BIO MAX KAZEMZADEH (as of 03/23/2020)
Max Kazemzadeh, PhD, MFA, is a Professor and the current Program Director within Art & Media Design Program, as well as the current Chairperson of the Art, Communication & Theater (ACT) Department at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. Kazemzadeh also serves as the current Director of the Gallaudet TinkerLab, a automated fabrication studio within the Washburn Art Building which is supported annually by a NASA Space Grant.
In Kazemzadeh's research and artworks, he uses a syncretic approach to investigate connections between art, technology, and consciousness in his research, experiments and interactive installations. For the last ten years his work investigated the influence constructed, semi-conscious interfaces had on human perception and interaction. Directly connected to elements within machine perception and sense-based recognition, his work feeds naturally into the focal point of his recent research, investigating the significance and value of errors within the process of one's perception and subject identification (via the senses) as essential contributions to creativity, inspiration, innovative thought, and learning.
Within the last six years Kazemzadeh has exhibited in nine international exhibitions (six of which were group exhibitions and four solo shows which spanned from New York City to Beijing, Madrid, Kefalonia, Manizalez, and his home city of Washington DC), has given four workshops and four artist talks internationally, curated an international exhibition, and acquired an ongoing annual grant from NASA to support a project and class he created which merges open source hardware and software to track, capture and transmit the data associated with the speed, altitude, roll,
pitch, and yaw of skateboarders as they move about a skateboard bowl (gifted to Gallaudet and his research, from the Kennedy Center's "Finding a Line" Project) in order to visualize that data in a projection on an adjacent wall. Kazemzadeh has also organized events, lectures, and conference breakout sessions connected to his research and creative interests at Gallaudet and the skateboard bowl. Additionally, Kazemzadeh has worked with a team at Gallaudet to design and develop the TinkerLab, which is a MakerSpace that contains automation and digital fabrication equipment for campus students, staff, and faculty to explore integration within their coursework and more. Kazemzadeh currently works with other Gallaudet knowledge studios on a range of research projects that employ technology within custom interfaces that investigate broad applications of American Sign Language in accessible, interactive, informatic and playful installation experiences for faculty, students, staff and visitors in public spaces on campus.
In Fall 2014, with artist and University of Washington, Pullman Associate Professor Reza Safavi, Kazemzadeh gave a workshop and exhibited the site specific interactive work "Dabarithms: Palm Wish" at ISEA'14 in Dubai, UAE. In January 2015, Kazemzadeh and taught a "Drawing Machines" hardware/computer vision workshop to Graphic Design students at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in the Hague, Netherlands. In February, 2015, Kazemzadeh exhibited at the Linda Jordan Gallery in Washington DC. Then in June, 2015, collaborating with UCLA Professor Dr. Victoria
Vesna, exhibited an interactive work called "Birdsong Diamond" at the New York Electronic Art Festival (NYEAF) in Fort Jay on Governors Island, which followed with performance in Times Square, and then again at the home of Linda Weintraub. Then in 2016, working in collaboration with Professor Safavi, Kazemzadeh completed and exhibited Beirithms '16 in Beijing, and then created and exhibited Madritmos '16 in Madrid at the Medialab-Prado during a invited residency there.
Kazemzadeh was referred by Roger Malina and invited by CPNAS (the Cultural Programs: National Academy of the Sciences) Director, JD Talasek, to serve as advisor to their monthly DASERs events.