Guest Critics
CJ Maupin is a communications strategist, marketing writer and event producer. Starting her career in politics and government (working on Capitol Hill and with many politicians, notably Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi), she migrated to the private sector to apply her community organizing, issue development and policy articulation skills to the communications challenges of new and long-standing companies.
She has broad experience having developed and directed worldwide programs in market development, co-marketing, events, corporate identity, creative services, public relations, advertising, and employee and executive communications. She worked for Apple Computer for 10 years, five as speechwriter to CEO John Sculley and executive team, and five leading corporate communications for the company’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa division. She did stints on the agency side as well working for innovation and change firm Stone Yamashita Partners, and venerable advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather.
CJ’s sense of principle and positioning make her a valued communications counselor and writer for many leaders in business and government, and her cross-disciplinary and multi-cultural experience make her a sought-after director of integrated, international marcom programs. She has directed communications efforts for a wide variety of companies and individuals in the North America, Europe and Asia Pacific regions.
Mark Shepard is an artist, architect and researcher whose post-disciplinary practice addresses new social spaces and signifying structures of contemporary network cultures. His current research investigates the implications of mobile and pervasive media, communication and information technologies for architecture and urbanism. (full bio here)
Sawad Brooks is an award winning designer and internationally recognized media artist who creates and transforms social/information spaces. He consults on exhibit, product, and interaction design.
Sawad has received numerous commissions and awards, including an ID Magazine Silver Interactive Design Award, and was named a finalist for the inaugural SFMoMA Webby Prize. In addition, he has received grants from respected institutions, including Creative Capital, the Jerome Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Walker Art Center. His work has been exhibited internationally, including shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Johannesburg Biennale, S.A; and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Sawad’s work has been collected by the Walker Art Center and the Whitney Museum.
His team, bbc art + architecture, was a finalist (chosen by a jury from over 5,000 other competitors) and awarded “first runner-up” in the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition. According to accounts published in the New York Times, the team’s design was edged out only during the jury’s final hours of deliberation. The team is featured in Paper Magazine’s “Beautiful People 2004″ issue.
Zach Eveland is an electronic and physical interaction designer. His company, Blacklabel Development, creates innovative prototypes and products for clients in the assistive technology, education, entertainment, consumer electronics, and consumer medical industries.
Sarah Scaturro is the textile conservator at the Cooper-Hewitt. She is also an independent curator and researcher, as well as an instructor in FIT’s Fashion and Textile Studies MA program. She most recently curated the exhibition “Ethics + Aesthetics = Sustainable Fashion” at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery.
Miriam Songster grew up near Boston, has lived in London and Sydney, and currently calls Brooklyn home. She received a BA in Economics and worked professionally as an economist before attending graduate school, where she earned a Master’s degree at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunication Program.
Miriam’s artistic pursuits began with documentary film and video, starting with her involvement in a women’s video collective and ultimately leading to the scripting and production of documentaries, public service announcements, and video installations such as that for Boston’s “First Night” festival. Her interest in installation grew during her time with Reclamation Artists, a group of Boston-area artists and architects working in transitional urban spaces.
Since completing her telecommunications degree Miriam has been working professionally as a digital project manager, while also producing web-based artworks and immersive, multi-sensory installation pieces. Her most recent work includes the installation “Dirt” for ArtSpace New Haven, sculptural light pieces completed during a residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute, and the recently completed blog project “We Are Having Weather.”
Dr. Paul Pangaro consults at the intersection of product strategy, prescriptive innovation, and organizational dynamics. His career spans roles as technology executive, professor of cybernetics, entrepreneur, and performer.
Through prototyping, lecturing and writing, Paul focuses on the cognitive and social needs of human beings. His clients include Nokia UX London, Poetry Foundation, eight inc., Citigroup, and Dubberly Design. He taught a course at Stanford University for seven years and has lectured at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, London’s Bartlett School of Architecture, São Paulo’s Instituto Itaú Cultural, École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris, Art Institute of Boston, Ontario College of Art and Design, and University of California Berkeley and Santa Cruz.
Paul spent ten years in Silicon Valley as CTO of startups and as a strategy consultant. At Sun Microsystems, he directed the first integration of all developer websites to common processes and information architecture, including 100,000 pages at java.sun.com. He was founding CTO of Snap.com, working with Bill Gross’s Idealab team to develop alternative search experiences.
Paul studied computer science and humanities at MIT, where he made award-winning computer-generated films. Nicholas Negroponte hired him to work in what became the MIT Media Lab. He earned a Ph.D. in cybernetics and conversation theory at Brunel University with Gordon Pask. Paul has performed in college and community theatre in straight plays, musical theatre, and his own cabaret productions. He is member of the Board of San Francisco’s Artship Dance/Theater, and Chair of the Trustees and Fellow of the American Society for Cybernetics.