pudgeblog

BACKGROUND INFO:

Utterback was born in the early 70s. She recieved her BA in Art from Williams College in Massechucets and a Masters degree from The Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Now in her mid 30s, Utterback resides in New York where she still persues her vibrant career.

In an article on girlgeeks.org Utterback states that she started her adventures with the computer at age 10 when her parents bought their first Apple. She never was good at computer games so she started teaching herself how to program. The first program she wrote was such that it did her math homework for her.

HER WORK:

Utterback started her early work as an Interval Research Fellow at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program. She stated that it was "a really wonderful opportunity to explore and experiment." While experimenting she explored how we represent things visually on the computer screen. She also explored the idea of digital cubism, the idea of showing multiple perspectives simultaneously. At this time, Utterback also started to explore the idea video tracking relating to people's movement.

In an article Utterback wrote for core77.com she stated; " I want to change how people think about their relationship to technology. I want to bring our physicality, our bodies (a large part of what makes us human) back into the equation. I am passionate about creating experiences that show people that their interactions with computers do not have to be frustrating, deadening, and potentially debilitating. Instead, we can imagine and create a world where this interaction is seamless, intuitive, playful and inspiring. By using video cameras to create physical-digital systems that engage people's bodies instead of just their fingers and eyes, I hope to refocus attention on the embodied self in an increasingly mediated culture. Additionally, my video-based interfaces, by allowing many users simultaneously, create social spaces focusing on human interaction, not human-computer interaction."

During her work as an Interval Research Fellow (1998-2000) she became the co-inventor of a U.S. patent filed by New York University for video tracking technology.

Using this invention Utterback created Text Rain, with Romy Achituv. wich is her most recognized installation. A description on siggraph.org states it best; "Text Rain is a playful interactive installation that blurs the boundary between the familiar and the magical. Participants in the Text Rain installation use the familiar instrument of their bodies, to do what seems magical - to lift and play with falling letters that do not really exist." To operate, the participants stand or move in front of a projection screen. Their image is projected in black and white combined with color animated falling text. Like snow and rain, the text seems to land on the participants' heads and arms. The text responds to all movement and can be caught, lifted, pushed and left to fall again.The falling text will 'land' on anything darker than a certain threshold, and 'fall' whenever that obstacle is removed.

Now a pioneering artist and programmer in the field of interactive installation, Utterback also develops installations for commercial and museum settings via her company Creative Nerve, Inc., in which she is the owner and founder of. Utterback also teaches as an adjunct professor at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU, and at the Masters of Fine Arts in Design and Technology Program at Parsons School of Design.

Later stated in the core77.com article Utterback says that she hopes, "when historians look back at these early physical-digital experiments that my many colleagues and I are creating now, perhaps these pieces will look like early daguerreotypes--lacking polish and definition--but I think we've begun down a path that will be remembered as the beginning of an evolution in design. The appeal of my work lies not in the fact that it uses technology in a new way, so much as it allows the technology to disappear, and lets people enjoy a physically-based, human-centered experience."

To view all sites relating to her work View Utterback's Site