Aaron Koblin (born January 14, 1982) is an American digital media artist and entrepreneur best known for his innovative use of

data visualization Data and information visualization (data viz or info viz) is an interdisciplinary field that deals with the graphic representation of data and information. It is a particularly efficient way of communicating when the data or information is num ...

and his pioneering work in

crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...

, virtual reality, and interactive film. He is co-founder and president of virtual reality company

Within Within may refer to: * ''Within'' (William Joseph album) (2004), by pianist William Joseph * ''Within'' (Embraced album) (2000), by Swedish melodic black metal band Embraced * Within (company), a virtual reality content and technology company ba ...

(formerly Vrse), founded with

Chris Milk Chris Milk is an American entrepreneur, innovator, director, photographer, and immersive artist. He is co-founder and CEO of Within (Virtual Reality) (formerly Vrse), a virtual reality technology company, and co-founder of Here Be Dragons (for ...

. Formerly he created and lead the Data Arts Team at

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

from 2008 to 2015.

Biography

Koblin received his BA from

UC Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge of ...

and is a graduate of

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

's Design , Media Arts MFA program, and sits on the board of the non-profit Gray Area Foundation For The Arts

GAFFTA Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization supporting art and technology for social good in San Francisco, California. Gray Area hosts exhibitions and music events, software and electronics classes, a media lab, ...

in San Francisco. He was the Abramowitz Artist in Residence at MIT in 2010 and the Annenberg Innovator in residence at USC in 2013. Koblin's artworks are part of the permanent collections of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

(V&A), the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

(MoMA), and the

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

. He has presented at

TED TED may refer to: Economics and finance * TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar Education * ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association ** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey ** Transvaal Education Depa ...

, and The World Economic Forum, and his work has been shown at international festivals including

Ars Electronica Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in the ...

SIGGRAPH SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference on computer graphics (CG) organized by the ACM SIGGRAPH, starting in 1974. The main conference is held in North America; SIGGRAPH Asia ...

, and the

Japan Media Arts Festival The Japan Media Arts Festival is an annual festival held since 1997 by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. The festival begins with an open competition and culminates with the awarding of several prizes and an exhibition. Based on judging by ...

. In 2006, his Flight Patterns project received the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

's first place award for science visualization. In 2009, he was named to

Creativity Magazine ''Creativity'' is a website focused on covering the creative aspects of advertising and design. ''Creativity'' started as a printed magazine in 1986 but moved online in 2009. The website aims to showcase ideas across all areas of consumer cultur ...

's Creativity 50, in 2010 he was one of

Esquire Magazine ''Esquire'' is an American men's magazine. Currently published in the United States by Hearst Communications, it also has more than 20 international editions. Founded in 1933, it flourished during the Great Depression and World War II under t ...

's Best and Brightest and Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business, and in 2011 was one of ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' magazine's 30 under 30. Koblin was an Eyebeam exhibiting artist. In 2014, Koblin was awarded the

National Design Award The American National Design Awards, founded in 2000, are funded and awarded by Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New Y ...

for Interactive Design.

Works

* ''The Johnny Cash Project'', a music video for

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...

* ''This Exquisite Forest'', displayed 2012–2013 at

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...

's ''House of Cards'' music video with

James Frost James Martin Frost (born 22 August 1986) is the guitarist, keyboardist and backing vocalist of Welsh band The Automatic, and guitarist and backing vocalist for Cardiff-based band Effort. As well as his musical duties for The Automatic, Frost ha ...

* ''

The Wilderness Downtown "The Wilderness Downtown" is an interactive multimedia video coded in HTML5 and was published to show off the capabilities of the then new Google Chrome browser. Directed by music video director Chris Milk and involving the work of a number of Goo ...

'', for

Arcade Fire Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara. The band's current touring line-up also includes former core member S ...

's ''We Used to Wait'' * ''Three Dreams of Black'', for "Black" on Danger Mouse and

Daniele Luppi Daniele Luppi is an Italian composer and music producer who has been active since around 1999. He is an Emmy nominated film and television composer and has worked with the likes of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gnarls Barkley, and John Legend. ...

's album

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

References

External links

* - recorded March 2011
Work of Aaron Koblin

Creators Project Video Profile on Aaron Koblin
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Koblin, Aaron 1982 births American graphic designers People from Santa Monica, California Living people Information visualization experts UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture alumni