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 collaboration, media/platform archaeology, digital preservation, cultural-data visualization, and design constraints.

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

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

As the editor of WWWTXT, I explore the early Internet (1988–94) and reveal paths not taken while also foreshadowing our present day. My own writing can be found at Noted, Creative Applications, Data Garden, Rhizome, etc.

From 2004–12, I was a researcher at Calit2/San Diego 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/.

In 2009, I received a MacArthur award for Digital Media and Learning. From 2010–12, I was a senior fellow with the Center for Design and Geopolitics. I frequently advise private organizations on conceptual and interface design (past projects include: earthquake simulation, 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 often wander the West coast.

—DR, 2013