Convergence

Project Leader

Yacov Sharir A native of Israel, Yacov graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem with a degree in ceramics and sculpture. He continued his studies in dance at the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance, the Bat-Sheva Dance Company and School, the Stuttgart Ballet and Ballet Theatre Contemporaine. A dual citizen of Israel and the United States, Yacov was the founder of the American Deaf Dance Company, which pioneered the inclusion of deaf artists in professional dance. He subsequently founded Sharir Dance Company, the resident professional dance company of The University of Texas at Austin's College of Fine Arts. Twice a recipient of NEA Choreographer Fellowships, Yacov received a 1989 Meet the Composer/Choreographer grant with New York composer Pauline Oliveros. Since 1978 he has been an instructor of dance for The University of Texas at Austin, where he received the 1991 Student Council Teaching Excellence Award. Additionally, he has served on dance panels and task forces for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Texas Commission on the Arts and the Mid-America Arts Alliance. Yacov has choreographed for companies such as Boston Ballet, Hartford Ballet, Dallas Ballet, Repertory Dance Theatre of Utah, Bat-Sheva Dance Company and Kibbutz Dance Company of Israel, and has created over thirty works for Sharir+Bustamante Danceworks. In the spring of 1996, his work was selected by the American College Dance Festival for presentation at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Yacov's choreography has been showcased at international festivals in Israel, France and at the Future Moves Festival for dance and new technologies in Rotterdam, Holland. In 1992 he received a two-year fellowship from the Banff Centre for the Arts as part of the Arts in Virtual Environments Project. Yacov lectures and conducts workshops throughout the world on the subject of arts and technology and was a featured speaker in 1994 at the National Endowment for the Arts conference, Art 21: Art Reaches into the 21st Century. Yacov's work was also featured in ACARTE 97 in Lisbon, Portugal and at the Man, Technology and Society conference in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1998, Yacov led a team of high school students, teachers, computer technicians and artists in the creation of Robo-City, an educational, interactive technology exhibit that was installed at Austin Children's Museum.

Team Leader

Wei Yeh A native of Houston, Wei graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BS in Radio Television Film with a concentration in New Media in 1999. Currently, Wei is continuing his studies in the Radio Television Film graduate program with a concentration in Convergent Media. In order to apply the ideas from his research, Wei founded Applied Bozonics, LLC, a pervasive technologies company in 1998. He feels that the technological revolution currently taking place is merely a glimpse of what lies ahead when established paradigms are pushed aside. With his background in HCI and design as well as practical experience in server and network technologies, Wei sees technology as something that is not supposed to be intimidating to the user. Rather, the technology should adapt to the individual’s need. His work seeks to redefine the way in which one views the world. This is especially evident in "Metaspace", his work in which GPS information collected over a period of time is transposed graphically to allow the view to explore the interrelationships between space, time and location.

Engineers

Andrew Litt Andrew has been interested in the sciences and technology from an early age. He has worked with computer / hardware interface systems since the age of nine, when he learned to program on his Apple //e. A high school and college internship at Automated Products in Irving, Texas introduced him to the worlds of embedded computers and control systems where he worked on hardware and firmware for a computer controlled dental porcelain furnaces, an automotive data logger, and a CAD/CAM milling machine. Andrew is currently on hiatus from the University of Texas at Austin Computer Engineering program to pursue his career in the technology sector as an applications engineering specialist in the Embedded Products Development group at Cirrus Logic in Austin. In his spare time he freely contributes to Everything2.com, the online knowledge database.

Marni Wilhite

Programmers

Brandon Wiley Brandon is a sassy Java programmer specializing in online communities and universal interoperability. His role in the project is making all of the parts talk to each other. In his spare time, he writes plays.

Steven Hazel

Visualization Artists

Erica Hiebner

Nestor Hernandez

Website

Dancer: Destinee Walker (left) - Destinee is currently a Junior at the University of Texas at Austin majoring in Dance.

Photographer: Michelle Herrin (right) - Michelle is a student of film production at the University of Texas at Austin. For the last three years she has worked on the crew for several local and student productions as a Production Assistant, Grip, Assistant Camera, and Production Manager. Prior to studying film, Michelle was a student of Architecture at UT. Michelle's work in film reflects her interests in Architecture and space, utilizing lighting and cinematography as her key means of expression.

Designer: Wei Yeh