JD Pirtle is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and researcher based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. As an artist, he works in traditional/new media, including illustration, painting, ceramics, creative coding, algorithmic sound design, and computational design. JD has been teaching in K-12 schools since 2013, working with students of all ages in coursework that includes aspects of fine art, design, digital fabrication, carpentry, textile arts, and computer science. An early proponent of the Maker Movement in schools, JD has consulted with schools to design and implement dynamic Maker Spaces, wood shops, and innovation centers, including The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, Catherine Cook School, Lycée Français de Chicago, Sacred Heart, The University of Illinois at Chicago, and North Shore Country Day School. JD was a research assistant to Shawn Brixey at DXARTS and was a research associate at the Electronic Visualization Lab (EVL). While at EVL, he was part of the team that created CAVE2. His work has been featured in Engadget, Chicago Tribune, CDW's EdTech magazine, DNAInfo, ETC Journal, 3M Young Scientist Lab, Chicago Journal, Communications of the ACM, and Neowin.
Current and Ongoing Research Areas:
- Educative opportunities and pitfalls inherent in creative tools, particularly emerging technologies.
- Purpose-driven technology use, with a strong emphasis on interrogating the ideologies and motivations of EdTech vendors, education software providers, and social media companies.
- The creative implications of very large-scale multitouch interfaces, multichannel immersive audio environments, computer science, virtual reality, digital fabrication, and electronics.
- Free and Open Source Software, particularly as alternatives to closed source EdTech tools and services.
Education:
2020 - Present. PhD Candidate: Policy Studies in Urban Education: Social Foundations of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). His research is primarily in liberatory art and design education, education technology, critical pedagogy, Maker education, and curriculum design.
2009 - 2011. Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Electronic Visualization, The School of Art and Art History / Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Thesis: The Fall Beyond Tomorrow’s Life: Water is the Universally Human Multitouch Musical Instrument
2005 - 2008. Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) with Departmental Honors, Center for Digital Art and Experimental Media (DXARTS) at the University of Washington. Thesis: The Far Dark Shore: Sculptural Depth And Relief in Digital Stereoscopic Video And Composited Stereoscopic Computer Graphics