CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIST JAKE MARSICO ON GOOD DOCUMENTATION, GOOGLE FLOWERS, AND PITTSBURGH'S SMALL TOWN APPEAL
Jake is a creative director and creative technologist focused on designing and developing interactive and immersive art and experiences. His interests lie in projects that embrace “calm technology,” in which people are less occupied by their personal devices and more mindful of their surroundings.
WHAT IS YOUR ACADEMIC BACKGROUND AND HOW DID YOU END UP AT DEEPLOCAL?
For undergrad I studied religion. But I was self-taught in programming and did interactive art on my own, and then went to Carnegie Mellon for a master’s in Tangible Interaction Design. That program doesn’t exist anymore, but at the time, there was almost no curriculum. It was like: “Here’s an open door to CMU; for three semesters take whatever classes you want.” It was pretty self-focused and self-driven. And soon after that, I was freelancing at Deeplocal for about four years while I was doing my own interactive art. I joined Deeplocal full time about three and a half years ago.
IN YOUR OWN WORDS, WHAT IS A CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIST?
It’s someone who has a strong understanding of technology or experience in programming or electronics, but uses that experience and knowledge towards creative ends. And so, on the job—at least a Deeplocal—that means a pretty good software developer, but also someone who is able to make a lot of creative decisions as they’re programming things, including micro-decisions on how something should work. It’s also someone who’s interested in the artful or beautiful use of technology as opposed to purely functional.
WHAT ARE THE TOOLS YOU USE MOST OFTEN FOR YOUR JOB?
Software-wise, I use TouchDesigner a lot. I use Visual Studio Code for programming, a lot of Node.js and Python. I use Photoshop, Illustrator, Rhino 3D. And then a lot of the creative work is done in Google Slides—putting together images and things like that.
WHAT IS A PROJECT YOU’VE WORKED ON THAT YOU’RE ESPECIALLY PROUD OF?
A project that I’m personally most proud of is the Flowers installation that we created for the Google lobby on 9th Avenue in NYC. I was in a creative lead role from concepting to installation. It uses real-time sensing and machine learning to respond to visitors and “blooms” according to their movements.
INDUSTRY-WISE, ARE THERE ANY TRENDS AND/OR EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES THAT YOU’RE EXCITED ABOUT?
I think advancements in pose estimation algorithms, like OpenPose or PoseNet, or all of the different iterations of that, are pretty awesome, and they’re getting better and better. That’s a big technology that I’m excited to see advance. It still has a lot of issues in practical use. Also, large-scale improvements in computing, and large-scale improvements in video rendering in general. That sounds kind of boring, but that’s something that makes everyone’s lives easier if you let the hardware take care of that.
ARE YOU WORKING ON ANY SIDE PROJECTS AT THE MOMENT?
Right now, my side project is my one-year-old daughter! But I used to teach the courses “Making Things Interactive” and “Reactive Spaces and Media Architecture” at Carnegie Mellon, and I used to take on some of my own commissioned work.
WHERE DO YOU LOOK FOR INSPIRATION? ANY RECOMMENDED BOOKS, BLOGS, ETC?
CreativeApplications.Net is a really great blog; it’s worth subscribing to. Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter—there are a lot of great creative technology conversations happening on there.
WHAT’S A FUN FACT ABOUT YOU?
When I moved into my current house, I built a mountain biking trail in my backyard.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT LIVING IN PITTSBURGH?
I like the size of Pittsburgh—it’s really manageable. There’s a lot of culture happening here relative to its size. It’s affordable compared to large, first-tier cities. And my family is here, and I like being around my family.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO BE A CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIST?
Work on your portfolio. That is my number one advice. That’s really what we look at when people come through here—it’s what have you done, and how have you thought through what you’ve done. And when I say work on your portfolio, I mean: create really amazing projects and document them to the level that they deserve. So, a great project that has poor video documentation, or it doesn’t have great photographs, is not particularly impressive.
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