Jeffrey Ventrella is a

digital artist Digital art refers to any artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process, or more specifically computational art that uses and engages with digital media. Since the 1960s, various names ...

programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

, and

researcher Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness t ...

. Ventrella was principal

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

and, with

Will Harvey Will Harvey (born 1967) is an American software developer and Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He wrote ''Music Construction Set'' (1984) for the Apple II, the first commercial sheet music processor for home computers. ''Music Construction Set'' w ...

, co-founder of the

virtual world A virtual world (also called a virtual space) is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a personal avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities ...

'' There''.

Career

Ventrella co-founded the

product There.com in 1998. Ventrella motivated the conceptualization and implementation of "

avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appear ...

-centric communication" at There. Ventrella subsequently worked as a Senior Developer at

Linden Lab Linden Research, Inc., doing business as Linden Lab, is an American technology company that is best known as the creator of ''Second Life''. The company's head office is in San Francisco, with additional offices in Boston, Seattle, Virginia a ...

, makers of

Second Life ''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Fr ...

. Speaking on the official

blog, former

CEO

Cory Ondrejka Cory Ondrejka was the Chief Technology Officer of Linden Lab, makers of Second Life. With Philip Rosedale, Ondrejka co-founded Second Life and played a significant role in the architecture of the product. After leaving Linden Lab, Ondrejka becam ...

referred to Ventrella as "one of the world's experts on avatars and 3D communications." One of Ventrella's core projects in Second Life was "avatar puppeteering," an area where he has also published scholarship. Ventrella is also known as the author of GenePool, an artificial life game demonstrating Darwinian evolution. He has published several articles in the artificial life community. Prior to his career in virtual worlds, Ventrella joined

Rocket Science Games Rocket Science Games was a video game developer and publisher that created games for consoles and personal computers from 1993 to 1997. The company released '' Loadstar: The Legend of Tully Bodine'', '' Cadillacs and Dinosaurs: The Second Cata ...

in 1995, where he prototyped games and designed the artificial life simulator Darwin Pond. Ventrella taught at the

Centre for Digital Media Centre for Digital Media (CDM) is a multidisciplinary graduate institution based in Vancouver, British Columbia. It offers a Master of Digital Media (MDM) program accredited by its four partner institutions, the University of British Columbia, Sim ...

at Great Northern Way Campus, in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

. He frequently appears on the Biota.org podcast.

Education

Ventrella holds a master's degree in Media Arts and Sciences from the

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...

and a Master of Fine Arts in Computer Graphics from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

Publications

* "Avatar Physics and Genetics,"

Lecture Notes in Computer Science ''Lecture Notes in Computer Science'' is a series of computer science books published by Springer Science+Business Media since 1973. Overview The series contains proceedings, post-proceedings, monographs, and Festschrifts. In addition, tutorial ...

, 2000 * "Evolving Structure in Liquid Music," The Art of Artificial Evolution, 2008 * "GenePool: Exploring the Interaction Between Natural Selection and Sexual Selection," Artificial Life Models in Software, 2005 * "Emergence of Morphology and Locomotion Behavior in Animated Characters," Artificial Life IV, 1994 * "Gliders and Riders" * "Evolving the Mandelbrot Set to Imitate Figurative Art"

External links

Link to Biota.org interview

Ventrella home page

Melody Ball

Gene Pool

Avatar Puppeteering

Divisor Plot

Birth of There.com

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ventrella, Jeffrey Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Video game programmers Syracuse University alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni