NYU-Poly Professor Named 2013 World Technology Award Finalist

Brooklyn, New York—R. Luke DuBois, an assistant professor of Integrated Digital Media at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) and director of its Brooklyn Experimental Media Center, has been named a finalist for a 2013 World Technology Award in the arts category. The winners will be announced at a black-tie gala and ceremony at the Time & Life Building in New York City on the evening of November 15, at the conclusion of the two-day 2013 World Technology Summit.

DuBois is among the individuals who are, in the opinion of the fellows and founding members of the World Technology Network (WTN), doing innovative work of the greatest likely long-term significance in their fields.

Among the works DuBois has created are “Hindsight is Always 20/20,” a 2008 piece that uses the familiar format of eye charts to present a statistical analysis of State of the Union Addresses throughout history, thus illuminating the rhetoric and priorities of our presidents, and “A More Perfect Union,” a 2011 work for which he downloaded 16.7 million profiles from dating sites to analyze the words single Americans use to identify themselves. Exhibitions of his work have been seen at such venues as the Insitut Valencià d’Art Modern, in Spain; the 2008 Democratic National Convention, in Denver; the San Jose Museum of Art; the National Constitution Center, in Philadelphia; and the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art. He has collaborated on interactive performances, installations, and music productions with many artists and organizations, including Toni Dove, Matthew Ritchie, Todd Reynolds, Michael Joaquin Grey, Elliott Sharp, Michael Gordon, Maya Lin, and Bang on a Can, and he can be heard on some 25 albums.

DuBois is currently preparing for his first major solo museum exhibit, which will be on display at The John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art, in Florida, from January 31 to May 4, 2014. “Now,” as the exhibit will be titled, will include the premiere of a new video work created by the artist while in residence at The Ringling and will focus on the historical links between the Ringling legacy and the collective performance experience of the circus.

“We congratulate Professor DuBois for being recognized among the artists whose work will influence creativity for years to come,” said Katepalli R. Sreenivasan, NYU-Poly president and dean of NYU engineering. “Professor DuBois brings a unique vision and eclectic blend of artistry and technology to our students and institution, as well as to his wide audience. We are proud to count him among our community.”

DuBois serves as an academic co-director to NYU-Poly’s Integrated Digital Media program, which is part of the Institute’s Department of Technology, Culture and Society. Its students explore the field of digital media in a holistic way, in practices that range from interaction design to performing arts research to photography, film, audio, and 3-D graphics, to games, app development, software design, computer programming, and human-computer interfaces.

The Brooklyn Experimental Media Center, which DuBois directs, perform research that is implicitly interdisciplinary and outward-facing, working with various departments and programs within the school and in partnership with outside organizations ranging from city agencies to performing arts centers to non-profit organizations. Its research goals are to combine the best of experimental practices in the creative and scientific community to create synergistic areas of inquiry that look at media as a creative practice in an engineering context.

The center is located in the new Media and Games Network (MAGNET) facility, which brings together NYU faculty members whose teaching and research bridge technology and culture; its focus includes games as a creative art form, game design, digital media design, computer science, and engineering. DuBois is one of a team of faculty leaders of MAGNET.

The WTN is a curated membership community comprised of the world's most innovative individuals and organizations in science, technology, and related fields. The organization and its members are focused on exploring what is imminent, possible, and important in and around emerging technologies. The World Technology Awards are presented by the group each year to the outstanding innovators from each sector within the technology arena, both as a way to honor those individuals and as a vetting mechanism to determine the newest WTN members.

“I'm deeply honored to be a finalist in the WTN awards this year,” DuBois said. “More importantly, it's incredible that WTN and its partners put the arts on the same level as innovations in biotechnology, education, space research, and other fields that we more traditionally associate with STEM disciplines [science, technology, engineering and mathematics].  I'll be proudly representing NYU-Poly and NYU at the event.”