CHAR STILES
Experience:
Freelance GLSL Shader and Ray Marching Teacher at Duke University, CMU, Music Community Lab at NYU Tandon, Xi Fellowship at MIT, Parsons School of Design, Recurse Center, MUTEK, Hackers and Designers (NL), ArtCenter and CODAME
Created and taught part or in full a 4 part workshop series to introduce non-graphics programmers to learn how to write a small renderer in a single shader called a ray marcher. The series includes how to light the scene, use camera movements, and how to make transparent objects that refract light.
Jan 2019 – Present
Freelance Software Engineer at Looking Glass Factory
Creating novel rendering techniques for the Looking Glass holographic display. Working in a C++ codebase, working on an app that allows users to easily edit and upload 3D photos and videos to the display. Investigating new ML research for use in the Looking Glass, like infill painting.
September 2020 – present
Snap ML Resident at Snap Inc.
Created and trained an ML model using pytorch to use in an augmented reality Snapchat filter. Owned a filter from design to execution but working with the engineering team to create an efficient and unique filter. This was an awarded residency.
July 2020 – August 2020
Freelance Unity developer at Beside Digital
Created a demo on The Looking Glass display, created an AR app that ran on their enterprise Windows custom hardware setup.
Feb 2020 – March 2020
Research Associate at The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University
Created an augmented reality iOS application and deployed it to Test Flight, implemented an on-device classifier using CoreML. Under the supervision of Jessica Hodgins and James Duesing.
Fall 2018 – Fall 2019
Creative Technologist & Artist in Residence at the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry
Wrote graphics programs for artists, including AR apps, web apps, GLSL shaders and OpenFrameworks, also advised and created templates for students to use to create software art.
Fall 2018 – Summer 2019
Intern at Nvidia
Worked on a small team to create a web app for an on-stage demo about ray tracing. This entailed developing a drawing tool in Javascript and WebGL, as well as iterating on the storyboard of the demo.
Winter 2018 – Fall 2018
Junior Developer at Tin Drum, a startup in Pittsburgh, PA
Developed an AR iOS app among other components of an internationally exhibited AR short called Tartuffe. Worked on AR/VR pieces for St.Vincent and Crystal Castles.
Summer 2017
Researcher at the Community Robotics Education and Technology Empowerment Lab at Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute
Worked with their EarthDev Team on the Explorables project to create data visualizations with maps to convey compelling stories about the environment and humanity.
Summer 2016
Studio Assistant at the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry
Prepared class materials such as example work for lectures and gathers data to use by students by writing web scrapers.
Fall 2015 – Fall 2018
Intern for Artists Kevin Swioff and Lisa Park at New Inc.
Assisted on the creation of Swioff and Park’s interactive sculptural installation, Luma. Shown at Red Bull Studios, Chelsea, NYC. Assisted in the coordination of a team of installation assistants and production, designed and 3D printed parts for the sculptures.
Summer 2015
Intern for Artists & Programmers Kyle McDonald and Lauren McCarthy at Metropolitan Exchange
Scraped the web for content to use in a recurrent neural network, wrote data visualizations, organized files, created 3d models of installations for planning & fabricated prototypes.
Summer 2015
Intern for Artists & Designers Eroon Kang and Taeyoon Choi at Math Practice
Assisted in the design of hardware capsule and vitrine, fabricated the prototype, & wrote content for the team’s workshop TimeKeepers which was hosted by LACMA.
Summer 2015
CNC Router Technician at CMU ArtFab Labs
Assists students and faculty with routing jobs, prepares CAD & CAM files, maintains shop and facilities.
Fall 2013 – Spring 2016
SexEd Project Assistant at Open Engagement
Assisted video shoots and editing for SexEd’s Pleasure Workshop, which is encouraging a public discussion about sexual health and education, during Open Engagement, which is an international conference and platform for socially engaged art.
March 2015
Education:
Carnegie Mellon University
Bachelor of Computer Science and Art with a Minor in Media Design (Honors)
May 2018
Awards and Honors:
- Snap ML Grant
Summer 2020 - Clinic for Open-Source Arts Grant
Spring 2020 - Recurse Center Grant
Fall 2019 - First Place in DemoSplash 2018 Live Shader Compo
Fall 2018 - Small Undergraduate Research Grant
Summer 2017 - Frank-Ratchye Fund for the Art at the Frontier Microgrant
Jan 2017 - The Henry Armero Memorial Award for Inclusive Creativity
Jan 2016 - Frank-Ratchye Fund for the Art at the Frontier Microgrant
Oct 2015 - John L. Porter Sophomore Award
May 2015 - Fundamentals of Programming Competition Championship Round
Spring 2014 - Dean’s List
Fall 2013-Spring 2018 - High Honors Dean’s List
Spring 2013 - Carnegie Museum of Art – 2 Minute Film Festival Onsite People’s Choice Award and Online People’s Choice Award
June 2014
Select Exhibitions & Presentations:
- Performance at Github Satellite
Performed in Github’s online streamed conference
May 2020 - Performance at International Conference on Livecoding
Performed in Limerick, Ireland
February 2020 - Performance at DOKA
Performed with Joe Kresge in Amsterdam, Holland
August 2019 - Performance at Mattress Factory
Performed with {arsonist} (Danielle Rager) a livecoded A/V set
June 2018 - Visuals for VIA 2017
Performed live coding for artists Elysia Crampton (CAL), Haleek Maul (BGI), EMBACI (NYC), D0UZE (NYC), Anna Azizzy (PGH)
October 2017 - Apple Pie: An American Art Show at Goodyear Arts, Charlotte NC
Exhibited in show addressing the intersectional identities of American artists.
March 2017 - Power and the Soul at The Frame
Exhibited in show and talkbacks focused on intersections of diversity and social justice.
January 2017 - Weird Reality: Head-Mounted Art && Code at The Ace Hotel
Exhibited in salon and presented piece to the symposium in a short talk with collaborator Alicia Iott.
Oct 2016 - Incarnate at The Frame
Collaborated with Gwen Sadler on an installation two-person show.
Oct 2015 - Henry Armero Memorial Award Winner Presentation at The Miller Gallery
Presented VR piece with collaborator Alicia Iott.
Sep 2016
