Bio
BIO (a neat & tidy version)
David Nunez specializes in connecting the computer technology industry with education. David is a Cluster Director with The Capital Area Training Foundation where he facilitates relationships between high tech professionals and educators. While serving on the Board of Directors for EFF-Austin, he conducts programs that help students probe the ethical and social implications when developing and using technology. As a member of The Central Texas National Engineers Week Steering Committee, David's responsibility is to help manage recruitment of engineers who work with students. Mr. Nunez earned a degree in Computer Science from Rice University in Houston, Texas. (www.davidnunez.com)
These days, it is difficult for to to explain to people who I am or what it is that I do.
I am involved in multiple activities that are wildly divergent..
I have a Bachelor's degree from Rice where I explored Computer Science and Managerial Studies.
I worked for a series of software companies in Austin, Texas, including one that I was helping to startup. In February 2002, I was laid off for the second time in my short career. I was enjoying my work and my colleagues; even though we all knew it was coming, the timing was weird.
Surprisingly, it didn’t take that long for me to be offered a position with yet another software company.
However, in what was probably the boldest and scariest move of my life, I turned it and its extremely attractive, almost-six-figure salary down. In an economy that is hostile to software engineers, where better educated and more experienced programmers than myself are festering on unemployment lines for months or years, I know that this might seem to border on lunacy… so much so that I never really told anybody what I was doing or deciding for fear they would discourage me.
To this day, I only drop hints and purposely blur my activities because I don’t believe anyone will understand my rationale, my motives, or my vision. In fact, I have a long way to go to develop both the literal and emotional vocabulary I need to describe what I’m only feeling is right.
This web space will document this new phase of my life. For the first time, I am publicly presenting what has been brewing in my mind.
I think when I get going… when I start rambling to my friends about these things… I probably seem like a nutcase with a briefcase filled with chicken-scratched half baked ideas. So now, I suddenly have a tremendous opportunity for me to put my actions where my words are.
To pay the bills, I make a comparatively meager living as a professional intermediary for a non-profit organization in Austin, Texas.
My primary responsibility is to act as go-between for educators, the high-tech industry, learners, and government. I am a facillitator, but I also manage large projects and programs that involve multiple organizations (some very small, and some very large).
The intangible benefits from this job are overwhelmingly valuable:
- I have the opportunity to prove I can manage and organize projects.
- My job is about making connections. I am being paid to build my personal network with the right mix of individuals from all levels of organizations I will be involved with as I continue working on the Project.
- The job is immensely rewarding.
I’m also working very secretly on a technology startup. (actually 3 startups- but that’s really just a technicality related to taxes, intellectual property issues, and growth plans).
Finally, I am working on a Project which I hope will lead to the eventual fruition of my vision.
At best, I hope this experiment, davidnunez.com, will present the story of a vision coming to life.
At worst, it will document a painful decline of a madman.
Either way, it should be entertaining, no?
It was like taking a plunge in a cold pool- I just had to jump and not hesitate.
The opportunity cost for my decision not to be a programmer this year was obviously high, and it will be a hefty challenge to see if I fully realize the return on my investment… That requires me never to look back; the full focus of my effort must be on the here and now.
The Project
I am currently engaged in multiple art + technology + communication experiments that dominate the spare cycles of my mind. I have a vision for what must be. I expect that this will continue to plague my thoughts until I work them out and see at least parts of the vision become reality. For lack of vocabulary to describe what's going on in my head, I call this umbrella effort "The Project."
This page documents my progress as I conduct my exploration. Currently, I am only listing major milestones in the overarching "Project." There are many "in-between" experiments that I am currently conducting or plan to conduct. As I finish each tiny piece of the project, I intend to use this space and my web log to document my progress.
Here I give you my rough roadmap for the next few years. I fully expect this to change drastically as I alter my work based on what I discover.
IMAGES AND SKETCHES ARE FORTHCOMING to accompany each of these milestones. Also, these descriptions have NOT been through spelling or grammar checks.
I welcome inquiries about my work through email: project @ davidnunez.com
Approximation
Winter 2002
I don't know the origins of this description of infinity, but imagine a large, black rock the size of our universe. Every million years, a dove flies to the boulder and gently taps it with his wing.
The time it takes for the boulder to disappear from the wear of the dove's wing is equal to infinite time...
But not quite. It is actually an infinitely bad approximation because the dove, presumably WILL eventually destroy the rock.
I will build a metal, kinetic sculpture that will demonstrate this fable to pay homage to the futility of spending so many hours of my life on the work I am proposing.
The Windowless Office
Winter 2002
three mechanisms for making the cubicle more humane fusing nature with the workplace
Brainstorming Table
Winter 2002
In a meeting, the currency for participants are time and attention. I will construct a table with embedded microphones and input devices that will measure levels of participation for each attendee. Those individuals who are dominating the conversation will find themselves recieving less and less attention while the quiet members will get more attention.
Pathogen
Spring 2003
Pathogen is an exploration of what happens when groups of individuals with wildly different motives, interests, knowledge, and social abilities come together in a common space and interact. Human communication and knowledge sharing is modeled through software and visualized as an undulating wave of colors, icons, and binary numbers
On a side note, the imagery and visualizations from Pathogen form the current design for davidnunez.com
The 22 Experiments
Ongoing
The 22 Experiments are a series of prototypes, inventions, and art that will help guide my future work. Each experiment has a unique focus and theme. While I expect that many of these experiments will fail, I also expect that they will help me to determine how best to direct my energy for the remainder of The Project. I intend to continue experimenting and prototyping to hone and redefine my work, but the 22 Experiments allow me to kick-start the exploration.
whisper
Summer 2003
whis·per (whis"per) n. 1. Soft speech produced without full voice. 2. Something uttered very softly. 3. A secretly or surreptitiously expressed belief, rumor, or hint: whispers of scandal. 4. A low rustling sound: the whisper of wind in the pines. 5. A suggestion of things to come
whisper is an interactive environment that will house and display The 22 Experiments. From the outside, it will seem sterile and very much a typical art gallery. For a participant, the otherwise clean environment will be marred by bio-machine amalgams and the Experiments themselves.
Futhermore, whisper will be a demonstration of spatial relationships and their ability to affect communication between humans. The ceiling of whisper will consist of a grid of hidden, parabolic speakers and microphones that will bring new meaning to "selective hearing." The audio equipment, themselves mounted on robotic arms, will adjust the ambient noise and "cocktail" conversation in the environment based on feedback from strategically placed video cameras.
"The Robot Shows"
"RAKU" - Winter 2003
"four thirds pi r cubed" - Summer 2005
"rgb" - Summer 2010
I am interested in whether or not the souls of engineers can be felt through the machines they create. Theatre, as old as mankind, has been a medium of choice for connecting with and expressing human emotion. I will use this form of art as a means for testing my thoughts that the inherent beauty in machines traces back to their human inventors.
The robot show that I have dreamed about will require decades of effort and large amounts of resources. In the meantime, I propose a series of smaller robot shows, each building and testing ideas on a larger and more intricate level.
First, can a human operator express emotion through machines? Arguably, the world of puppetry and animation both revolve around making inanimate objects lifelike. In many cases, the puppeteer is the same as the inventor. Using multimedia displays, machine puppets, film clips, and even the randomness of audience names, "RAKU" will be a small-scale, caberet style performance which will explore the tension that occurs when the old must confront the new.
The second performance will confront the theme of individuals breaking through barriers of technology. One of my favorite stories is The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Milo, a boy who is bored with his world, encounters a strange tollbooth and accompanying car that appear in his bedroom one day. He soon finds himself driving through a strange world of words and numbers. He meets characters such as a half-dog/half-clock voice of reason named Tock and a nervous anti-hero, the Humbug.
four thirds pi r cubed is my take on The Phantom Tollbooth with heavy influence from Alice in Wonderland and The Matrix.
Think of this: Everything that you know in the world is only within arms reach. Those books on the wall... the view outside your window... you can see them, but you can't touch... The limit of your touch is your sphere of experience. The images projected just beyond your fingers change as you move your legs. Using algorithms to simulate changing perspective, objects appear to get closer and closer. Maybe you aren't moving at all.
Let's say this all is true. let's say you are living in a bubble on which movies are being projected that are changing as you move your body around to make it seem like you are getting somewhere.
Now imagine the trauma and enlightenment that would occur if one day the system broke and you somehow pierced your sphere. What lies behind that wall?
four thirds pi r cubed will use live actors, large machines, and simulations to demonstrate what I believe is between all of our spheres. A new Milo goes through an entirely different tollbooth.
Finally, rgb will be the final iteration of the smaller robot shows. rgb has a similar storyline as the previous show, but will focus more on how technology both constrains and liberates the individual. It will follow the adventure of Samantha, the Girl Who Would see No Colors. She, too, will cross into the nebulous in-between world and will open her eyes to new possibilities. My ideas for this show border on the impossible. I will need to construct and use optical illusions and technical theatre tricks to demonstrate my story as it currently stands in my head. This is a very long term piece of the Project.
