learning from science fiction with greg borenstein

Presented at FITC Toronto 2014 on April 27-29, 2014 More info at www.FITC.ca OVERVIEW For more than a century, science fiction has been both the conscience and the subconscious of the technology industry. Its authors have invented new ideas that became world-changing technologies and they’ve shaped the moral, philosophical and aesthetic lenses that we use to understand our changing world. We use an interface from Minority Report to operate our Star Trek communicators, in order to communicate over geostationary satellites invented by Arthur C. Clarke, to visit William Gibson’s cyberspace and experience the drifting identities and psychological dislocation described by Philip K. Dick. As a designer, technologist and artist, Greg Borenstein has mined science fiction for storytelling tools that help communicate how new technologies feel and what they might mean to our world. In this talk, Greg presents projects that show some of what he has learned and outline ideas that may come in handy in your own practice. FULL BIO Greg Borenstein is an artist, technologist, and teacher, creating illusions for humans and machines. His work explores computer vision, machine learning, game design, visual effects, and drawing as media for storytelling and design. Greg is a graduate of the NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program (http://itp.nyu.edu/) and has worked for firms such as Makerbot and Berg London. He is the author of a book for O’Reilly about the Microsoft Kinect, titled ‘Making Things See: 3D vision with Kinect, Processing, Arduino and MakerBot.’ He is currently a researcher in the Playful Systems Group at the MIT Media Lab.