Portfolio Quick Access

Ari J. Hollander Creative Director * World Designer * Technical Art Director * Project Manager Digital Artist * Mad Scientist

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817 16th Avenue * Seattle, WA 98122 * (206) 322-7774 * ari@Imprint IT.com * http://www.firsthand.com/ari

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Education

M.S.E. Virtual Environments and Advanced Interface Technology, University of Washington, 1994

Thesis topic: An Exploration of Virtual Auditory Shape Perception. In a series of psychoacoustical experiments I demonstrated that people could identify shapes and letters "drawn" in 3D virtual sound.

B.A. Astrophysics, University of California at Berkeley, 1991

• Thirteen years of leading design, content development, and programming in real-time 3D simulation, games and virtual reality on platforms including the Unreal Engine, Sense8, VPL, and proprietary game engines.
• 3D modeling, level design, art tools design, interface design, game design, and technical art direction.
• Fluent in numerous digital content applications including: Maya & Photoshop.
• Project and personnel management across technological and artistic disciplines.
• Programming experience with MEL, C, Lisp, Visual BASIC, JavaScript, and some Java, C++, and C#.
  

Imprint Interactive: Virtual World Architect (2003-Present)

• Design and Construction of several pain control and post-traumatic stress disorder therapy applications using immersive virtual reality.  Some of this work has appeared in the MIT Technology Review and the August 2004 issue of Scientific American magazine. I am also working on the sequel to the application featured in the October 2003 WIRED magazine .

Microsoft Game Studios (ironWorks): Designer/Program Manager (2002-2003)

• XBox Level and game design on the Gemini and Redemption projects.
• Team specialist on Unreal content development, training artists and programmers in UnrealEd and the art pipeline..
• Wrote the specification and designed interfaces for a proprietary level editing system for XBox development.
• Wrote art tools, process automation tools, and the front-end for the Maya exporter using MEL.

Explorati, Inc.: Director of Artistic Technology (2001-2002)

• Directed 3D content development for prototype story-based massively multi-user game system using Unreal technology.
• Managed artists and contractors and facilitated communication between art and engineering groups.
• Filled in as lead 3D modeler, level designer, supplementary animation rigger, and technical artist.

BookAlive.Com: Co-Founder and Director of Emerging Technologies (1999-2000)

• Played multiple roles as necessary in growing the company from concept to twenty employees on two continents. These included: interviewing and hiring of key personnel, art direction, project management, software development, and system administration.
• One of two principal architects of a realtime 3D web application involving thousands of objects generated dynamically from a database back-end.
• Served as Art Director, programmer, and lead 3D modeler.

Cornish College of the Arts: Instructor (Fall 1999)

• Taught and developed Physics course: The Physics of Light and Color supplementing lectures with a web site.

Firsthand LLC: Principal and Technical Director (1995- 1999)

• Technical lead on projects involving concept development, educational efficacy analysis, and interface research, design, and evaluation for a variety of client companies including: Disney Interactive, Disney Imagineering, Edmark, Hewlett-Packard, and Sierra.
• Lead development of Groupmind: a realtime 3D spacecraft simulation for Boeing executive training. This system allows 100 people to collectively control the spacecraft from networked computers.
• Built experimental applications for testing the efficacy of using VR in implicit race-bias assessment, pain distraction for burn victims, and treatment of phobias. The latter appeared in an episode of Scientific American Frontiers.
• Technical lead, co-author, and instructor for Virtual Reality Adventures summer camp
• Designed and constructed real-time 3D application: The Atomic Kitchen: a web browser-integrated atomic physics lesson

• Directed technology and applications development of the $1.2M Virtual Reality Roving Vehicles project
• Developed and delivered seminars for students, professional staff, and educators in Virtual environment design and 3D modeling in Alias Studio
• Designed and constructed educational virtual environments:

• Global Change : a multi-participant virtual environment and ecological simulation
• The Virtual Atom : a virtual environment for teaching high school atomic physics
• Coordinated the design and construction of more than fifteen virtual environments co-developed with 4-12th grade students at twenty public schools as part of a world-building curriculum

• Designed and implemented a Macintosh application for use by 4-12th grade students to generate virtual object behavior and interaction code with a simple graphical user interface
• Awarded WTC grant to form Alternative Input Systems Group to develop new input systems for virtual environments. Invented a surface-based 5-DOF input and direct-manipulation system.

• Surveyed current and emerging technologies in VR training
• Constructed relational databases detailing feasible virtual environment training applications

• Wrote master's thesis exploring shape perception in the auditory domain via psychoacoustic experiments. Experimental process employed computer controlled spatial sound and automated data-gathering.
• Developed several novel virtual environment applications and performed realtime 3D interface research:

• Virtual Lunar Lander: A VR version of the classic arcade game using parametrically generated terrain and force dynamics. Performed usability testing and analysis.
• Crystallize: A multi-sensory scientific "perceptualization" tool for understanding crystal lattice structures. Crystallize allowed you to hear the parts of the lattice that you could not see.
• The Flight Desk: A 6-D navigation system with a hybrid physical and virtual interface.

• Worked on more than seven shipped titles (12 or more if you count incidental work and foreign language versions).
• Tested and critiqued interactive educational laser disk and award-winning computer games
• Assisted production of Commodore Amiga version of The Secret of Monkey Island
• Contributed Textual and Graphical elements for Nintendo version of the Star Wars Hint Book
• Performed voice work for a prototype CD audio version ofThe Secret of Monkey Island

• Designed and created processed digital video effects, and two and three-dimensional computer animation for large-screen projection in Grateful Dead 1990 Summer Tour
• Awarded Gold Record for cover art on Grateful Dead album: Built To Last

Winn, W.D., Hoffman, H., Hollander, A., Osberg, K., Rose, H., & Char, P.,(June, 1999). Student-built Virtual Environments. Presence. M.I.T Press. Boston, MA

Rose, H., Osberg, K., & Hollander, A. (1999).Taking Charge of Technology. LNT Perspectives. Online publication.

Osberg, K., Winn, W., Rose, H., Hollander, A., Hoffman, H., Char, P. (1997). The Effect of Having Grade Seven Students Construct Virtual Environments on Their Comprehension of Science. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, March 1997. [HTML]

Hoffman, H.G., Groen, J., Rousseau, S., Hollander, A.,Winn, W., Wells, M., & Furness III, T. (1996). Tactile Augmentation: Enhancing Presence in Virtual Reality with Tactile Feedback from Real Objects. Presented at the Meeting of the American Psychological Society, Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Society. [HTML]

Hollander, Ari J. (1994). An Exploration of Virtual Auditory Shape Perception. Master's Thesis, University of Washington. [HTML]

Hollander, Ari J., & Furness, Thomas A. (1994). The Perception of Virtual Auditory Shapes. Proceedings of the International Conference on Auditory Displays. November, 1994. [HTML]