Every Day Is
Tax Day

Runner Up in the Dataviz Challenge 2011

Hosted by: Google and Eyebeam NYC

Tax day, April 18th in 2011, is only one day a year, but if tax is withheld from your paycheck you are working for the government every day. View how your time is spent by government department.

View the full project at EveryDayIsTaxDay.com

Tax Clock

A physical version of the above interactive piece

Created as a thank you gift for the judges in the competition.

In addition I created instructions for building the clock from simple parts.

These can be found at fchasen.com/buildaclock/

Cloud Orchestra

Second Place in Music for the Dev:Unplugged Contest 2011

Hosted by: Microsoft

A HTML5 and Node.js experiment to create a collaborative symphony.

Join in at CloudOrchestra.com

LE PARAPLUIE

A Processing and video piece for the stage, to accompany a dance by Sara Silkin

Sara Silkin choreographed this dance piece for WAC Smash, an annual event sponsored by UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures. Derrick Spiva composed the music, and my work was used as the scenic backdrop.

The live performance included 16 dancers, and was performed for three nights at UCLA in 2007. The final version of the piece was created in After Effects, not Processing.

DIGITAL EXQUISITE CORPSE

A digital imagining of the Dada parlor game Exquisite Corpse

As Surrealist artists conceived the game in the early 20th century, Exquisite Corpse involved drawing bits of a body, where the parts above cannot be seen and the parts below have yet to be drawn. The result is a wonderfully surreal character that is unique to its creators. I wanted to recreate the excitement of this game, while taking advantage of the Internet’s ability to allow participation on a global scale. The result was a game in which the body parts, instead of being drawn, were obtained from the photograph library Flicker, and their positioning controlled by a Wii remote that allowed users to reposition the falling body parts, in a manner similar to the popular Tetris computer game. Each part was tied to a physic system that controlled where its final position would be.

BRIAN ENO - VISUAL MUSIC PROJECT

A live Processing performance to a 3 minute segment of an ambient Brian Eno piece.

This piece was created to be preformed live by a video DJ, using music written by composer Brian Eno. The VJ is able to control the timing of the piece, the reactions of the design's particles to each other, and the color and shape of the patterns depending on the music's flow. The piece also analyzes the frequencies of the music as it plays.
I performed the piece as part of an exhibition of the work of Professor Casey Reas' Visual Music class at a packed UCLA lecture hall. The video shown here is of a timed rendering that changes with the input of the music. It is similar to what I demonstrated at the live performance, but includes many more particles.

Veterans Day Teacher Guide

A two summer long project for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs

This long term project was started when I volunteered to work at the VA in 2003, with the task of fixing up a long-neglected guide for school teachers on how to teach their students about the meaning and observance of Veterans Day. During an internship at the Department in the summer of 2004 and 2005, under the direction of graphic designer Joe Nguyen, I supervised the guide's expansion into a major publication. The revised guide was sent out to every public school in the United States by disk, and is still being used and distributed today, with small revisions.

I was responsible for the direction, design and content of the guide. I created a section for young children, including a coloring book, and updated the existing activities guide and all other content. I worked with teachers from many states, with several VA organizations, and with the White House to improve the guide.

Download PDF