Derek Lomas, MFA

The ABC News article Researchers Propose $12 Computer for Developing Countries said

As the prices of educational laptops for children in developing countries creep upward, a group of researchers attempts to create a new, even lower-tech computer that would cost as little as $12.
 
While wandering the streets of Bangalore, India, in February during an internship for Qualcomm, 27-year-old graduate student Derek Lomas stumbled across a contraption that looked quite similar to the original Nintendo console that he played video games on as a kid in the 1980s.
 
After tooling around with the gadget, Lomas had an idea. “I started thinking about how to make a project that would redesign some of the content and experience so it was more effective in teaching basic skills,” he said.

Derek Lomas, MFA is a scientist and artist who currently co-directs the Social Movement Laboratory under Natalie H.M. Jeremijenko at the California Institute of Telecommunications and Technology (Calit2).
 
The Social Movement Laboratory is a hybrid arts laboratory researching the aesthetics and dynamics of social activity. Recently, the laboratory conducted aerial studies of crowd structures at the Mexican-American immigration rallies in San Diego. Currently, the lab is conducting a large-scale visualization of the dynamics of social behavior within Myspace.com, the largest online social network. “BioMemetics@Myspace” is a 20-screen modular representation of the exchange of media and the structure of popularity within the influential online network.
 
Derek regularly uses non-traditional ethnographic methodologies to explore the aesthetic of common collaborative social processes. His most recent work at ISEA2006, “Memory Columns: San Jose 2006”, is a sculptural-performance piece structured as a comparative study of graffiti practices across four different neighborhoods within San Jose, CA. “Real-Time-Lapse” is a video piece using aerial surveillance cameras at an LA gallery opening to provide a self-reflective representation of the crowd’s ongoing social interactions at 10x speed. Currently, Derek is working on “Party of the Year” an abstract animation of social structure, based upon aerial surveillance footage taken at a large party held in a San Diego art gallery.
 
He has presented his work at Yale University, Artspace New Haven, UC San Diego, the Sundown Salon LA, and in the Chelsea Art Museum, New York City. In 2005, he won the Yale Y50K business plan competition for Scape (Socially Connected Academic Peer Exchange), a versatile platform for the exchange of digital media. He authored Cognitive artifacts: an art-science engagement.
 
Derek earned his BA in Cognitive Science at Yale University in 2003 and his MFA in Social Design from the University of California, San Diego in 2007.