WEIRD REALITY: Head-Mounted Art && Code is a symposium dedicated to exploring new and independent visions for virtual, augmented and mixed realities. We aim to showcase independent and emerging voices, creative approaches, diverse and oftentimes marginalized perspectives, and imaginative and critical positions on VR/AR/MR.
The presenters at WEIRD REALITY include longtime pioneers of immersive and interactive media; emerging artists probing the limits of technological capability and cultural propriety; renowned media theorists, curators, historians and critics; and developers from some of the most innovative companies leading the change in VR/AR/MR technologies. At WEIRD REALITY, you’ll see artist lectures, technical workshops, panels, speed presentations, and interactive worlds by people including:
Sam Lavigne
Sam Lavigne (@sam_lavigne) is an artist and programmer based in Brooklyn. His work deals with surveillance, cops, data, and automation. He is the co-founder of the Stupid Shit No One Needs and Terrible Ideas Hackathon, founding editor of Useless Press, and a contributing editor at The New Inquiry ...
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Rosalind Paradis
Rosalind Paradis (@dataselves) is an artist, interactive designer and creative technologist with a background in Sociology and visual effects. Working in the spaces of virtual reality, mixed reality and interactive art, her work aims to create unexpected narrative experiences between users and technological systems. She holds an MFA in Design and ...
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Salome Asega
Salome Asega (@suhlomay) is a Brooklyn-based artist and researcher whose practice celebrates dissensus and multivocality. Through participatory research, she works collaboratively to build interactive installations and to develop odd wearables. She is the co-host of speculative talk show Hyperopia: 20/30 Vision on bel-air radio and the Assistant Director of POWRPLNT, a ...
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Winslow Porter
Winslow Turner Porter III is a Brooklyn based director, creative technologist and producer who has always been fascinated with the possibilities of how the intersection of art and technology can elevate storytelling. With over five years of experiential and digital agency experience, he has created experiences for TED, Google, Delta, Diesel ...
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Rachel Rossin
Rachel Rossin (@rachelrossin) is an internationally recognized artist working painting, installation, and programming to investigate the disparate realities of the physical and digital. Her current body of work mines CAD and virtual-reality spatial relationships, translating them into oil paintings and allowing the subject matter and medium to coalesce in a feedback loop. Her ...
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Milica Zec
Milica Zec (@milicazec) is a New York City-based film and virtual reality director, editor, and screenwriter. Her directorial debut in the virtual reality medium was a short narrative piece called, Giant, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival New Frontier 2016. Giant is a virtual reality experience based on true events, ...
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Alfredo Salazar-Caro
Alfredo Salazar-Caro (@a_salazarcaro) works at the intersection of portraiture, installation, virtual reality, video and sculpture. Recently his work has focused on exploring the way that virtual simulation can affect someone’s perceived reality, for example by creating simulations in which one is forced to endlessly roam in a desert until death. Other examples ...
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Yasmin Elayat
Yasmin Elayat (@yelayat) is a new-media storyteller, experience designer and creative technologist. Her work pushes the boundaries of immersive storytelling experiences ranging from new media documentary to immersive environments and interactive installations. Yasmin leverages emerging technology to create new forms of storytelling constructs, narrative frameworks and techniques to build engaging ...
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Brenda Laurel
Brenda Laurel (@blaurel) has worked in interactive media since 1976 as a designer, researcher, writer and teacher. She worked in the computer game industry from Atari to Activision, and in research labs at Atari, Interval Research, and Sun Labs, where she was a Distinguished Engineer. She co-founded Telepresence Research, a VR research and production ...
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Sarah Rothberg
Sarah Rothberg (@sarahrothberg) began working in VR from a critical approach, in the wake of the announcement that Facebook bought Oculus. She has since developed several distinct connections with the VR space: as an artist showing work at bitforms gallery, MUTEK VR salon, University Galleries of Illinois, and most recently LACMA (with the Hereafter Institute); as ...
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Michael Naimark
Michael Naimark (@naimark) has researched and developed immersive realities since the early 1980s. In the name of real-world immersive capture, Naimark has developed technologies to capture the activities of locals in Aspen, eco-activists in Banff, bomb squad defusers in Jerusalem, camel drivers in Timbuktu, soldiers in Cambodia, sex workers in Paris, and protesters on Wall Street ...
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Kelani Nichole
Kelani Nichole (@KelaniNichole) is an independent curator and user-centered design specialist. She is the owner and director of TRANSFER, an exhibition space that explores the friction between networked studio practice and its physical instantiation. The gallery supports artists working with computer-based practices to realize solo exhibitions in NYC, and travels internationally ...
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Jeremy Bailey
Jeremy Bailey (@jeremybailey) is a Toronto-based Famous New Media Artist whose work explores custom software in a performative context. His work is often "confidently self-deprecating, offering hilarious parodies of new-media vocabularies" (Marisa Olson, Rhizome). His recent projects include performances for Rhizome's Seven on Seven in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and Tate Liverpool ...
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Christopher Manzione
Christopher Manzione is an artist and curator whose work questions an object's origin and presence in a world of ubiquitous digital and network technologies. He most recently curated Space Between the Skies at New York’s Apexart. Manzione also pioneered mobile AR art platforms by founding the Virtual Public Art Project (2010), an organization that used augmented reality to ...
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Social VR Team (Kim/Ma/Scott)
Ralph Kim (CMU '16), Michelle Ma (CMU '17) and Benjamin Scott (CMU '18) are collaborating with Carnegie Mellon University Associate Professor of Art, Ali Momeni and Community Outreach Director Aparna Wilder on an authoring tool for virtual reality storytelling. The SocialVR team has been exploring educational applications for this tool with a focus on ...
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Rick Barraza
Rick Barraza (@rickbarraza) provides Creative Strategy and Design Engineering for Microsoft. Passionate about working, playing and speaking at the cultural intersection of design and emerging technology, he is inspired by the impossible and uses pixels, code and hardware to make it real. Rick no longer needs the weirding module ...
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Larry Shea
Larry Shea is an artist and educator working with a wide variety of digital and analog media, creating artworks and developing new media technologies for live events. Larry enjoys working in creative teams, merging technical possibilities with aesthetic and political concerns, creating layered and meaningful experiences. Some highlights include Julia Scher’s surveillance ...
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Emily Eifler
Emily Eifler (@emilyeifler) is an American artist who lives and works in San Francisco, California. Her work focuses on the back and forth between the physical and the virtual by kneading embodiment and experience between material and image space in an effort to blur that boundary for people as ...
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James George
James George (@obviousjim) addresses the emotional response to science fiction technologies as they become reality. Developer of the DepthKit, a volumetric cinema system, James is democratizing a new medium for cinematic expression to equip a generation of filmmakers with new tools for interactive narrative. He has applied this format towards feature ...
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Heather Kelley
Heather Kelley (@PerfectPlum) is a media artist, curator, game and experience designer. She is an Associate Teaching Professor at the Entertainment Technology Center at CMU. Named by Fast Company magazine as one of 2011’s thirty most influential women in technology, and honored with the 2013 Innovator Award by the Microsoft Women ...
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Ali Momeni
Ali Momeni (@batchku) is a builder, composer and performer interested in using technology to bring people together. His work makes use of all manners of technology to explore the social lives of objects and their embedded performative qualities, and how computation can give us a more intimate understanding of the world around ...
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Angela Washko
Angela Washko (@angelawashko) is an artist, writer and facilitator devoted to creating new forums for discussions of feminism in spaces frequently hostile toward it.She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University.Since 2012, Washko has operated as The Council on Gender Sensitivity and Behavioral Awareness in World of Warcraft, ...
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Nilchiani & Sinders
Mani Nilchiani and Caroline Sinders have collaborated on Dark Patterns, an experimental game that speculates on an Internet experienced through VR devices ...
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Mark Skwarek
Mark Skwarek (@mark_skwarek) is an artist who pioneered bridging the gap between virtual and physical world with augmented reality. His art explores the translation our everyday digital experience into the physical world using mobile augmented reality. Skwarek earned his M.F.A. from Rhode Island School of Design's Digital Media Department. He is ...
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Ingrid Kopp
Ingrid Kopp (@fromthehip) is a Senior Consultant for the Interactive department at the Tribeca Film Institute. Kopp has worked in independent film for over 15 years, with a special focus on the intersections of documentary storytelling, social media and technology. Previously Kopp was Director of the Tribeca Film Institute Interactive department, supporting interactive, cross-platform ...
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Barry Threw
Barry Threw (@barrythrew) is an independent technologist, designer, and cultural producer exploring ways the engagement of art and technology can promote transdisciplinary understanding and catalyze systemic change. He consults with individuals and institutions developing tools, processes and platforms to support creative, technical, and cultural innovation. Threw’s work has been presented internationally ...
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Cindy Poremba
Cindy Poremba (@cloobot) is a digital media researcher, gamemaker and curator. She is an Assistant Professor (Digital Entertainment), at OCAD University. Cindy completed a PhD in interdisciplinary Humanities at Concordia University in Montreal, where she worked in association with the Centre for Technoculture, Art and Games (TAG) ...
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LaJuné McMillian
LaJuné McMillian (@_lovelaja) is a new media artist and creative technologist living in New York City. A recent graduate from the Integrated Digital Media Program at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, her work is centered around interconnection, the nature of communication and the experience of life beyond the material world. She expresses ...
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Dan Moore
Dan Moore (@theDANtheMAN) is a Brooklyn-based media artist. Combining his skills in software development, app design and interaction design with his art practice, Moore has contributed to award-winning interactive installations, performances, music videos, commercials, and artworks. He contributes to several open-source projects including openFrameworks. Dan is currently a second-year Masters of Tangible ...
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Laura Juo-Hsin Chen
Laura Juo-Hsin Chen, 陳若昕 (@jhclaura) is a creative technologist and doodler originally from Taipei, Taiwan. With a background in traditional 3D animation, Laura acquired a Master’s degree at the NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) in 2015. She recently completed a Research Residency at ITP, and lives in Brooklyn, NY. Laura is interested ...
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Stefan Welker
Stefan Welker is a Software engineer on Daydream Labs, working on VR protoypes. Prior to Daydream, he invented the OpenDive printable open source virtual reality device and worked on the Durovis Dive SDK, the first smartphone based VR device on the market. Before that he got a degree in computer ...
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Tega Brain
Tega Brain (@tegabrain) is an Australian born artist and environmental engineer whose eccentric engineering intersects art, ecology & engineering. Eccentric engineering reimagines technologies to address their scope and politics, with a focus on systems that enact more-than-only-human agendas. ...
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Martha Hipley
Martha Hipley (@everyartisugly) is an artist and programmer working in digital and paint, occasionally under the brand everyoneisugly. Her work explores identity formation through the lens of fandom culture and nascent sexuality. In addition to being awarded a Rhizome microgrant for her project “Untitled Twitter Hack,” she is also the second best ...
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Wendy Hui Kyong Chun
Wendy Hui Kyong Chun (@whkchun) is Professor of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University. She has studied both Systems Design Engineering and English Literature, which she combines and mutates in her current work on digital media. She is author of Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New Media (MIT 2016), ...
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Claire Hentschker
Claire Hentschker (@ntschk) is a Pittsburgh-based artist and student working with site specific mixed reality. Her VR work has been exhibited in an inflatable kiddie pool, atop an oversized easy chair, in a bedazzled headset, and in augmented projections on temporary tattoos ...
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Dorian Dargan
Dorian Dargan (@doriandargan) is a NYC-based product designer and creative technologist focused on using immersive media to facilitate intimate human experiences. He is currently Director of Product at YouNow, a highly interactive social live-streaming platform that empowers creators to entertain a live audience and earn revenue for their talents. Dorian graduated from ...
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Cindy Sherman Bishop
Cindy Sherman Bishop (@csbishopfilm) is a visual artist, filmmaker, and digital creative. Originally a software developer and a painter, her work ranges from creating new tools for artistic expression to realizing immersive, interactive environments. She received her MFA in Dynamic Media at Massachusetts College of Art in 2013, and is continuing ...
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Andrea Hawksley
Andrea Hawksley (@AndreaHawksley) is a VR developer and researcher at eleVR. She is one of the earliest developers of webVR software, creating the first 3D 360 VR video player for the web before VR web browsers were even available - the eleVR Player. She is also a mathematical artist and has ...
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Lauren Goshinski
Lauren Goshinski is a curator, event producer, and artist who creates platforms for experiencing emerging music and new media art. As the co-founder/director of VIA and the annual VIA Festival, with collaborator Quinn Leonowicz, Lauren works between musicians and visual artists to create custom audio-visual performances, commission new works, and create programs that expand what a festival can ...
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Nick Fox-Gieg
Nick Fox-Gieg (@n1ckfg) is an animator and creative technologist based in New York and Toronto. His film “The Orange” won the jury prize for Best Animated Short at SXSW 2010; his films have also screened at the Ottawa, Rotterdam, and TIFF film festivals, at the Centre Pompidou, and on CBC TV ...
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Artificial Nature
Artificial Nature is a research project and an evolving series of art installations by Haru Ji and Graham Wakefield. Haru Ji is a TransArtist and researcher exploring the subject of life in art through Artificial Life Worldmaking: a form of computational generative art creating and evolving virtual ecosystems as immersive environments ...
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Vi Hart
Vi Hart (@vihartvihart) is a mathemusician and philosopher known primarily for work in mathematical understanding, musical structure, and social justice. Hart has publications in the fields of computational geometry, mathematics and music, mathematical art, and math education, and speaks internationally on a variety of topics. Hart is best known for the film ...
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Greg J. Smith
Greg J. Smith (@gr3gjsmith) is a Toronto-based writer and editor interested in media art and its broader cultural implications. Smith is the Editor-in-Chief of HOLO, a magazine that chronicles ‘emerging trajectories in art, science, and technology,’ and a Contributing Editor at Creative Applications Network ...
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Nitzan Bartov
Nitzan Bartov (@NitzuNitzu) is a Brooklyn/Tel-Aviv based architect, game-designer and artist. She’s a co-founder of n-Dimensional game studio, and a member of Hyphen-Labs collective. Reflecting her movement between mediums, her game is a mashup of architecture, spatial storytelling, and pop culture. Her work has been exhibited at The Center for Architecture, Babycastles Gallery, ...
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Elaine Gomez
Elaine Gomez (@sailorchzbrger) is a game designer, developer and producer. Her interests include representations of gender in games, and methods for youth education in game development and computer programming. Elaine earned an MFA in Interactive Media and Games from USC in 2016 ...
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Ekene Ijeoma
Ekene Ijeoma (@ekeneijeoma) is a designer and artist. He was recently awarded NYFA Fellowship in Design, Urban Environments and Architecture and featured in Adweek's Creative 100 as 1 of the 10 "visual artists whose imagination and intellect will inspire you" and Good Magazine's Good 100 for "tackling pressing global issues". His work ...
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Scott Andrew
Scott Andrew is half crystal, half human. He is a multimedia artist, whose immersive videos, installations, and performances evoke a childlike yearning for play. A member and co-founder of the Institute for New Feeling collective, he currently works as Visiting Professor in the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University, a fashion instructor ...
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Ryan Pamplin
Ryan Pamplin (@ryanpamplin) is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur with a deeply rooted passion for augmented reality. Ryan's been waiting for AR to usher in the future of computing since he first got glasses at age 7. He co-founded BrandAds which was acquired by the leader in TV advertising. The software ...
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Ken Perlin
Ken Perlin, a professor in the Department of Computer Science at NYU, directs the NYU Games For Learning Institute, and is a participating faculty member in the NYU Media and Games Network (MAGNET). His research interests include graphics, animation, augmented and mixed reality, user interfaces, science education and multimedia. Dr. Perlin is ...
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Golan Levin
Golan Levin (@golan) is interested in the intersections of machine code and visual culture. At CMU, Levin is currently Associate Professor of Electronic Art and Director of the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, as well as founder and director of the Art && Code symposia ...
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Mars Wong
Mars Wong (@Spartan_H72) is a freshman at University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, studying Game Design. A native of New York City, Mars has spearheaded interactive VR projects for The Mill and recently concluded an internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's MediaLab ...
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Ricardo Cabello (Mr. Doob)
Ricardo Cabello (@mrdoob) is the author of three.js: probably the most widely-used open-source library for high-quality interactive 3D graphics in the browser. A self-taught software developer and designer, his involvement in the Barcelona demoscene set him on the path to learning computer graphics programming. His design-technology work ranges from simple interactive digital toys to full-featured experiences, ...
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Jesse Stiles
Jesse Stiles (@jts3k) is an electronic composer, performer, installation artist, and software designer. Stiles’ work has been featured at internationally recognized institutions including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Lincoln Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Park Avenue Armory. Stiles has appeared multiple times at Carnegie Hall, performing as a soloist ...
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Stiles & Iott
Char Stiles (@CharStiles) and Alicia Iott (@iciaiot) are undergraduates studying Computer Science and Art at Carnegie Mellon University. They will present collaborative projects in the WEIRD REALITY VR Salon ...
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Institute for New Feeling
The Institute for New Feeling (#institutefornewfeeling) is an art collective founded by Scott Andrew, Agnes Bolt and Nina Sarnelle, committed to the development of new ways of feeling, and ways of feeling new. Our work takes the form of treatments, therapies, retreats, research studies and wellness products. IfNf has recently exhibited ...
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Paolo Pedercini
Paolo Pedercini (@molleindustria) is a game developer, artist and educator. He teaches experimental game design and digital media production at the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University. Since 2003 he works under the project name “Molleindustria” producing provocative games addressing issues of social and environmental justice (Oiligarchy, Phone Story), religion ...
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Alexander Porter
Alexander Porter (@alexicon3000) is an experimental photographer, interested in how photographic traditions intersect with emerging methods of scanning and computational photography. He is a member of the team behind the DepthKit, a tool for creating cinematic imagery with commercially available depth sensors. He has been facilitating access to this technique by teaching workshops ...
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Jax Deluca
Jax Deluca (@JaxDeluca) became Director of Media Arts at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in January 2016. In this position, she manages the NEA’s grantmaking activities for arts organizations across the country working in media arts, which includes film, video, audio, interactive, and other electronic media. Her field experience ...
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Omer Shapira
Omer Shapira (@omershapira) is a Virtual Reality Artist working for Nvidia. Omer's Virtual Reality work explores gaps between Film, Games and Digital Arts. His works and collaborations have been presented at Cannes, Sundance, Tribeca and Seattle Film Festivals, The Barbican Gallery, GDC and the New Museum ...
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Jason Eppink
Jason Eppink (@jasoneppink) is Curator of Digital Media at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City. His work at the museum revolves around participation in a variety of fields, including video games, interactive art, remix, animation, and online communities. Additionally, Eppink is a senior agent with prank group ...
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Robert Yang
Robert Yang (@radiatoryang) is a game developer and academic based in New York City. He regularly teaches game development and design within NYU Game Center at New York University, IDM at NYU Poly School of Engineering, and MFADT at Parsons the New School for Design ...
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