undergraduate researcher
aesthetics + computation group
mit media laboratory
sijia@mit.edu
hi. i'm a junior at the massachusetts institute of technology studying
computer science and electrical engineering. i spent the past 15
years of my education trying to run away from the visual arts, but i've
finally given up. this is mostly due to the good people of acg,
who have shown me that art can get along with science quite nicely.
currently, i'm researching non-photorealistic image rendering under the guidance of acg's director, john maeda. specifically, i'm using python and secret labs ab's python image library to render dynamic and illustrative 2-d images.* for this project, i've coded a drawing module in python, which is availabe for download here. in the near future, i'll be implementing the module to build a virtual cafe. this is all part of maeda's grand plan to take over the virtual universe. but i'll be taking my part one step at a time. the first few of those steps are documented below.
update: piquant chat (1.25.03)
work on my new baby, piquant chat - a virtual cafe, has begun!! here's my current vision for the cafe: a web-based chat environment where conversation molds enticing images that are shown to in turn mold the conversation. i hope to integrate the drawing module, psdraw, into this project as a means to automate the rendering of the cafe images. track the progress of this project by visiting the link above.
since getting pictures thrown at you is fun, but not entirely fulfilling,
the cafe shares the satisfaction of creation with users by letting them
post pictures they created themselves. to support this feature,
piquant chat will interface with the tree
house studio drawing application, which helps users draw to their
heart's delight, and the gallerea
image database, which helps users store and display their masterpieces.
the tree house studio and gallerea are in the hands of max
and allen, respectively.
to learn more about these rad guys and their projects, go the links
above. yeah, team!!
