Curriculum Vitae
Education
MFA - California Institute of the Arts: 2000
Critical Studies (writing) and Integrated Media
BA - University of California, Santa Barbara: 1998
Religious Studies and Art Studio (digital art)
AA - San Bernardino Valley College: 1990
Religious Studies
Professional Experience
Instructional Technologist, Pomona College: 2005 - current
Maintainer of DARPA (Digital Art Related Program Activities)
Assistant Director, Machine Project: 2005 - current
Machine Project is an educational non-profit, existing to encourage heroic experiments of the gracefully over-ambitious.
Janitor, Betalevel: 2005 - current
Betalevel is located in a basement in Chinatown Los Angeles and plays host to various media events such as screenings, performances, classes, lectures, debates, dances, readings and tournaments.
Technical Coordinator, CalArts Critical Studies: 2001 - 2005
Responsible for maintaining technical resources for the School of Critical Studies, and direct responsibility for all facilities and equipment of the CalArts Writing Program. Duties include: annual budgeting and researching a wide array of software, hardware and audiovisual equipment; assisting graduate students and faculty in audio, video, and imaging software and hardware; design of Critical Studies promotional material, including the MFA website, print advertising, and event posters. Major accomplishments include: design, construction oversight and operational management of the Cube exhibition and studio space; connecting the MFA Writing Program to Los Angeles based cultural resources such as c-level/betalevel, machine project and superbunker; and focusing the Writing Lab towards the integration of media technology into the everyday practice of experimental writers.
Graphic Designer, NATPE: 2001-2002
Produced ad campaigns, corporate identity and marketing materials for a non-profit television member services organization.
Founding Member, c-level: 2000 - 2005
Part studio, part club, part stage and part screen, c-level created a wide array of projects and hosted countless fabuolous events in it’s Chinatown basement headquarters (re-organized as Betalevel in 2005)
MFA Writing Lab Director, CalArts: 1998 - 2005
Responsible for maintaining, upgrading, and facilitating the use of the Critical Studies graduate student computer lab. Duties include assisting students, managing lab assistants, researching and budgeting hardware and software, and consulting on school-wide technology acquisitions.
Research Residency, Liberal Education of Artists : 2000
A three week residency in New York City which examined cultural policy and the interactions of cultural institutions and individual artists with their communities. Research focused on more than thirty interviews with artists, poets, teachers, museum and gallery directors and academics. Major projects included a visit to high school students imprisoned at Riker’s Island and a writing workshop with recently released teenagers.
Freelance Web Designer: 1996 - 2001
Focus on large-scale arts projects, with sole responsibility for visual design, site architecture, back-end code and server maintenance.
Electronic Arts Technology Lab Assistant, UC Santa Barbara: 1995 - 1997
Responsible for maintaining a studio art computing facility and assisting the lab users
Production Director, KCSB FM: 1995 - 1996
Responsible for helping maintain UC Santa Barbara’s FM radio station, and for training station personnel in the use of audio production equipment.
Editorial Experience
Superbunker
A multi-nodular cultural research framework.
Research Director: 2003 - current
http://www.superbunker.com/
NTNTNT
A stylish book of net.artifacts published December, 2003.
Editor.
Trepan
Literary arts journal of the CalArts Writing Program.
Editorial board member: 1998 - 2001
Thresholds: viewing culture
Journal of art and cultural theory, based at UC Santa Barbara.
Editorial board member: 1995 - 1998
_SPEED_
An online journal investigating art, technology and networked culture.
Contributing editor and designer: 1995 - 1998
http://proxy.arts.uci.edu/~nideffer/_SPEED_/
Publications
Betalevel - site designer and webmaster
The website for a basement in Chinatown.
2005
Machine Poetics - site designer and webmaster
Site redesign for the Machine Poetics project.
2005
NTNTNT - editor and illustrator
A book of net.artifacts. 396 pages, 54 illustrations.
Published by the CalArts School of Art
2004
“Joker Runs Wild” - design, illustration and code
A web installation with Mady Schutzman
American Communications Journal v.6:3
Spring 2003
http://acjournal.org/holdings/vol6/iss3/schutzman/index.html
CalArts MFA Writing Showcase - publication design
A book documenting the graduating thesis reading of the CalArts Writing Program.
2001
“Paranoid Machines: Conspiracy Games and Desire Control in Tron“ - author
An essay for the Game-Art issue of the journal Switch which examines gnostic systems of control in game architectures and hypercapitalist mythology.
July 1999
current Switch: http://switch.sjsu.edu/nextswitch/switch_engine/front/front.php?artc=47 original v.12: http://switch.sjsu.edu/web/v5n2/index2.html
Trepan v.3 - editorial board member
Literary arts journal of the CalArts Writing Program.
2001
Trepan v.2 - editorial board member
Volume 2 of Trepan on the theme of “resistance.”
2000
CalArts Writing - site designer and webmaster
The website for the CalArts MFA Writing Program.
1999 - present
http://www.calarts.edu/~writing/
BlebNet - founder and co-founder
A website investigating systems of infomatic contagion.
1999 - present
http://www.bleb.net/
Microcosms- site designer, illustrator
Online version of an art exhibit which examined the University as a “curiosity cabinet.”
1998
http://microcosms.ihc.ucsb.edu/
Terminals 2 - site designer
An expansion of the first Terminals project into a website, CD-ROM, and book which included the final diaries of Kathy Acker, Bob Flanagan and Christine Tamblyn.
1998
http://proxy.arts.uci.edu/~nideffer/Terminals/t2/main.html
Thresholds: viewing culture v.11 - editorial board member
“Panic and Paranoia” issue.
1998
“Food Folks and Fire: interview with Kal Spelletech of SEEMEN” - author
Thresholds: viewing culture, v.11
1998
Thresholds: viewing culture v.10 - editorial board member
“Copyright, Fair Use and Appropriation” issue.
1997
“Fun No More: Appropriation for Profit” - co-author
Co-authored as/with “Wobbly”.
Thresholds: viewing culture v.10
1997
_SPEED_ v.1:3 - design and production
“Airports and Malls” issue.
1996
http://proxy.arts.uci.edu/~nideffer/_SPEED_/1.3/index.html
“Cultural Prosthetics: the Mutational Aesthetic of the Late Organic” - co-author
Co-authored with Gabriel Watson.
_SPEED_ v.1:3
1996
http://proxy.arts.uci.edu/~nideffer/_SPEED_/1.3/product/brown-watson/hex.html
Terminals - site designer
A conference and a series of art exhibits investigating death and technology.
1996
http://proxy.arts.uci.edu/~nideffer/Terminals/t1/
Conferences, Festivals and Lectures
narr@tive digital storytelling conference
NTNTNT: constructing a fragmented history of art, activism and technology.
UCLA Hammer Museum
April 22, 2004
http://dc-mrg.english.ucsb.edu/gradconf.html
Machine Poetics symposium
Symposium co-organizer.
Discussions of and presentations regarding inscriptive substrates and emergent poetic forms.
Events a CalArts and Machine Project, in association with Superbunker
March-April, 2004
http://www.superbunker.com/machinepoetics/index.html
Saturday School at NYU
Space Paranoids - performative examination of technology and paranoia
New York University
February 18, 2003
http://www.finishing-school.net/satschool/space.html
MemeFest
Infoporn, Memes, and Contagion - performative tracing of contamination and perversion
c-level, Los Angeles
Nov 1, 2002
http://www.c-level.cc/memefest/index.html
Genius Loci symposium
Discussion roundtable on issues of geography and technology in Los Angeles.
Southern California Institute of Architecture, Los Angeles
March 17, 2002
Liberal Education of Artists national conference
CalArts Northeast - presentation of the 2000 LEA cultural policy research residency in New York City.
White Oak Plantation in Yulee, Florida
October 26-29, 2000
Unnatural Acts conference
Space Paranoids - performative examination of technology and paranoia
UC Riverside
April 23-24, 1999
http://ideasandsociety.ucr.edu/acts/
Santa Barbara Noise Festival
Festival organizer.
Santa Barbara
1998
Undergraduate Research Colloquium
The Myth of Virtuality - performative examination of contemporary gnostic mythologies
UC Santa Barbara
1996
Undergraduate Research Colloquium
Scratched Silver: The Returned Gaze in Orientalist Painting - slide lecture
UC Santa Barbara
1994
Performances, Films, and Exhibits
page_space - installation and digital collaboration
A physical show and collection of digital work investigating substrates of inscription, co-curated with Braxton Soderman.
Machine Project, Los Angeles
Feb 28 - Mar 14, 2004
http://www.superbunker.com/machinepoetics/page_space/show_machine.html
LAMOO - software/installation
A textual Los Angeles with an adventure game interface, co-produced with Eddo Stern.
Genius Loci, SCI-Arc
Feb-Mar, 2002
http://www.c-level.cc/lamoo.html
Polyjewel - installation
Multinodular audiovisual installation using obsolete information technology.
CEAIT Festival, CalArts
2001
Orange - video
Video investigating the aesthetics of Empire in decay.
New Video Works, Side Street Projects
2000
Symptoms of Death - live weekly radio performance
KCSB FM, Santa Barbara
1993 - 1998
Genomes, Hearts and Flowers - installation and performance
Cafe Sienna, Santa Barbara
1997
The End Times - film and performance
Silent film with live sound accompaniment.
Reel Loud silent film festival, UC Santa Barbara
1996
Prosthesis - performative installation
Collaborative wide-area audiovisual event.
E.A.T. Lab, UC Santa Barbara.
1996
