Image
1: At the lab 2006, image credit: Elise
Moore
Image
2: Lecturing at Postopolis! LA 4/3/2009, image credit: Storefront
for Art and Architecture, video
here
Robert Miles
Kemp
Telephone:
1 (213) 255 1450
Miles
is the founder and principal of Variate Labs and Spatial Robots. His work spans
all scales of interactive mediums including building design and fabrication,
large scale robotics, spatial interfaces, user experience design, touch and
gesture based interfaces, products and information strategies. Miles also works
as a Senior User Experience Designer for Schematic Inc. developing next
generation interfaces for web, mobile and other emerging technology platforms. In
addition to designing and contributing to over 60 built architecture projects
he has designed interfaces and spatial experiences for clients including ABC, Blockbuster,
BMW, BBC, Disney, Emotiv, Microsoft, Samsung, SONY, Target, Televisa and Time
Warner. He is currently developing spatial experiences, products and interactive
strategies across the globe, including
In
addition to project work, Miles has written Interactive
Architecture, published by Princeton Architectural Press and
co-authored with Michael Fox, which is widely accepted as the most
comprehensive overview of the history and future of interactive space. His
projects and articles have been published internationally and his project on
Nano-scale Reprogrammable Space continues to be cited as a pioneering project
in the field of robotic architecture. Miles also created and regularly contributes
to the blog, www.spatialrobots.com.
Founded
by Miles Kemp in 2005, Variate Labs
is a group dedicated to designing and building interactive experiences, information
strategies and spatial systems. The strength of our group lies in our ability
to leverage our various backgrounds in both physical and digital design and
apply these skills to new dynamic hybrid systems. VL creates projects in all
types of digital and physical mediums but is particularly interested in
projects that involve a synthesis of the two. Our work includes collaborations
and independent projects for built environments, gesture-controlled interfaces
and objects, interactive media Installations, product development and robotics.
Variate
Labs is built upon over twelve years of experience designing, manufacturing and
building physical projects and space ranging from skyscrapers to boats and touch-displays
to robots. VL offers an unrivaled combination of skills and techniques to apply
to projects ranging from tradition construction methods through digital
manufacturing. These include: building and furniture construction, concrete
manufacturing and casting, boat building, welding, specialized gluing
techniques for plastics, CNC, vacuum forming, laser cutting, 3d printing,
product prototyping, manufacturing of device displays and robotics (programming
and manufacturing).
Variate
Labs is also built upon years of experience in interaction design, user
experience design and interface Information and development strategy
. We have a wide range of experience including: broad understanding of
interaction design principles, using up-and-coming control technologies, designing
our own gesture languages, scripting interfaces, programming robots, building
databases, managing huge amounts of dynamic data sets and designing real-time
updatable interactive displays. VL is unique in that we have the opportunity to
combine our digital understanding with the potential for physicality.
Spatial
Robots
features and critiques control technologies, interfaces and robotics as they
pertain to the future of interactive architecture and space. Created by Miles
Kemp in 2007, this website showcases architecture, space, interfaces, new media,
websites, robotics, nanotechnology, reconfigurable objects, behavioral logic,
new materials, and emerging technologies with emphasis placed on projects being
interactive and spatial.
Education
Masters
of Architecture, Southern California
Institute of Architecture, 2006
Bachelor
of Science in Architecture,
CV
Variate Labs, Principal,
Spatial
Robots,
Principal,
Schematic Inc.,
Senior User Experience Designer, 2007-Present
Series
Design / Build, Principal,
Tmt
Restoration Consultants, Junior
Architect, NYC, 2003-2006
Nonzero
Architecture/Studio Bau:ton, Junior
Architect, 2004
Bandolier
Inc., Head of Design, NYC, 2003-2004
Essex Works,
Junior Architect, 2002-2003
Skidmore Owings &
Merrill, SOM Eurolabs, Junior Architect, NYC
and DC, 2000-2002
**
Prior to 2000, six years of architectural work, spanning 3 offices, 25+
projects
Honors
Web: Numerous web awards for web design and
interface design, listed on specific projects
Architecture: T1 Tower Skyscaper Design Competition,
SOM Eurolabs,
Publications
Interactive Architecture - Princeton Architectural Press, 256 pages,
350 color illustrations, forward by Bill Mitchell (MIT), Afterward by Mahesh B.
Senagala (Ball State), August 2009
"Considered
to be one of the most experimental strains of building research in the world,
IA deals with modular designs, dynamic materials and embedded computation -
meaning a user can control virtually any active element in a building.....the
most comprehensive overview of the subject written to date."— Paul Young
(February, 2008)
Interactive Interfaces in Architecture: The New
Spatial Integration of Information, Gesture and Cognitive Control - ACADIA 2008: Silicone
and Skin, 2008.
Automatic Architecture, Issue #69, Surface
Magazine, December 2007.
Mention
Arch
Daily
Art
Log
City
of
BLDG
BLOG
El
Universal Newspaper
Nanoarchitecture.net
Interactivearchitecture.org
Omnispace
Serial
Consign
Shift
Magazine
Subtopia
Surface
Magazine
Storefront
for Art and Architecture
El
Universal Newspaper
We-make-money-not-art.com
Lectures and Talks
Postopolis!
- Standard Hotel,
Robert
Miles Kemp of Variate Labs presented a
stellar body of work that blurred the lines between interface design, robotics
and architecture. Kemp highlighted the impending fusion of physical and
informational systems and identified an interest in thinking of software as
"artifact" rather than control and robots as "systems"
rather than anthropomorphic entities. Kemp showed a flurry of interfaces,
dashboards and a homebrew multi-touch display but what struck me the most was
his 2006 thesis project Meta-morphic
Architecture which proposed not just parametric design, but parametric
space. Kemp maintains a research blog Spatial
Robots - interactive systems fans take note. - Greg J. Smith, Serial
Consign
Interactive
Architecture: Interfaces, Control and Robots! -
Interactive
Reprogrammable Architecture - Digital
Reprogrammable
Space - Materials & Applications Gallery,
Clients
Architecture
Individual
clients spanning 60 projects (skyscrapers, large office buildings, large scale
residential, single-family residential, commercial, apartments and exhibits)
Interactive
Media and Interfaces
ABC,
Blockbuster, BMW, BBC, Disney, Emotiv, Microsoft, Samsung, SONY, Target,
Televisa and Time Warner
last edited: CV2009.07.01