Digital Arts and New Media: MFA: Collaboration, Innovation, Social Impact

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Warren Sack

Program Director, Digital Arts and New Media, 2010-12 and Sp 2014-
Professor
Film and Digital Media

"My area of research is social computing. Work in social computing explores two issues: (A) How can the insights of social theory be incorporated into and used to critique and evaluate software? and, (B) How can new media be designed to address social problems? Current and past projects include new technologies for the news, Open Source software development, locative media, computer-supported translation, systems for visualizing and facilitating online discussions, and the design and analysis of learning environments. My work has been supported by the National Science Foundation and shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and, the ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany. Before joining the faculty at UC Santa Cruz, I was an assistant professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information where I directed the Social Technologies Research Group. I have also been a research scientist at the MIT Media Laboratory, and a research collaborator in the Interrogative Design Group at the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies. I earned a B.A. from Yale College (Computer Science and Psychology) and an S.M. and Ph.D. from the MIT Media Laboratory. More about my current work can be found at this website: http://hybrid.ucsc.edu/SocialComputingLab/

Research Interests: 

Warren Sack is a software designer and media theorist whose work explores theories and designs for online public space and public discussion. His field of expertise is social computing. As a field of research, social computing explores two issues: (A) How can the insights of social, critical, cultural, and media theory be incorporated into and used to critique and evaluate software? and, (B) How can new media be designed to address outstanding social and political issues? Current and past projects include work in news media, Open Source software development, locative media, computer-supported translation, systems for visualizing and facilitating online discussions, and the design and analysis of network-based learning environments.

Selected Presentations: