Orit Halpern
Dr. Orit Halpern is a Strategic Hire in Interactive Design and Theory and an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University. Her work bridges the histories of science, computing, and cybernetics with design and art practice. Her recent book Beautiful Data: A History of Vision and Reason since 1945 (Duke Press, 2015) is a genealogy of interactivity and our contemporary obsessions with “big” data and data visualization. She is now working on two projects: The Smartness Mandate, a history and theory of “smartness,” environment, and ubiquitous computing; and the tentatively titled Resilient Hope, which examines the forms of planetary futures being produced and destroyed through large-scale, high-tech infrastructural projects. Halpern has also published and created works for venues including The Journal of Visual Culture, Public Culture, Configurations, C-theory, and ZKM Centre for Art and Media.