What happens when you take an artist trained in computer science, and set him loose in a building with hundreds of top technology researchers? Microsoft is showing the results today with the opening of an exhibit featuring the work of James George, the first “artist in residence” at Microsoft Research’s year-old Studio 99 gallery in Redmond.
A University of Washington computer science alum, George is a computational video artist and an adjunct faculty member in New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. He has been at Microsoft Research on a three-month stint since August, working with the company’s researchers to leverage their technology into unique pieces of art.
For example, one of George’s pieces, called “Grip,” used Microsoft Research’s real-time 3D scene capturing technology to create an abstract interactive presentation of two human forms, which fall away from each other and then come back together when Kinect sensors detect someone approaching.
Another piece, dubbed Wall Queries (below), incorporates 10,000 images from Bing image searches. See this Microsoft Research article for more on George’s work.
