Tag Archives: Dan Goods

Seeing stars with Dan Goods: NASA’s resident wizard of wonderment and REALSPACE exhibitioning artist

Dan Goods and David Delgado Refraction, 2014 on view in REALSPACE. Courtesy of the artists.

Dan Goods and David Delgado, Refraction, 2014; on view in the Williamson Gallery’s REALSPACE show. Courtesy of the artists.

What are you doing with your special moment in time today? This pointed challenge culminates an inspiring TEDx Talk by Graphic Design alumnus Dan Goods, who works as a visual strategist (aka resident artist) at NASA’S Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. Here’s how Goods answers his own question: “I’m creating experiences for people that give them a moment of awe and wonder about the universe we live in.”

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Science and Art collide in the REALSPACE exhibition at Art Center’s Williamson Gallery

Dan Goods andDavid Delgado Refraction, 2014 Theater light, water, custom electronics 19 x 25 ft., dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artists.

Dan Goods and David Delgado; Refraction, 2014; Theater light, water, custom electronics; Courtesy of the artists.

The painter Willem de Kooning once said that the idea of space “is given to the artist to change if he can.” And of the real, Robert Rauschenberg opined that a painting “is more like the real world if it’s made out of the real world.” Space in painting is measured on a scale that begins with deep illusion depicting what appears beyond the window of the canvas, and moves successively forward to tangible real tactility in front of the canvas.

Where an artist chooses to work on that illusion-to-reality scale can have meaning in and of itself. And the modern history of those choices can be viewed as a kind of archeology of existential change. The exhibition REALSPACE, opening October 4 at Art Center College of Design’s Williamson Gallery, is meant to reflect on how science intersects with that history. Poeticized by artists and studied by scientists throughout human history, the intractable reality of the natural world is examined by contemporary art and artifacts included in REALSPACE.

REALSPACE will be installed in the Williamson Gallery October 4, 2014 through January 18, 2015. The public is invited to an opening reception on Friday, October 3, from 7 to 10pm. Artists in the exhibition include Adam W. Brown and Robert Root-Bernstein, James Griffith, Dan Goods, David Delgado, Santiago Lombeyda, Rebeca Méndez and Jennifer Steinkamp. Artifacts and writings by James Ferguson (1710-1776), William Herschel (1738-1822), and Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), on loan from The Huntington Library, are also featured in the exhibition that combines works from contemporary art and science.  At its opening, the exhibition will be accompanied by a 20-page free booklet and, eventually, a 40-page catalog.

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Money magazine ranks Art Center grads among the most employable in the nation

 

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Alumnus Dan Goods, Visual Strategist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, stands with “Refraction,” an artwork he created with fellow alum David Delgado.

An Art Center education doesn’t come cheaply. It requires a high-deposit, high-return investment of resources, tapping reserves of creativity and cash. But Art Center students know these initial sacrifices will pay off down the road when they emerge with an education custom designed to equip them for creatively and financially fulfilling careers. Money magazine reinforced the College’s reputation for boosting its grads’ professional prospects this week when it ranked Art Center third on its list of 25 of the best college values.

In response to millions of parents seeking colleges that strike a balance between affordability and professional prestige  and training, Money devised a new tool to measure a college’s ROI.  The new ranking places Art Center at number three on its “Value All-Star” list since, according to the editors’ careful calculations, Art Center alumni exceed expectations when it comes to earning. Money found that our grads take home an extra $12,000 per year early in their careers, using criteria based on three equally weighted categories: quality, affordability and career outcomes. The magazine defines outcomes almost entirely in terms of how much students earn after graduation.

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Art Center in the News: February-March 2014

Maggie Hendrie on the set of TakePart Live

Maggie Hendrie on the set of TakePart Live

Art Center students, faculty, staff and alumni have been making news while making their mark at on the art and design worlds. For those who may have missed a headline or two, we curated this handy highlight reel of our recent media clips:

Don’t miss two lengthy, live interview segments we arranged for Interaction Design Chair, Maggie Hendrie and ACCD student Alex Cabunoc on the new cable program TakePart Live—a show tailored to Millennials (age 18-34) that reaches 40 million-plus households through Participant Media’s Pivot TV network. (Participant Media is the award-winning, socially and politically progressive production company responsible for An Inconvenient TruthThe CoveLincoln, among other enlightening and edifying films and TV shows).

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Of one minute wonders and sustainable paper planes: February’s Art Center alumni notes

Hiroshi Sugimoto's design for for his museum complex in Odawara, Japan

Hiroshi Sugimoto’s design for for his museum complex in Odawara, Japan

From art installations inspired by NASA’S space oddities to a self-styled museum in Japan: Art Center alums have been busy in February. Read on for more details about last month’s alumni accomplishments, including Designmatters’ new alumni engagement efforts.

News

Dan Goods GRPK 02 was featured in a story on Yahoo News about his work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).  Yahoo

Satyendra Pakhalé PROD 94 discussed his design process and curiosity in a One Minute Wonder video. One Minute Wonder

Hiroshi Sugimoto PHOT 74 has announced plans to design and build a new museum for his work, the Odawara Art Foundation, which will be located in Odawara Japan. Wall Street Journal Blog

Jennie Warren PHOT 05 collaborated with Welsh singer Cate Le Bon and illustrator Erin Althea and on a series of promotional images for Cate’s upcoming tour. Erin Althea’s Blog

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Spacing out with NASA resident artist (and Art Center alum) Dan Goods

Dan Goods drilled a hole in a grain of sand to illustrate the Milky Way's small size in relation to the universe

Dan Goods drilled a hole in a grain of sand to illustrate the Milky Way’s small size in relation to the universe

Rebecca Gross is a writer-editor for the National Endowment for the Arts.This article was provided to Live Science in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts for Live Science’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

When Dan Goods was studying graphic design, he figured he’d probably end up at an ad agency or some sort of commercial corporation. But these days, he tackles bigger artistic concerns than choosing an appropriate typeface, layout and color. Much bigger. Like Jupiter-sized big.

For the past 10 years, Goods has worked as a visual strategist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. He works to translate the technical, data-driven language of JPL’s missions into engaging, public-friendly works of art. When negotiating his position, the original idea was that Goods would create visualizations communicating JPL’s work. But the artist pushed back: He didn’t want people simply to see the universe; he wanted them to feel it.

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Art Center, Caltech and NASA JPL Team Up to Explore Data Visualization

A still from artist Jer Thorp's "Just Landed" (2009), a work that visualizes tweets from air travellers.

A still from artist Jer Thorp’s “Just Landed” (2009), a work that visualizes tweets from air travellers.

On Thursday, May 23, Art Center, Caltech and NASA JPL hosted From Data to Discovery, a one-day symposium on the emerging science of big data visualization that attracted leaders of the field from across the nation.

Speakers included Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg, co-leaders of Google’s “Big Picture” visualization research group in Cambridge, Mass., Jer Thorp, an artist and cofounder of the New York-based multidisciplinary research group The Office for Creative Research, and Golan Levin, an artist and director of The Frank Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University.

Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium was packed with approximately 500 members of the art, design and scientific communities eager to engage in a discussion on how data visualization has transformed from a mere means of representation into a tool for discovery.

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Art Center Faculty and Alum Dive in to The Aquarium of the Pacific Series on Art, Science and Environment

The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif. will feature presentations by Art Center faculty members and an alumnus as part of its upcoming Aquatic Academy. Integrating art and science in order to enhance environmental communication, the Aquatic Academy offers a series of evening classes that foster dialogue on issues related to the ocean and environment.

Professor and Director of Sustainability Initiatives Heidrun Mumper-Drumm will be speaking on Thursday, April 25 from 7 to 9:30 p.m., while Vice President of Designmatters Mariana Amatullo and Alumnus Dan Goods, visual strategist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will speak on Thursday, May 9 from 7 to 9:30 p.m. The series of four evening classes will explore how art, design and science can intersect to create and deliver powerful environmental messages.

Long Beach Aquarium

Art Center faculty will be speaking at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific.

Jerry Schubel, president and CEO of The Aquarium of the Pacific, says Goods, Mumper-Drumm and Amatullo bring an ideal combined expertise in the areas of engineering, design, visual communications and sustainability.

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In Case You Missed It

As we return from break we thought it would be a good time to check in on what is going on with Art Center alumni, students and faculty.

The Williamson Gallery’s current exhibition, Worlds was featured in The Los Angeles Times. Haven’t seen it yet? You’re in luck. The exhibition has been extended through January 29, 2012.

Art Center was well represented in the December issue of THE Pasadena Foothills Magazine. The magazine’s cover story, 50 Creative People 2011, featured President Lorne Buchman and recognized faculty and staff members Mariana Amatullo, Dan Gottlieb, Penny Herscovitch, Karen Hofmann, Stephen Nowlin and Geoff Wardle; student Holly Wren Hofgaarden; and alumni Edgar Arceneaux, Dan Goods and Steve Roden. The issue can be read here.

Student Maria Meehan received a 2011 Bill Bernbach Scholarship, earning herself $5,000 to put towards tuition. The scholarships are made possible through the Bill Bernbach Diversity Scholarship Fund, established in 1998 by DDB Worldwide to provide financial assistance to creatively talented, culturally diverse students seeking an education in copywriting, art direction and design.

Jayne Vidheecharoen demonstrating her Portals project

Media Design student Jayne Vidheecharoen, whom we’ve covered previously,  is still creating an Internet buzz around her Portals alternate reality project, funded by Kickstarter. We found her project covered here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Transportation Design Chair Stewart Reed participated as a jury member for The Michelin Challenge Design. The jury made final selections based on the theme, “City 2046: Art, Life and Ingenuity.” More than 200 projects, submitted by more than 1,700 registrants representing 88 countries, were reviewed. The jury selected the work of 27 participants for display at the 2012 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit.

Alumnus Christopher Chapman, formerly with BMW, was hired as chief designer of the Hyundai Design Center in Irvine, California.

Alumnus Eric Tu, co-founder and creative talent curator at F360, a studio with offices in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, was interviewed by Studio Daily.

Alumnus Matt Cunningham’s role as designer of the interior train car shots for the thriller “Source Code” was explored in the Aiken Standard.

3×3 Tonight!

Don’t miss tonight’s lecture, hosted by the Graphic Design Department: 3×3: Transmedia Design: Communication Design Across Space, Time and Behavior.

Hear from three pioneers who navigate uncharted communication design territory. They engage space through narrative environments, engage time through motion and behavior programming and engage language in traditional and interactive formats and combine all of this into compelling transmedia design.

Tonight’s lecture features:

Aaron Koblin, an artist specializing in data visualization. His work has been recognized by the National Science Foundation, and is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Koblin is technology lead of Google’s Creative Lab in San Francisco, and shows work at international exhibitions and galleries.

Dan Goods, visual strategist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he has drilled a hole into a grain of sand, created installations out of aerogel, and is currently trying to put an object on a spacecraft going to Jupiter. In the evenings he works on commissions, such as eCloud.

Brad Bartlett, who earned his master’s degree in design from Cranbrook Academy of Art. His work at Cranbrook exploring the relationship of media and culture was presented at MIT and Fabrica of Benetton in Italy. He was selected as New Visual Artist by Print Magazine before establishing a small, multidisciplinary design studio in Los Angeles in 1999. In Art Center’s Graphic Design program, he teaches the wildly successful Typography 4: Transmedia studio.

The lecture, held in the L.A. Times Media Center, begins at 7 p.m. and is open to the public.

3×3: Transmedia Design: Communication Design Across Space, Time and Behavior
Thursday, Feb. 24, 7-9 p.m.
L.A. Times Media Center