Full name
Joshuah Jest
Title
Creative Director & Resident Artist
Location
Tampa, NYC, Boston, Houston, and Miami
Blurb
Integrated Media Artist, Designer & Consultant
Biography
Joshuah Jest is an architecturally-trained designer and video artist whose work focuses on blurring the boundaries between the digital and physical worlds. Jest's work synthesizes his architectural design background at Rice University (B.Arch) and Thomas Phifer and Partners (NYC) with his experience developing video installations, media facades, and digitally augmented objects at Urbanscreen (Bremen, Germany) and Geist (Houston, TX).
His current work implements and continues to explore the subject matter of his graduate thesis ("Fooling Ourselves: Topics and Design Strategies for Media Architecture, Integrated Media, and Composite Reality") which was developed at MIT’s program in Art, Culture, and Technology from 2015 through 2018.
Jest’s growing body of work seeks to reverse the paradigm of immersion, wherein the viewer enters a virtual sensory landscape by leaving the real world partly behind. Instead, he wants emersion - for us to keep our feet firmly planted where they are, and allow the content of a video display to emerge into our space. Here, in our natural surroundings, information and synthetic images are not immediately dismissed by the mind as immaterial signals to be left to higher (and less essential) processing, but are instead interpreted as indications of material consequence. Staged in this way, digital information and synthetic images can be perceived by a wider array of human senses and processed more deeply by the hindbrain, leading to deeper sympathy, emotional provocation, understanding, and retention of content. To achieve this effect, Jest’s wide range of works laminate various information display systems into works of architecture, installation, sculpture, and fashion.
ARCHITECTURAL AND INTEGRATED MEDIA CONSULTATION, DESIGN & PRODUCTION SERVICES SUMMARY
CONSULTATION______________________________
We work with and advise clients interested in creating one-of-a-kind visual experiences, particularly those that utilize LED, projection, or other multimedia systems. From our experience executing numerous bespoke projects from ranging from boutique private events to the permanent installation of building-scale media facades we can offer insight into the many elements that make up a successful project, including conceptual development, selecting the right technologies, branding, fundraising and utilizing public and private sources of funding, creating self-sustaining program/venue revenue models, assembling a comprehensive team, building media platforms that will create a self-generating audience, and optimizing installations for social media impact and sustainable growth.
DESIGN______________________________________
We specialize in integrating one-of-a-kind visual art installations with architecture. To do this we combine a strong foundation of rigorous architectural design with equally strong sense of visual aesthetics, video and lighting technologies, and doing stuff that makes people stop on their tracks and say "Whoa". Design services include:
Schematic design (SD) which often includes video-renderings and scale mockups
Design development (DD) which involves technology specification and the production of to-scale prototypes
Construction/installation documents (CD)
CONTENT PRODUCTION____________________
We do it all, and if we don't, we know the people who do. In house production services include:
Animation, interactive design, photography, live-action film, video post production and editing, musical composition, sound design, audio recording, audio production and editing, etc.
FABRICATION_______________________________
Thanks to our network of specialists if we can design it, you can have it built. While our in house fabrication services include intricate sculptural works, architectural models, and more, we often partner with specialist to get the job done. For past jobs we have become resident welders, metal-workers, seamsters, electronics fabricators, mold-makers, sand-casters, and porcelain-bakers at the facilities of our various industrial-scale partners to ensure our boutique projects are executed to match expectations.
INSTALLATION____________________________
We usually bring in some muscle for this part, but we like to get our hands dirty to ensure everything is just right. Installation services include coordinating with other design firms, contractors, electricians, government agencies, and inspectors to ensure our projects are put in place, stay in place, and stay safe. Installations are monitored for quality assurance.
MISCELLANEOUS_________________________
Aside from our specialty we also dabble in tangential fields and services, some of which include:
Website design, UI/UX design, lighting design, graphic / advertising design, publication design / formatting, grant-writing, writing copy, editing copy, event planning, disk-jockeying, video jockeying, and more.
Experience
Director
Joshuah Jest Design
All-purpose design and production studio specializing in projects that combine video and interactive media with architectural and interior design. Works include public festivals, permanent media facade systems, corporate lobby installations, storefront installations, exhibition design, private residential design and interior decorating, private art commissions, commercial media production, boutique animation, live action production, and much more.
Resident Artist
SEISMIQUE
Designed, produced, programmed, animated, and installed four
permanent tentpole multimedia installations that support ongoing programming.
Consultant & Acting Director
LuminArtz
A nonprofit that works with local artists, designers and creative technologists to create public art installations that contribute to place-making and establish new opportunities for art in the public realm.
Creative Technologist
Design Communications Ltd.
Director
Geist
Production studio and media façade consultancy founded to support the Astrodome Conservancy in reanimating the Houston Astrodome as an unprecedented multimedia landmark. Lead creative content production, and interfaced with various government offices, organizations, and companies (NFL, HR&A Advisers, Harris County TX, Houston First) to develop the project technically, financially, and architecturally.
Founder and Product Architect
Promythic
Championing new territory in electronic garment design and production with an interdisciplinary approach that balances technology, aesthetics, and wearability from the ground up.
Production and Teaching Assistant
MIT
Assisting Professor Azra Akšamija in ideation, research, design, and production of numerous international art projects, installations, and exhibits, including “Palimpsest of '89. Institutions of the Common” at the Moderna Galerija / Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and at the Boston City Hall, ongoing work in the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan.
Preceptee
Thomas Phifer and Partners
Worked directly under Thomas Phifer and associates on various projects ranging from conceptual phase designs to construction support. Notable projects: Corning Museum of Glass, House for Thomas Phifer, and various other private residences.
Visiting Fellow
Urbanscreen
Pushing technology and theory to merge digital and physical. Research and development for site-specific mixed reality (MX) installations. Concept development. Site documentation. 3D scanning. 3D digital modeling. Animation. Cinematography. Post-production. Model fabrication. Architectural model restoration. Firefighting.
Visiting Fellow
Brennerei Next Generation Lab Lab
Thinktank member for next-generation digital media at the architectural scale. Developed concepts for new methods of architectural and media integration. Applied concepts to practical work at Urbanscreen.
Freelance Graphic Designer
Threadless
Lifeguard
YMCA
Education
Science Masters in Art Culture and Technology (S.M.ACT)
MIT
Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch)
Rice University
Bachelor of Arts in Architecture (BA)
Rice Univrsity
Clients
Seismique The Astrodome Conservancy Harris County, TX National Trust for Historic Preservation Houston First Rice University MIT Boston City Hall Council for the Arts at MIT Threadless Gensler New Balance National Amusements LuminArtz Illumuminus Harvard Harvard Museum of Natural Science Harvard Graduate School of Design Society6 Blik
Specialties
Projection Mapping, Creative Direction, Architectural Design, Installation Art, Integrated Media, Experience Design, Interactive Art, Exhibition Design
Awards
2018 |
CAMIT Grant: Gestations
, Council for the Arts at MIT
The CAMIT Grant supports arts projects across all disciplines that engage the MIT community. |
2017 |
CAMIT Director’s Grant: Field Studies
, Council for the Arts at MIT
CAMIT Director’s Grants are awarded to support projects that engage the MIT community. |
2016 |
Schnitzer Prize in the Visual Arts
, Council for the Arts at MIT
The Schnitzer Prize is presented to undergraduate and graduate MIT students for excellence in a body of artistic work. |
2016 |
CAMIT Grant: An Act or No Future
, Council for the Arts at MIT
The CAMIT Grant supports arts projects across all disciplines that engage the MIT community. |
2016 |
ProjX: Promythic
, TechX MIT
Funding to help students bring their dream projects to life demo their creations at the annual xFair and ProjXpo. |
2015 |
Selected Entry: The Portal
, OISTAT
Competition for young architects and students to enter into the world of theater design. |
2014 |
“Best of” Expanded Animation: The Colony
, Ars Electronica
The best of animations take leave of their usual screening rooms for venues that include gallery spaces, cathedrals, façades and landscapes. |
2013 |
Lumen Award: The Colony
, Urbanscreen
Awarded to the most successfully innovative interior projection-mapping installation of those competing in Urbanscreen’s Lumen Challenge. |
2013 |
Mary Ellen Hale Traveling Fellowship
, Rice University
Awarded students field research proposals in art history, architectural history, and film and media studies. |
2013 |
Distinction in Research and Creative Works
, Rice University
Awarded to a single graduating student of each major who for excellence in independent research or creative works. |
2012 | Hyman & Pearl Paley Scholar , Rice University |
2011 | Hymen & Pearl Paley Scholar , Rice University |
2010 | Academic Competitive Grant , Rice University |
2010 | Hymen & Pearl Paley Scholar , Rice University |
2010 | McGinty Scholarship , Rice University |
2009 | Annette & Hugh Gragg Scholarship , Rice University |
2009 | Hyman & Pearl Paley Scholar , Rice University |
2009 | J M ad N F Clark Scholarship , Rice University |
2009 | Malcom M J McCall Scholarship , Rice University |
2009 | McGinty Scholarship , Rice University |
Exhibitions
2021 | Permanent Collection (Group), SEISMIQUE, Houston, TX
Resident Artist |
2020 | Film, Animation & New Media (Group), Scarfone/Hartley, Tampa University, FL
Faculty Exhibition |
2018 | Prototypes (Solo), List Visual Arts Center & Media Lab, MIT, Cambridge, MA |
2017 | Field Studies (Solo), List Visual Arts Center & Media Lab, MIT, Cambridge, MA
A collection of the first three projection-mapped vignettes in the Field Studies series. |
2017 | Center Pivot I (Solo), Druker Design Gallery, Harvard Graduate School of Design |
2017 | OPTIMISM (Design), Samuel Tak Lee Gallery, Cambridge, MA |
2017 | Dodo Dance (Group), Harvard Museum of Natural Science, Cambridge, MA
Popup installations for the MIT Graduate Student Gala |
2017 | A Summer Proposal (Group), City Hall, Boston, MA
Exhibition by Paul C. Ha (Director of the MIT LIST Visual Arts Center) features works responding to the building’s architecture. |
2017 | A Dome-tastic Gathering (Solo), 8th Wonder Brewery, Houston, TX |
2017 | Astrodome Gala (Solo), George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, TX
One night only display of the conceptual model for the Star Dome installation at the Houston Astrodome, presented by the Astrodome Conservancy. |
2016 | Schnitzer Prize Exhibition (Group), Wiesner Gallery, Cambridge, MA |
2016 | An ACT or NO FUTURE (Group), List Visual Arts Center & Media Lab, MIT, Cambridge, MA |
2015 | Lumen Gala (Group), Urbanscreen, Bremen, Germany |
2015 | Charge (Group), Farish Gallery, Houston, TX |
2014 | The Void (Group), Farish Gallery, Houston, TX |
2013 | Rule 11 (Solo), Brockman Lab, Houston, TX |
2013 | Prohibition / Exhibition (Group), Farish Gallery, Houston, TX |
2012 | NØT A RAVE (Group), Lyle’s, Houston, TX |
2012 | Ravehau5 (Group), Farish Gallery, Houston, TX |
2011 | Mies van der Rave (Group), Farish Gallery, Houston, TX |
Skills
Creative Direction, Creative Development, Architectural Design, Experience Design, UX Design, Interactive Media Design, Installation Art, 3D Design, Projection Mapping, TouchDesigner, New Media, Animation, Architecture, Architectural Modeling, Fine Art, Modern Art, Video Art, 3D Art, 3D Modeling, Concept Art, Model Making, Video Production, Video Editing, Photography, Brand Development, Graphic Design, Stage Design, Event Production, Grant Writing, Advertising, Live Event Production, Laser Cutting, VJ, Drafting, Woodwork, Rotational "Slush" Casting, Reactive Media Design, Sound Editing, Welding, DJ, Resin Casting, CNC Milling, Sandblasting, Metalwork, 3D Printing, UI, User Interface, Rhinoceros, Adobe Suite, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe AfterEffects, Adobe Premiere, Adobe Illustrator, Resolume Arena, Notch, AutoCad, Google Office Suite, Microsoft Office Suite, Exhibition Design