Joe Saavedra 

Photo 32 

SALUTATIONS. my name is joe, and here is an image of me looking scared/surprised/pooping-a-little.

 i will now try to summarize my years leading up to this, the 23rd of my life. i was born in brooklyn, NY to two peruvian immigrants whom i lovingly refer to as mom and dad. at age 3, we moved to baltimore, MD where i completed the 9th grade, at which point i was forcefully relocated by the immigrants to los angeles, CA. it was a bad time to move, and i was unhappy, but i made new friends and learned of a new city, so i suppose i can take the experience for what it was worth, and know that i will never live there again. upon graduation high school, i attended the University of California, Davis where i received 2 BA's, one in music composition and the other in technocultural studies. for the record, northern california is  fantastic place, and it is only the south with which i have a huge problem. finished at davis in june 2008, shortly prior to which i decided getting a "job" in the "real world" was not for me; so i applied to several schools, and here i am.

why, though, would i ever wish to take a course such as this, major studio: computation? great question, joe. well i have many vested interests in electronics, analog input, and programming. the only language i consider myself 'good' at, however, is max/msp, and let's face it, it's not really a programming language at all, as much as it is an environment.  taking data from the real world, and then using a machine to interpret, re-invent or just use as a controller is what i am hugely interested in. my last two years at davis i worked at a neuroscience lab as a research assistant, and was exposed to many types of sensor technologies including EEG, EKG, GSR, and MoCap systems. i began experimenting with using these datatypes and applying them to sound and video in real-time. biofeedback. i'm not too into 'toys' in the conventional sense, however creating something that could be novel and mass-produced for the public is certainly a venture i am curious about.

here was my favorite toy as a child, and dear lord do i wish i still had it:

HeManSword 

it is the sword used by none other than my favorite child hood hero, the one and only, He-Man [and the masters of the universe]. the sword had a pressure sensor attached to the blade that would react to being hit against something by lighting up and playing various sound effects. as i recall it also had a theme song play button as well as a lightning shot button for those moments when your enemy was too far away to strike with the blade.