bio:
Lisa Tolentino is an interaction designer and experimental percussionist pursuing a Media Arts and Sciences PhD at Arizona State University. Her research focuses on culturally transformative learning environments for special education. She is a member of the K-12 Embodied and Mediated Learning Group at the School of Arts, Media and Engineering (AME).
Her design approach extends across unlikely boundaries. Avant-garde music practice forms a sandbox around her main fields of battle: human-computer interaction and special education. Meanwhile, the scholarship of Lev Vygotsky, James Paul Gee, John Dewey and Pierre Bourdieu frame her use of play and aesthetics to reveal the deep, often ignored potentials of children with cognitive disabilities.
Metaphor, physical computing, and percussive acts are tools of choice as she examines society's need to fully manage or diminish the experience of those who have been labeled. This pursuit marks her path as both a family member of someone with special needs, and a Filipino-American having growing up in California's Central Valley.
She collaborates with special education teachers and researchers in digital media and the arts to build mixed-reality experiences that expand the social skills repertoire of youth with autism. This effort unifies disability studies with cybernetics in a vision for technology that honors the lived experiences of people with disabilities.
Lisa serves on the Board of Directors for urbanSTEW, a not-for-profit art collective that makes and curates work to reach and strengthen communities through digital art. She performs regularly with Crossing 32nd Street, a Phoenix-based contemporary and experimental music performance group; Rules of Play, a contemporary music duo with percussionist Robert Esler; and Radio Healer, a Southwest-based arts performance project using indigenous media frameworks to cultivate music, dance and electronic media arts expression.
Prior to ASU, Lisa earned her M.A. in Contemporary Music Performance in Percussion, under the guidance of Steven Schick; and her B.S. in Computer Science, with mentorship from the late Professor Joseph Goguen.
projects & performance:
PLAY! [>]: a festival of technology and art - March 23-24, 2012 @ MADCAP
crossing 32nd street (phoenix)
rules of play (tempe)
urbanSTEW.org (phoenix)
storytelling series (tempe)
desert, forest, tundra (anza-borrego, ca / sandwich, nh / denali, ak)
radio healer (southwest U.S.)
dogstar orchestra (CalArts, valencia)
pakaraguian kulintang ensemble (san diego)
red fish blue fish (san diego - la jolla)
rhythm creature (ubiquitous)
research:
Augmented Reality Social Games for Special Education,
SMALLab @ Arts, Media and Engineering, Arizona State U.
This work has been generously funded by research grants through the MacArthur Foundation, the National Science Foundation's IGERT Program, and Intel.
Re-conceptualizing Contemporary Music Contexts for Civic Action,
Fields of Vision, Limits of the World (pdf),
Roots and Rhizomes, UC San Diego
advocacy:
Diversity, disability perceptions and a vision for a cultural shift (LeadCast blog)different from what? film festival (tempe, az), with:
* the equity alliance at ASU, and
* p.a.v.e. performing arts venture experience
public practice & civic engagement in design and the arts (Arizona State U.)
collaborators:
Robert Esler, percussion + electro-acoustic / new media artCristobal Martinez, tecno-cultural worker + indigenous media practice
SMALLab Learning at ASU (Situated Multimedia Arts Learning Lab), led by David Birchfield and Mina Johnson-Glenberg
Institute of Play, led by Katie Salen (director), home of Quest-2-Learn
Pure Java Jsyn Beta from SoftSynth, led by Phil Burk
special thanks:
To teachers, social workers, cultural workers, families, and community members who have devoted their lives to recovering those lost in labels and institutions ~ A heartfelt thanks.contact: lisa.tolentino (at) asu . edu
curriculum vitae / blog
* ... if you ( are | look for ) another lisa ...