DANMite,colloquium /Mark Danks
"From GEM to Electronic Arts"
A presentation of the highlights of Mark's professional journey beginning with composing computer music and ending in the video game industry. Along the way, he wrote GEM for Pd, worked at Xaos Tools doing pixel processing, and most recently is the Director of Technology on a new game for EA. Mark’s presentation will highlight the similarities and differences between academia and the technology industries, focusing on the integration of graphics and audio.
Bio
Mark Danks has been involved in composing and programming for many years. After receiving degrees from Princeton and UC San Diego in computer music, he began to incorporate graphics into his compositions. Mark created GEM, the Graphics Environment for Multimedia, a graphics system for the audio program Pd. Leaving academia, Mark has created virtual reality surgery simulators, procedural graphics programs, and special effects routines for film. He eventually found his way to the video games industry. At Stormfront Studios, he was the Technical Director for “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”. Now at EA as a Director of Technology, he has led the Central Technology Group, worked on The Godfather and Bond games, and is currently leading an engineering team on a next-generation game.