C10: Bridging Art, Design, and Technology: My Lifetime Work

Abstract

The course provides a historical narrative of human-computer interaction/user-experience (HCI/UX) design, graphic design, computer art, and visible-language experimentation.

The course instructor presents fundamental concepts of HCI/UX design and best practices from his life's work and experience that include examples and historical images to give course participants an in-depth appreciation of art/design history.

The course lecture delivers a chronological survey of the author’s work. He is a pioneer in computer graphics/art, user interface/user-interaction design, information-oriented graphic design, and visible-language experiments. He was one of the first professionals to use computer technology in art, virtual reality, experimental visible languages, and information visualization in the early days of digital media in the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.

One part absorbing autobiography, one part detailed artist/designer history, the lecture surveys the early days of computer-based graphic design and computer art, fully supported with compelling images and backstories behind the lecturer’s innovative HCI/user-experience designs and solutions for brands like Apple, HP, Microsoft, Motorola, Oracle, Sabre, Samsung, SAP, US Federal Reserve Bank, Visa, and more.

Examples in color provide a background, context, process, and results of work undertaken by the author and his firm for major companies worldwide. The text and figures reveal a personal philosophy and history of art, design, computers, and technology across 70 years.

The course is a visual-presentation version of his monograph/memoir: Bridging Art, Design, and Technology: My Lifetime Work, recently published by Springer UK and available at the Springer Website and at Amazon.com.

The lecturer was the founder and Director/Co-Director of the DUXU conference 2011-2024.

Course Content

Objectives/Topics to be covered:

Contents of the course are organized into a roughly chronologically sequence, with images illustrating relevant work from ten different professional topics listed below:

• Cartoons
• Computer art
• Computer graphics
• Conceptual art
• Concrete poetry
• Drawings and paintings
• Graphic design (books, exhibits, logos, posters, signs/symbols, etc.)
• Information design and information visualization
• Photography
• User interface/HCI/UX design (desktop computers, mobile phones, super-computers, vehicles, etc.), user-experience design, human factors and ergonomics

 Among the threads of themes woven into the lecture are comments, answers, or solutions to these questions:

• What obstacles did I face? How did I overcome them?
• How did my upbringing in the Mid-West, or my years spent in Princeton, New Haven, Honolulu, Berkeley, or Jerusalem, or my travels in Europe, the Middle-East, and Asia, influence me and my work?
• What influences of the 1950s were most important for me? How? Why?
• What art and/or design ideologies most affected me or influenced me? How? Why?
• Which people (teachers, family, friends, professionals) influenced me the most? How? Why?
• What childhood experiences influenced me the most regarding my future career? How? Why?
• What particular incidents stand out as signposts of later interests, career activities, professional attitudes, etc.?
• Who were my major mentors or helpers?
• What made me interested in computers, signs/symbols, technology, graphic design, typography, and writing systems (e.g., pasigraphy, early interest in the history of the alphabet, learning Hebrew at an early age, comic book collecting, cartooning)?

Table of Contents:

Note: This organization is based simply on chronology and major periods of time in my education and professional career.

1. Introduction
2. 0-18 (1943-1961)
3. 18-22 (1961-65)
4. 22-25 (1965-1968)
5. 26-38 (1968-1981)
6. 39-46 (1982-1989)
7. 47-59 (1990-2003)
8. 60-65 (2003-2008)
9. 66-75 (2009-2018)
10. Closing (2018-2026)