Don Undeen
Culture, Tech, Makerspaces
About

Makerspace builder, innovation consultant, new media artist, educator. Manager of the Maker Hub, Georgetown University's makerspace. Former Founding and Senior Manager of the MediaLab at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.


Hi! I get up to all sorts of trouble, but in a nutshell I do creative and help others do creative.

I'm the Founding Manager of the Maker Hub at Georgetown University.

I was the Founding and Senior Manager of the MediaLab at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2012 I was tasked with establishing a space for experimentation at the intersection of art, technology, and the museum experience. By working closely with NYC's creative technology community, the MediaLab developed a worldwide reputation for consistently delivering provocative, exciting, and valuable projects.

Lessee, what else... I've traveled around the world, consulting with museums, universities, governments, and religious organizations on how to develop space for creativity and innovation. I advise entrepreneurs and students on project development. I serve as technical lead for cultural projects. I help multimedia artists develop new works. I create digital art systems and use them to perform my own compositions. I design and create art objects using digital fabrication and vintage tech.

I like people, experiences, AND things.

Here's a better Bio for publication: Don Undeen (UF Computer Science 2003 ) was the Founding Manager of the Maker Hub at Georgetown University, and Adjunct Professor of creative technology courses in Georgetown's Communications, Culture, and Technology graduate program. Prior to his work at Georgetown, Don was the founder and Senior Manager of the Media Lab at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, an incubator for experiments at the intersection of art, technology, and the museum experience. A lifelong lover of creative technology and the communities that practice it, Don has consulted with businesses, non-profits, museums, governments, and religious institutions around the world, helping complex organizations develop spaces for innovation.
Don is currently pursuing a master's degree in Design from Concordia University in Montreal, with a focus on makerspaces, speculative design, and sociability.

.edu
I serve as adjunct faculty for Georgetown University, for both Georgetown College and the Communications, Culture & Technology program in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Georgetown Old North Pilgrimage Project "The Pilgrimage Project" is a multi-disciplinary collaborative ITEL experiment rediscovering the spaces of Georgetown's campus. Our first focus is Old North, Georgetown's oldest standing building.
UNXD-456 : Maker Hub Extension, Spring 2018. 1-Credit course through Georgetown's Maker Hub in which students actively integrate academic studies with hands-on, project based learning, by developing a physical product, prototype, or creative work utilizing the fabrication equipment in the Maker Hub.
CCTP-702 : Creative Web Development, Fall 2018, 2019, 2020. 3 Credit, graduate-level course teaching web development skills through art-making and the study of Net Art.
UNXD-368 : Makerspaces and Justice, Fall 2019. A collaboration between the Center for Social Justice and the Maker Hub, this course integrates design-thinking, experience, and reflection through a community-based making project serving individuals experiencing homelessness in Washington, D.C.
IDST-220 : Making Matters, Spring 2020. This 3 credit undergraduate course will provide hands-on, practical learning opportunities through skill-building and volunteer service in the Maker Hub. Additionally, students will reflect in groups and through writing assignments on their experience, considering such questions such as: What makes a makerspace successful? Why do people use them, and what do they get out of it? Who are makerspaces for, and who decides? How can MY actions contribute to the success of a community makerspace?
CCTP-531 : Designing & Prototyping in a Makerspace, Spring 2020. In this 3 credit graduate course students learn not only the "hard" skills of design and fabrication with a wide range of tools, but also the "soft" skills of empathy, communication, and collaboration necessary for innovation. This course will provide hands-on, practical learning opportunities through skill-building and volunteer service in the Maker Hub.
CCTP-505 : Intro CCT: Inter Prob & Method, Fall 2020. This course introduces students to interdisciplinary studies in the Communication, Culture & Technology program. It is a how-to for developing expertise and contributing to an intellectual community that puts the student in the driver's seat.

Workshops

I'm available to teach hands-on workshops on a wide range of creative technology topics. My approach to workshops is to leave partipants with lots of resources and excitement to learn more. Previous workshops have included:
  • 3D modeling with free tools
  • Creative Web Development (HTML/CSS/Javascript)
  • Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop for the Laser Cutter
  • Digital Strategy for Startups and Entrepreneurs
  • Fundamentals of 3D Printing
  • Arduino
  • Raspberry Pi
  • Soldering
Art
Vagina Chorus, Althea Rao. A multimedia performance series designed to normalize the conversations around pelvic health and the imperfect female body. I'm the Technical advisor and programmer, developing a musical system that interfaces 16 bluetooth devices with the harmonic and tonal stuctures of the composer. Tech includes: Raspberry Pi, Bluetooth, Arduino Feather ESP32, NodeJS, OSC, Max/MSP, and Midi.
Pointless Web Content Swapper, Don Undeen This is a simple plugin for making weird art mashups with web pages.
Suck the content (images or text) from one page and swap it into another page. Art!
View code on GitHub
Human Essence, Althea Rao. An interactive installation consisting of two flat light sculpture panels that interact with the visitors as a set of mirrors, capturing and reflecting human silhouettes in real time. I was the technical lead, responsible for programming and fabrication of the devices. Tech includes: Raspberry Pi, Python, OpenCV, Laser Cutter.
Art Image Morpher, Don Undeen. A video projection installation in which museum apis are used to harvest images, faces are detected, and images morph from one face to the next. Composed with NodeJS and Meteor. Debuted at London Science Museum's 2017 Hackathon.
Art Squares, Don Undeen. A series of experiments in html, emojis, and css animations. Simple loops of animations overlayed to produce endless variation. Designed for digital art display screens. Best results on Chrome and Firefox
The Series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10,
Code
C5 Creative Coding, Cultural Commons, Community. C5 is a web-based environment for collaborative live coding in interaction with open data and media from cultural institutions. It is designed to make creative remixing of museum APIs fast, fun, and sharable. Beta release coming soon, stay tuned!
Me on GitHub Tools, creative projects, APIs, and experiments
SeeburgJukeboxReader. A system for using a vintage Seeburg Jukebox wall unit to control a Spotify Playlists. Tech includes: Iot, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, NodeJS, Mopidy.
Hey Box. A pair of arduino boxes, connected via IoT, that tell each other "hey." I made this so my wife and I can stay connected when we're living apart. I love her. Tech includes: Iot, Arduino, adafruit.io.
Me on Glitch I use the Glitch platform to teach and practice creative web development. Quality of projects varies.
Portfolio
Kudos
Groups
Creative Museum The Creative Museum Project seeks to explore and inform the connections between our cultural organisations and their communities by capitalising on the emergence of new and democratising digital technologies. I helped to produce a series of "Maker Residencies" at 6 different European partner institutions, through 2017.
Vatican Arts and Technology Council The VATC is dedicated to exploring ways that Art and Technology can help to promote and enact universal human values to people in need around the world. I served on the Executive Committee as leader of the Labs group and co-author of the strategic framework.
Hyphen-Hub Hyphen Hub is a New York-based non-profit organization that explores, promotes, and presents radical new visions of the future through the integration of art and emerging technologies. It produces live performances, art salons, and installations. It also serves as a platform for a global community of artists, engineers, designers, performers and tech innovators to connect and collaborate. I served on the Advisory Board, and now participate as a technology advisor.
CV

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Contact: donundeen@gmail.com
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@donundeen
Culture

MCN 2013: Ignite MCN at Corona Theater in Montreal. The infamous Ignite Presentation that introduced the world to Digital Humanities Unicorn!

Met MakerBot Hackathon

The MET's MediaLab. Experiments and Provocations

Presenting at NYC's Volumetric Society

Art Institute Museum3D Guest Speaker: Don Undeen

MCN 2012: Kickstarting Innovation within the Museum

MCN 2012: What's the Point of a Museum Maker Space

Let's Hack the Met: Don Undeen at We Are Museums, Vilnius Lithuania

Digital Media Disruption - Media in Non-Profits - 2/13/13, Fordham University