Director. Design Policy Program. University of California, San Diego
Greater San Diego Area
- Current
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- Associate Professor of Visual Arts/ Director of Design Policy Program at University of California, San Diego
- Principal at The Culture Industry
- Past
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- Faculty at SCI_Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture)
- Director, Advanced Strategies Group at Yahoo!
- Co-Director of Brand Lab at UCLA
- Executive Producer of Experience Design at Imaginary Forces
- Director of Information Architecture at Razorfish
- Education
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- University of California, Santa Barbara
- University of California, Davis
- Recommended
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1 person has recommended Benjamin H. - Connections
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- Industry
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- Websites
Benjamin H. Bratton’s Summary
I am an Academic/ Consultant. Still a bit "hybridy" in 2009, but an inevitably more common (and interesting) position and perspective from which to collaborate.
I am Director of Design Policy Program at University of California San Diego
I am transitioning from Yahoo!, where I was Director of the Advanced Strategies Group to University of California, San Diego where I will be Faculty and directing an advanced design computation program at CALIT2.
As principal of The Culture Industry I run projects that operate in the overlapping zones of networked media, architecture and social research: organizational programming and architectural strategy, brand integration and product mutation, channel-centric creative strategy, case modeling + scenario planning, & proving that divergence beats convergence most days. Longer term transformative strategy based not on trends du jour but the on-going social and economic tranformation into digital infrastrucutres.
My role with Yahoo! was to conceive, drive (hopefully launch) the things that will characterize the next phase of deeply social digitial media and channels: more global + more local (less USA-centric), more flexible (platforms not products), more dialogic (interfaces not touchpoints).
My writing focuses on the development of a comprehensive theory of the "interface" as a point of contact between complex systems (digital, human, spatial, logistical, etc.) and its implications for communications, architecture, and organizational strategy. As co-chair of 'ambient:interface' the 54th International Design Conference in Aspen, this work forms an agenda for strategic design in a network society and economy.
See www.bratton.info for more info on all this
Benjamin H. Bratton’s Specialties:
On the consulting side....Pervasive computing & product/ service divergence/convergence, pushing the social in social media, deep culture, deep research, deep planning, deep program, big trends and little trends and knowing the difference: presuming the emergence of new disciplinary, organizational and institutional forms, and working in the image of their potentials.
Benjamin H. Bratton’s Experience
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Associate Professor of Visual Arts/ Director of Design Policy Program
University of California, San Diego
(Higher Education industry)
November 2008 — Present (1 year 1 month)
Design Policy Program (DPP) at CALIT2 and the University of California, San Diego is an interdisciplinary technology transfer & systems design initiative that draws upon the publicly-funded scientific research developed at the University of California to provide social value in unique ways.
We focus on large and small scale computational infrastructure and interaction design as a central policy strategy.
DPP is headquartered at the UC’s CALIT2, a premier institutes for interdisciplinary core and applied research in infrastructural-scale information and computing technologies.
DPP’s research programs instigate and focus deep qualitative research in human and urban-scale interfaces, and, drawing on CALIT2‘s resources, develop high-risk/high-gain models and prototypes of the cultural, economic and ecologic transformations that define the immediate future of California. -
Principal
The Culture Industry
(Management Consulting industry)
December 1999 — Present (10 years )
Strategic consulting services connecting disparate investments in brand, architecture and software.
We understand as the backbone of any enterprise that will thrive in the next decade, and work closely with executives to transform how markets interface with products and services The Culture Industry's client base includes Motorola, Microsoft, GM, Ogilvy, Nike, JetBlue, and several confidential partners. -
Faculty
SCI_Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture)
(Architecture & Planning industry)
July 2001 — December 2008 (7 years 6 months)
See www.sciarc.edu. Faculty in Dept of Cultural Studies at top architectural design institution where I have taught seminars and studios on airports, churches, stadia pervasive media and urbanism, philosophy of technology, interactive architecture, paul virilio, mobile media, contemporary architectural theory and co-taught six studio/seminars with Hernan Diaz-Alonso.
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Director, Advanced Strategies Group
Yahoo!
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; YHOO; Internet industry)
July 2006 — October 2008 (2 years 4 months)
The Advanced Strategies Groups works across business verticals and product groups to spur and connect network innovation for new brand channels. As organizations continue to struggle to transform their monologic communications strategies into flatter, more social dialogues, Yahoo!'s nearly half billion users/ content creators/ audience (globally) are, as a population, a key proving ground for the big transformations in digital culture. Let's go.
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Co-Director of Brand Lab
UCLA
(Educational Institution; Research industry)
September 2003 — June 2008 (4 years 10 months)
With Rebeca Mendez, I teach a two quarter sequence on Brand Theory. We begin with the notion that all complex organizations --no matter how rational-- are organized around foundational fictions. When those organizational fictions are so informed and infused by capital that "they become images," we call them brands. The Lab takes a single project for the year, and by using and misusing bleeding edge brand research and design methodologies, we -in essence- recode the ficitons of our virtual clients. In successive years, the Lab has 'rebranded' the UCLA D|MA itself, the materiality of "money," and the MVNO for the next two billion web users.
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Executive Producer of Experience Design
Imaginary Forces
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)
September 2004 — July 2006 (1 year 11 months)
Imaginary Forces (IF) is a multi-disciplinary entertainment and design agency based in Hollywood and New York. The award-winning work spans the diverse industries of feature film production and marketing, architecture and experience design, corporate branding, commercial advertising, and network branding.
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Director of Information Architecture
Razorfish
(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; Online Media industry)
December 1999 — January 2001 (1 year 2 months)
Managed the information architecture team of 12 designers in Razorfish's LA office, which played a key part in the iTV r&d, as well as big redesigns for Cisco, Veritas, MoCA LA, many more.
Benjamin H. Bratton’s Education
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University of California, Santa Barbara
PhD. (ABD) , Cultural Sociology, Media Theory , 1996 — 2007
Founded SPEED: An Electronic Journal of Technology, Media and Society (1993-1997) the first major web-only journal of digital media theory, published several volumes featuring the work of Paul Virilio, Kathy Acker, John Thackera, Lev Manovich, James Der Derian, Sandy Stone and many others
MA 1995. "Sofware and Habitus: Figures in the Virtual and Artifactual Organization of Material Practice." Employing Bourdieu's notion of habitus and Deleuze's image of assemblage, the thesis outlines a tactical theory of embodiment in and through software-mediated fields.. -
University of California, Davis
BA , Sociology and Crtical Theory , 1986 — 1991
Honors Thesis, 1991: "The Notion of the Nintendo War: Paul Virilio and the Gulf War"
Additional Information
Benjamin H. Bratton’s Websites:
Benjamin H. Bratton’s Interests:
long-term transformation. design strategy. interaction design. architecture and urbansim, global contexts and scenarios
Benjamin H. Bratton’s Groups:
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Interaction Design Association
Benjamin H. Bratton’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
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