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Douglas Goodwin

Altadena, CA
dgoodwin@gmail.com
https://cairn.com

As a Visiting Assistant Professor of Media Studies at Scripps College and a Fletcher Jones Scholar in Computation, I integrate conceptual exploration with practical application, encouraging students to engage critically with technology and contemporary culture. My research informs my art, challenging and expanding the boundaries of perception and representation through technology.

Education

MFA, Experimental Writing with Integrated Media Minor
California Institute of the Arts (CalArts)

BA, Directing and Playwriting Emphasis, Chemistry Minor
Reed College

Academic Positions

Fletcher Jones Scholar in Computation
Visiting Assistant Professor of Media Studies
Scripps College, Claremont, CA
July 2019 - Present

Special Faculty in Experimental Animation and Critical Studies
California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Los Angeles, CA
September 2010 - Present

Lecturer
UCLA Design Media Arts
January 2024 - Present

Art Practice and Select Exhibitions

I make work about media fidelity, convenience, and human desire. My art has been described by Northwestern University’s Block Museum as exploring the blurred line between human and non-human, representation and abstraction, artifact and apparition.

"Companions" (2024)
Through their interactions, they challenge our understanding of what it truly means to connect and form meaningful bonds. Ready to discover the future of companionship? Meet your new best friends.

"Nearest Neighbor" (2023, with Rebecca Baron)
How far is humankind willing to go to invent tools designed to replace their understanding of the world? In this film, transhumanist AI technologies turn into ornithologists, resulting in some unlikely and absurdly comical scenarios.

"Artifact #1" (2009)
This video transforms Steve McQueen's action classic, Bullitt, into an abstract study of light and color where technology has an intimate relationship with paranormal reality. This is cinema that allows you to materialize the invisible and reveal our new perception from the visual to the visionary. (translated from the Ambulante program, 2015).

"Lossless ##3" (2008, with Rebecca Baron)
In Baron and Goodwin's Lossless series, the 'materiality' of the digital becomes the source-code for experimental execution. The artists' renditions of appropriated films are certainly not “lossless” (i.e., a copy of the original in which nothing is lost), but rather gainful: through various techniques of digital disruption — compression, file-sharing, the removal of essential digital information — the artists reveal the gain of a 'new' media, full of material forms ripe for aesthetic sleuthing. — Braxton Soderman

"Kerouac's Ear" (2008, Installation)
The teleprinter machine is monitoring chatrooms for writing that passes for Kerouac. When text of sufficient Kerouac-ness is found, it is typed onto the 100' roll of paper. Over the course of three weeks, the roll is filled and a new one is loaded into the machine. (Program notes from Moles not Molar, Philadelphia, PA)

"Nonsense nor Sensibility" (2004)
A handmade book using Stylometric analysis to mimic Jane Austen's writing style.

Select Venues:

  • Ambulante, Mexico DF, MX
  • Ann Arbor Film Festival, USA
  • BFI Film Festival, UK
  • CAVS, MIT, US
  • George Eastman House, NY, US
  • Harvard Film Archive, US
  • Los Angeles Film Forum, US
  • MAK Museum, Austria
  • Oberhausen Short Film Festival, DE
  • Toronto International Film Festival, CN
  • Visions du Réel, CH

Select Lectures, Workshops, Discussions

  • Doug Goodwin and Tony Manzella, Reading Ours, Los Angeles, US
  • Transportation Research Board, Washington DC, USA
    "Advances In Urban Transportation Data And Information Systems Using Smart Farecard Data To Support Transit Network Restructuring: Findings From Los Angeles."
  • Counter-Inaugural: Douglas Goodwin On Electronic Privacy, Clockshop, Los Angeles, US
  • Poetic Research Bureau @SEA ##5 – “IDEOPLASTY”, Los Angeles, US
  • Ear Meal Interview: One Half Hour Of Good Rap with Alan Nakagawa
  • Cinevidencias, Proyección y platica con Rebecca Baron, Douglas Goodwin, Paulina del Paso y Ximena Cuevas, Mexico DF, MX
  • Panelist, Reimagining the Archive, UCLA, Los Angeles, US
  • Looking @Cabinet, New York, US with CA Conrad, Wayne Koestenbaum, Eileen Myles, and Maggie Nelson
  • Dirty Bits Workshop, Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna, Austria

Teaching Experience & Curriculum Development

In my teaching, I aim to bridge the gap between conceptual exploration and practical application, encouraging students to critically engage with technology and contemporary culture. This approach supports students in developing both technical skills and a thoughtful approach to art-making.

My Computer Science and Media Studies courses at Scripps College consistently have waiting lists that outnumber the class size three to one, indicating significant student interest and demand for my courses. Students remark on my clear explanations, personalized attention, helpfulness in working through coding issues, and ability to create an inclusive classroom environment where they feel a sense of belonging.

Select Classes

  • Encoding Community Places: Aboriginal Songlines and Contemporary Sound Walks
    This course explores the intersection of indigenous knowledge and modern data representation, engaging students in creating soundscapes and XR frameworks.

  • Computational Textiles
    Merges data, computation, and fiber arts to explore innovative applications and societal implications.

  • AI for Experimental Animation
    This course introduces ways of thinking about AI that will produce a durable and critical philosophy of what these tools can be for artists. This includes working with AI for writing, previsualization, frame interpolation, motion capture, and tracking.

  • Creative Machines: Making Art with Artificial Intelligence (DESMA 160)
    Challenges students to redefine art through AI technologies, exploring creativity and authorship in the digital age.

  • Unconventional Computing
    Introduces non-traditional computing models, integrating scientific principles for innovation.

  • Introduction to Python and Visualization (MS059)
    Provides foundational programming skills with an emphasis on creative application and algorithmic art.

  • Data Structures and Algorithms (CSCI022)
    Offers comprehensive instruction in coding and algorithmic problem-solving. Serves as a keystone course for the Scripps' CS minor.

  • Computational Photography I & II (MS159 & MS160)

    • Part I: This class will study photographic technology from prehistoric times to 1976. Students will build photographic devices, reproduce chemistry, and make images following techniques ranging from archaeological optics, lensed cameras, all the way to the first digital sensor cameras. Activities include building camera obscuras, pinhole cameras, lensed cameras, and electronic light sensors. Students will use these devices to create projections, photograms, cyanotypes, and electronic images.

    • Part II builds on our study of cameras and representation and moves into computer vision, image processing, digital cameras, image segmentation, high-dynamic-range imaging, texture analysis and synthesis, object detection, and projector-camera systems. Course work includes implementing relevant algorithms and completing a final project.

Creative Code and AI Expertise

I am proficient in Python, Py5, p5.js, OpenCV, C++ for microcontrollers, ComfyUI, The Adobe Suite, DaVinci Resolve, and Processing. I integrate technology with art to push creative and technical boundaries.

Professional Experience Outside of Academia

Lead Developer for Web and Mobile
LACMTA: LA County Metro, Los Angeles, CA
June 2009 - June 2019

At Metro, I developed several digital solutions to enhance public transit services in Los Angeles. Key achievements include:

  • Led the creation and deployment of systems for real-time vehicle data sharing, facilitating strategic partnerships with major tech companies, including Apple and Google.
  • Managed complex data systems, processing over 133 million TAP card transactions. These efforts optimized transit services and supported data-driven decision-making, contributing to increased operational efficiency and rider satisfaction.

Professional Affiliations and Service

  • Member, Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA)

  • Judge and Mentor, Biodesign Challenge
    The Biodesign Challenge bridges art, design, and biotech to develop the first generation of professionals who cross disciplines, anticipate promises and pitfalls, and engage the public in dialogue about the broader implications of emerging biotech. I brought different teams of students to the BDC and helped to move their focus towards critical artmaking.

  • Computer Science Minor for Scripps College
    I co-designed and sponsored a Computer Science minor for Scripps College, providing students with a fundamental understanding of computers and some proficiency in computer programming and data management. This minor has a solid foundation in programming and mathematics, while allowing students to explore subfields of the discipline and/or connections to other areas of study.

References

Available by request.