Biografica ↬

Hi! I'm Daniel Rehn. I create new electronic art while also curating and visualizing the medium's past.

My work involves: art+technology, interdisciplinary labs, culture visualization, media/platform archaeology, and design constraints.

I share a studio with Sarah Caluag (✖ me+Sarah). We create live visuals, installations, and also curate—most recently at ANI GIF.

The future of videogames is a core focus. I'm the director of LA Game Space—a non-profit lab for art, design, and research. Earlier, I co-founded Re:Game lab and Playpower—a foundation that designs learning games for developing countries.

From 2004–12, I was a researcher at Calit2/Supercomputer Center. Together with Jeremy Douglass and Lev Manovich, we pioneered “cultural analytics”—the visualization and algorithmic understanding of pop culture and the humanities. That work continues in my current endeavors at Z/Z/Z/.

I frequently lecture in addition to writing for Noted, Data Garden, Attract Mode, and others. I am a senior fellow with the Center for Design and Geopolitics, a MacArthur recipient, and I advise private organizations on conceptual and interface design (past projects include: earthquake simulation monitoring, mobile broadcasting, and web-based cultural archives).

And long before any of this, in 1986, I dialed the “Future Link.” That led to operating my very own digi-arts BBS and creating art, code, and music for the ANSi and demo scenes of the early '90s. Ultimately, it set in motion a life-long journey.

I live in L.A. and frequently roam the California coast.

—DR, 2012