Mostly I write books of the nonfiction and fiction varieties. My first novel, Autonomous, come out from Tor in September 2017. I'm also the author of Scatter, Adapt and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction (Doubleday and Anchor), which was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize in science. I am currently working on another novel for Tor, as well as a nonfiction book for W.W. Norton about ancient abandoned cities. I'm the founding editor of io9, and was the editor-in-chief of Gizmodo. I'm currently an editor-at-large for Ars Technica, as well as a freelancer for magazines and newspapers. My nonfiction has appeared in Slate, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Wired, The Smithsonian Magazine, The Washington Post, 2600, New Scientist, Technology Review, Popular Science, Discover and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. I'm the co-editor of the essay collection She’s Such A Geek (Seal Press), and author of Pretend We’re Dead: Capitalist Monsters in American Pop Culture (Duke University Press). Formerly, I was a policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and a lecturer in American Studies at UC Berkeley. I was the recipient of a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT, and have a Ph.D. in English and American Studies from UC Berkeley.

Bernadette Cay is an artist and product manager, formerly at Twitter and Google. She started making art again while working full-time and is working on a book about the journey. Bernadette’s work combines the visual arts, technology and writing to explore creating a creative and meaningful life. Bernadette received a B.S. in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University.

Creative Courage

Creative Courage is based on the artist’s experience of starting to make art again after 10 years. In facing her creative blocks, she learned that feelings of safety, relaxation and playfulness help creativity come through. Creative Courage uses diffuse color, visual displays and an enclosed physical space to inspire these feelings in the viewer. The experience complements the artist’s upcoming book about this journey.

Bill performs improvisational 3D computer graphics using his own custom-coded performance platform.

Having found realtime interactions with computers to be the only really interesting ones, he's worked with loudspeaker arrays, multi-projector environments, MIDI and game controllers, GPUs (graphics processing units), and live camera feeds: combining many of these to synergistic effect.

Thibault has performed periodically since 1990 in the Bay Area in a variety of musical ensembles featuring improv, beat-driven electronics, rock, power and noise electronics, and solo contexts. He teaches Computer Science at CSU East Bay. His current work employs audio from live musicians to influence force-based 3D animated layouts of various network topologies.

IRL Carpet

IRL Carpet is an interactive installation that uses simple geometric heuristics for shot composition in an attempt to reveal filmmaking processes to the audience and isolate their emotional charges. The viewer is captured by a "depth camera" in a real-time and placed in sets built from 3D point clouds of the Mission district.

Claudia is an artist and freelance designer who's work explores the intersection of technology + nature, digital storytelling, and avatar embodiment. Her work endeavors to provoke self-reflection, play and a reverence for nature.

 She is currently working on designing VR experiences that can live alongside holographic sculptures which manifest the digital in the physical world. Claudia has previously worked as user experience designer, VJ, 3D animator, illustrator, videographer and multimedia content creator.

Daniel is a composer, video maker, and sound artist. He has for several decades created works ranging from music for dance to multi-media theatre to interactive video and sound installations. His musical background has led to a diverse array of artistic collaborations and unique explorations of visual media.

"Past Present Future" features a contemporary fortune telling machine. This interactive object lives at the intersection of pseudoscience, the occult, and the carnival. I will create an environment that incorporates a performative guided experience. The work uses text, sound, and light to engage the audience in a reinvention of analog-era experiences.

Jane is a licensed architect and artist whose work embraces all scales from sculpture to urban planning. As principal of Shift Design Studio, she works with building materials, plants, movement and language to investigate the difference between Here and There in service of interactive cultural locationing and environmental stewardship. Ms. Martin earned a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (and Université d’Illinois à Versailles, France) and a Master of Architecture from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

StereoTypes

StereoTypes presents an opportunity to hear 5 characters' perspectives on change while exploring a virtual depiction of public spaces in the Mission District. (In collaboration with Tim Perkis.)

Jonathan received a BS (Electrical Engineering) and ME (Electrical) degrees from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Brown University. Jonathan's research interests include machine learning, audio analysis and retrieval, robotics, multimedia signal processing, distance interaction, and panoramic video. Jonathan's kinetic and light works explore perception and interaction using a range of sophisticated electronics, from vintage vacuum tubes to the latest semiconductors and actuators.

Faceball

Faceball is a videogame driven by face detection with an 80s vector aesthetic.

Palimpsest

Palimpsest records and preserves—with consent—the images of onlookers and merges them into an evolving document.

Ray McClure founded his interactive studio Dreamboat in 2009 to develop web and installation experiences. Notable creations include PollySynth, a multiplayer polyphonic synthesizer, and 808 Cube which combines a Roland TR-808 drum machine with a Rubik's cube. As a member of the Gray Area Cultural Incubator program he created the mixed reality installation Amazing Grace and Computers. In 2016 he started the virtual reality studio Plus Four with partner Casey McGonagle. Their voice controlled VR project VVVR was developed at the Convergence residency in Banff, Canada and featured at both the 2016 Gray Area Festival and David Lynch's Festival of Disruption. 

MEDIATE's primary activity is the production of the acclaimed Soundwave Biennial, a curated two-­year program that culminates in a summer sound, art and music festival. To date, Soundwave has showcased over 500 emerging and established local, national and international artists and engaged tens of thousands of audience members. Renowned for its thoughtful curation and unique programming in urban spaces, Soundwave has become the largest and most anticipated sound-based art festival in the Bay Area.