Member Profile: Gustavo Alfonso Rincon
1. What do you do, and how long have you been doing it?
I am a New Media Architecture(s) practice based researcher. It has led to my work in Academia as a Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) for the AlloSphere Research Facility at the California NanoSystems Institute, affiliated with the Media Arts and Technology Program. I have been working with Dr. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin and the AlloSphere since 2009. This trajectory evolved from my Arts and Architectural academic and professional experiences as well as my interests in entrepreneurship and teaching.
My current work with DigitalFutures International, a para-educational organization with Founder Professor Neil Leach, Director of Doctor of Design Program at FIU Cofounder of DigitalFUTURES 2011 and ACM SIGGRAPH DAC as a committee member both center on research that focuses on creating dialogue as educational content to inspire the next generation of research/thought leaders.
2. What was your first job?
My first job was with my father working construction, assisting him in the making/repairing houses and townhouses, carrying material and toolboxes and assisting the laborers – all areas (carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, plumbers, and roofers). I am a third generation member of my family to contribute to architecture.
3. Where did you complete your formal education?
I completed my formal education at the University of California, Santa Barbara at the Media Arts and Technology Program with a PhD with a dissertation titled “Shaping Space as Information: A Conceptual Framework for New Media Architectures“ (committee members Dr. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, Marcos Novak, & Marko Peljhan), which was a combination of my previous terminal Master’s degrees from both the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Architecture and the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Fine Arts.
4. How did you first get involved with ACM SIGGRAPH?
I was invited to attend online talks organized by the Digital Arts Community Committee in 2021/2022 and then organized a talk in 2022 titled “New Media Architecture(s): A Speculative Vision of Change in the Arts, Design, & Sciences.” as well as participating in an exhibition titled “THE FUTURE PAST VS. COLONIALITY: Decolonial Media Art Beyond 530 Years” organized by Dr. Liliana Conlisk Gallegos.
5. What is your favorite memory of a SIGGRAPH conference?
In 2023, watching an ambitious project come to life after being invited to work on the 50th Anniversary Time Tunnel Project being brought in by Dr. Kon Hyong Kim, supported by Bonnie Mitchel, and then being a part of a team in the creation/production of the Synaptic Time Tunnel Installation along with my fellow UCSB research colleagues past and present a “super team” including many other university and industry partners.
6. Describe a project that you would like to share with the ACM SIGGRAPH community.
The Synaptic Time Tunnel Project evolved as part of the 50th Anniversary Time Tunnel Initiative and celebration presented at SIGGRAPH 2023, Los Angeles, CA – sponsored by AutoDesk. It was a large scale immersive virtual environment uniting many artists, labs (translab & AlloSphere), professors (Marcos Novak, Bonnie Mitchell, and JoAnn Kuchera-Morin) and researchers together to make a new experience for all of the SIGGRAPH community, located next to the Art Gallery.
7. If you could have dinner with one living or non-living person, who would it be and why?
I would like it to be two people Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari and discuss their roles as a collaborative team in the creation of their works Capitalism and Schizophrenia, A Thousand Plateaus, and What is Philosophy? – which has influenced my Arts/Design/Science academic research practice. I would like to know their views on the philosophical implications of all the new technologies of today – A.I., big data, quantum computing, and web 3.0. In hopes of gaining new insights on the Speculative Futures research work I am engaging in the hopes of bringing together a team of people that can continue making the world a better place through New Media Architecture(s) – Arts/Science Research Practice.
8. What is something most people don’t know about you?
I was born in Queens, New York City; raised in the Washington, D.C. area. I am also fluent in both English and Spanish and have lived in Bogota, Colombia and in five major metropolitan cities on both the East and West coasts of the United States.
I have been riding motorcycles for over 20 years and I was inspired as a young boy by my neighbor, a young teenager who was a Motocross champion. When I was a very small boy, he used to let me ride on the back of his motorcycle while he would practice his jumps and ride throughout the neighborhood including the vast woods next to our homes. It was exciting watching him dodge trees and jump over tree branches, holes, and all obstacles in his path.
9. From which single individual have you learned the most in your life? What did they teach you?
I would say this is another two person answer – Helen Frederick, who was my Art Professor at UMD and was the Founding Director of Pyramid Atlantic. And Dr. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin Distinguished Professor at MAT and Director/Inventor of the AlloSphere Research Facility at UCSB. Each professor was a mentor and changed my worldview by inspiring me to grow beyond my limits and to find the love of the Arts as a discipline with a potential to make World Change.
10. Is there someone in particular who has influenced your decision to work with ACM SIGGRAPH?
Kathy Rae Huffman, and Professor Liliana Conlisk Gallegos brought me onto the Digital Arts Community Committee in the hopes of continuing the tradition of making great exhibitions for the ACM SIGGRAPH community and the Public.
11. What can you point to in your career as your proudest moment?
Now, being a part of a team in a series of moments, I am proud to work with the AlloSphere Research Group and with colleagues that expand my imagination in Arts & Science research and in Media Arts creative research practice. I also work as part of the AlloSphere Team in creating Media Art – Immersive Virtual Environment as instruments, evolving from a series of Quantum Compositions inspired by lead artist Dr. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin.
Currently, the AlloSphere Team is working on Sensorium, a project initiated/inspired by the late Newton Harrison in collaboration with the Center for the Study of the Force Majeure, at University of California, Santa Cruz, scheduled to be presented at the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time (PST) 2024 “Art & Science Collide” at the Experimental Media Performance Lab (xMPL) at University of California, Irvine (UCI).