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Mehmet (aka Memo) Akten
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== Biography == (provided by http://www.msavisuals.com/about) Mehmet (aka Memo) Akten is a visual artist, musician and engineer based in London, UK. With a strong focus on traditional design methods and aesthetics, as well as programmatic design, generative systems and natural human-computer interaction, he utilizes technology to create emotional and memorable experiences. His work and research focuses on designing and developing tools to explore the creation and performance of images and sound; and constructing immersive interactive environments. Founder of the London based studio The Mega Super Awesome Visuals Company, his work ranges from large-scale interactive installations and performances, non-interactive visuals, to online works and mobile applications. Recently he has exhibited installations and performances at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Manchester Bridgewater Hall, Ars Electronica and Glastonbury Festival. He has also worked with organizations such as onedotzero, Aldeburgh Music, BBC Philharmonic, The Rambert Dance Company, Streetwise Opera as well as brands such as Adidas, Apple, Rolls-Royce, Texas Instruments and Toyota. Also an open-source advocate, a lot of his source-code and experiments are documented on his blog www.memo.tv. Memo was born and grew up in Istanbul, Turkey. Fascinated by the hacker demo-scene of the 1980s, he started programming music & graphics demos at an early age on the 8-bit computers of the era. In 1997, after completing a BSc in Civil Engineering, he moved to London where he worked in the video games industry as a designer / artist / programmer. Leaving the industry in 2003 to pursue more immersive experiences, he founded the London based studio MSA Visuals - the Mega Super Awesome Visuals Company - where he balances his time between personal work, collaborations, research and commercial projects with international brands. == Mission Statement == (provided by http://www.msavisuals.com/about) My work is motivated by an ongoing curiosity and research in creating emotional interactive experiences; and related to that: using the body to perform images and sound. The former is what really drives me: the challenge of creating an interactive experience so simple, yet joyful, with depth coming from a sense of discovery and playfulness - similar to the excitement and joy that young kids experience as they discover their environment. The joy of stomping in a puddle, or deciding to pour a bowl of spaghetti hoops over their head, or spinning round in circles for 10 minutes until they fall over. These are simple pleasures that quickly lose their charm as we get older, and I'm fascinated by creating fictional environments which can recreate these feelings in adults (and children of course!). I design and develop custom software and environments to allow people to perform or experience things that they would not in the real world. When I'm designing the software - in the virtual world - I'm not constrained by the laws of physics, and have full control over every aspect of everything; allowing me to shape the look, sound and behaviour of every object exactly how I want them to look, sound or behave. Often this does borrow a lot from nature and the laws of physics, but through this custom software I can abstract certain realistic aspects of the physical world and present them disguised in new and unrealistic situations. This is very important for me, as it allows people to connect with these new fictional environments: since everything is not completely random, they recognize a lot from the real world and they feel at home, they immediately understand what to do; but the setting is completely new which arouses the curiosity and sets them on a journey of discovery - a feeling we have when we are young kids, and have just started understanding the world around us, but with still a lot left to learn. Most importantly, I want to be able to control this experience in real-time, with my body, in what feels like natural gestures and motion so there is little or no learning curve to start interacting with it. I want you to feel like the directer of a film, shouting out commands to the actors and crew as they perform; or being the conductor of an orchestra, directing the musicians as they play; or being a puppeteer giving life to inanimate objects through your own acting. This enters the realm of Human Computer Interaction and Computer Vision. There has been extensive work and research in this field in the past and building on top of that I have been producing a number of full body interactive experiments, technology demos, games, musical instruments and other works. My main focus, is not to demonstrate the capabilities of technology, but to use it create something beautiful, emotional, something that will hopefully move you, or make you smile. == Education / Experience == (provided by http://uk.linkedin.com/in/mehmetakten) * Robert College High School, 1986 - 1992 * Bogaziçi Üniversitesi B.Sc , Civil Engineering , 1992 — 1997 2nd Award in final project "Automation of Reinforced Concrete Frame Structures" * Cavendish College Diploma, Computer Animation, 1997 - 1998 * Founder: The Mega Super Awesome Visuals Company (Motion Pictures and Film industry) May 2003 — Present (6 years 8 months) * Motion Designer / Flash Developer Fortune Cookie (Internet industry) October 2007 — May 2008 (8 months) * Design and Technology Manager: Deibus Studios (Computer Games industry) October 1998 — May 2003 (4 years 8 months) * Microsoft Certified Solution Developer Bilginc IT Consultancy (Information Technology and Services industry) March 1995 — August 1997 (2 years 6 months) == Generative Art Connections == To be added later == Generative Works == * Pi @ Glastonbury 2008 http://www.memo.tv/projects/pi_glastonbury_2008 * Roots info:http://memo.tv/roots_creating_and_visualising_generative_music_on_a_tangible_multi_touch_table video: http://flipmu.com/work/bricktable/what-is-roots/ * Depeche Mode - Fragile Tension (music video) http://www.msavisuals.com/depeche_mode_fragile_tension == Quotes and Bibliography == To be added later == External Links == MSAV (Mega Super Awesome Visuals) Company - Company Website http://www.msavisuals.com/ memo.tv - Personal Blog / Experiments Page http://www.memo.tv/ Linked In - Public Profile http://uk.linkedin.com/in/mehmetakten == Credits == This entry was written by Michael Davis.
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