John Crawford

John Crawford is an intermediate artist, performance director, technology developer and projection designer. He uses computers and video to create rich immersive environments for live performance, gallery exhibitions and public art installations. His research and creative work centers on artistic projects dedicated to providing diverse communities with engaging and meaningful opportunities for embodied interaction through advanced media technologies. He originated the Active Space concept in 1994 for the intermedia software framework upon which these projects are built, and which he has continued to evolve an develop for over twenty-five years. He is Professor and Associate Dean in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at University of California, Irvine, where he directs the Emergent Media + Design program. At UC Irvine, he founded the eMedia Studio, a distributed arts collaboratory in the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), and directed the campus-wide Digital Arts Minor program for nine years. Active as an intermedia artist since 1992, his work has been shown across North America and in Asia, Europe and South America. He has been a visiting artist and researcher at numerous universities and other venues in the United States, Europe, China, Japanand India. He is a frequent participant in transdisciplinary research projects connecting performing arts and digital media practices with computer science, engineering, and medicine. As a software developer, his credits include projects for Adobe, Microsoft and other companies. As a theatre director and actor, he studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York.