Hi! I'm an interaction designer/creative tech/specialized generalist/educator/artist (depending on who you ask and when). I initially got into writing code as a means for creating interactive art. Later, while trying to do tangible & embodied interface research, I realised that our research artefacts were so bad and janky that I had no confidence in any of the results. So I learned to build better ones, which included a lot of programming. This made me pretty popular as a prototyper in our group of labs, so I got a lot of practice. Later (again) I learned more code for interactive art (again), and most recently I've been building sensors/equipment, analysis tools & interfaces, and prototypes for environmental monitoring (emission location and quantification). I learned on java and now mostly use c++ and javascript/typescript. Sometimes python if I really have to. I stumbled across this community on @Ivan Reese's LinkedIn profile haha and am glad to have found it! I'm only surprised I didn't join sooner. Regarding computer futurism - I've been dancing around the ideas of embodied interaction, tangible interfaces, and sensor-network-interfaces / distributed systems for a number of years. My experience in these fields mostly lies around fun and education. For example, using tangible interfaces to effectively increase cognitive bandwidth for learning by avoiding overloading the already saturated cognitive pathway occupied by sight and sound (touch uses different pathways). Or exploring how we might use (or recognize and avoid) embodied metaphors in computational systems as a tool of influence in persuasive gaming. Or how we might help others to understand and empathize with other cultures through embodied values and tangible artefacts. In the very near future I'm working on some fun things with blinky lights and simple interactions to be fun and silly and delightful. If anyone in AB/Edmonton is doing that kind of stuff, reach out! Here are some of my projects that might give you an idea of what I do: https://brendanmatkin.com/

Brendan! Long time no see. Glad you found your way here.

Hey Ivan! Me too. We should catch up soon.

I don't do blinky lights, but I love your stuff. And I'm in Sherwood Park. If you join #C01BKSG4ZFT there might eventually be enough of us for a meetup. 🙂

Thanks Jason! What do you do? I've joined - that sounds like a great idea

I write "rules as code" software for doing statutory knowledge representation in answer set programming for lawyers and other non-coder professionals. It's called Blawx. The live demo is down at the moment, but the source is at github.com/lexpedite/blawx.

oh neat! What does "seconded" mean?

The correct term is "Interchange". Basically, I am legally employed by my own company, but I have been assigned to work for the Government of Canada as though I was their employee, and the GoC pays my company the cost of my salary. It's an annoying workaround to their disastrous HR systems, which make it impossible to hire anyone in less than a year, and impossible "full stop" to hire people like me with unusual combinations of skillsets or job descriptions. There is no HR category and pay scale for "lawyer/coder".

Weird! So like a pseudo-contractor in effect but with the perks of full time employment?

Yes to pseudo contractor. If there are perks to full-time employment, I'm not sure what they are. 🙂 My pay and benefits are set by my company (which I own, and exists solely for this purpose), not the GC. So the perk is that I couldn't really get this kind of experience inside a government otherwise, I guess?

Haha potential for benefits and long-term stability I was thinking but I suppose that's up to you either way

Currently a one-year term with optional extensions. So stability and benefits are nowhere near actually having the job.

Haha so literally just contracting with extra steps. got it. Sounds like cool work though!

Yeah, I don't want anyone else's problems. If I could do this for the rest of my career I'd be a happy camper.

I'll send you a DM I have more questions!