film and Television) from Swinburne University, and a PhD in Computer Science from Monash University.2 He has been the recipient of several major research fellowships, including:
- Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow (2017-2021)35
- Australian Research Fellow (2010-2015)35
- Australia Council for the Arts Media Arts Fellow (2000-2004)3
As an artist, McCormack's work has been widely exhibited internationally at prestigious venues such as the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Tate Gallery (Liverpool), and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.34 He has received numerous awards for his contributions to media art and computing research, including prizes at Ars Electronica, the Eureka Prize for Innovation in Computer Science, and the Lumen Prize for digital art.3
McCormack is also known for inventing the generative music software Nodal, which has been used by thousands of musicians worldwide since its commercialization in 2009.3
Highlights
We are hiring! SensiLab currently has two continuing academic positions available: Lecturer (Level B) and Senior Lecturer (Level C) in Creative Technologies. If you have a PhD and a high quality track record of research and teaching in a Creative Technologies discipline (for example, Interaction Design, Creative AI, Digital Music & Sound Arts) please consider applying!
For more details see our website: https://lnkd.in/f5dxB2g
Thirty years ago this week I was on a plane to the USA to premier a new work at the SIGGRAPH Art Show. "Turbulence: an interactive museum of un-natural history" was an interactive laserdisc installation that explored the emerging concept of artificial life. It took almost four years to make. The work asked, "what would life be like if it were made from computer algorithms rather than flesh and blood?". The answer involved 35 minutes of interactive computer animation, all algorithmically generated and evolved by artificial selection using custom software I wrote in C. Each frame of animation took many hours to render, and I recall the excitement of seeing even just a few seconds of finished animation, which often took weeks to compute on 1994's state-of-the-art Silicon Graphics workstations. Amazingly, the software still runs on my laptop today. The exhibition was a defining moment in my career, leading to over 40 exhibitions across Europe, UK, Japan, Korea, USA, Canada, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand. For the 30th anniversary of the work, I have re-mastered a number of the original sequences, using AI technology to enhance the resolution and frame rate from the original 720 x 576 pixel / 25fps resolution. The work was produced with the assistance of the Australian Film Commission, under a program initiated by Gary Warner.
