History: Matthew Gray grew up in Silicon Valley, the home of Stanford University, Xerox Park, the semiconductor and microprocessor, and the birthplace of the first personal computer. Matt's Dad was an inventor who worked with many of the notable companies and innovators throughout the peninsula. He grew up in a household full of the first models of personal computers, from the Atari 2600 to the RadioShack TRS 80.
During that time period it looked as though the die was cast and that Matt would grow up to be a programmer. But he had other plans, for the Valley was also the home of Ken Keasy and the Merry Pranksters, the second home of Alan Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassidy, the birthplace of the Grateful Dead, as well as Bill Ball's exciting theatre movement at American Conservatory Theatre (ACT.)
In 1988 Matt would move to San Francisco and study acting at ACT under a talented group that would represent the last remaining members who could still articulate Bill Ball's vision of "positation." Positation is a word he coined that conveyed a process where-by the performer could find a way to be comfortable with the unknown, being completely present in the moment able to say YES and receive whatever idea another actor or director would suggest and then evolve that idea and create a whole new possibility/reality. By saying yes and accepting the conditions a performance could be dramatically different from one night to the next. Matt gained a deep understanding of how to keep an idea relevant, alive and agile to adjust quickly to changing conditions and context.
Matt would go on performing in many productions and receive three Irene Ryan nominations for Acting, and participate as an assistant art director for the San Francisco Theatre Project, a theatre company formed by former actors and directors of ACT.
In 1994 Matt would enroll in the first multi-media program ever offered. The curriculum was new and designed to be a two year certificate program at San Francisco State University, covering digital illustration, film and special effects compositing and interactive programming. This new emerging field offered new tools but the same methodology of how to execute and evolve an idea would remain the same. Matt finished the program in just one year and was then hired as the first full-time graphic designer at Andersen Consulting's premiere research and development facility, The Center for Strategic Technology in Palo Alto California. (Later re-branded Accenture Lab in 2000.) And the rest is HISTORY.
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Education:
American Conservatory Theatre
San Francisco, California 1988-1991
Acting
San Francisco State University Multimedia Certificate Program
1994-1995
Digital Illustration
Interactive Programming
Film and SPecial Effects Compositing
Andersen Consulting
(Re-branded Accenture in 2000)
Training 1996-1999
Effective Business Writing,
Effective Presentation,
New Consultant Training,
Project Management,
User Testing
Mesmer
(Closed in 2005) San Francisco campus 1999
Beginning 3D Maya
Animation Production Workshop with David Tart (Pixar) and Nathan Vogel (Mind’s Eye Media)
Protozoa
San Francisco, California 1995
Alive (Motion capture software)
Digital Media Institute
Los Angeles, California 1996
Softimage 3D Design
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User Groups:
The Information Architecture Institute
(formerly The Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture “AIfIA”) is a global organization that supports individuals and organizations specializing in the design and construction of shared information environments. Through education, advocacy, services, and social networking, the Institute will lead the way in demonstrating the value of information architecture to the world at large, and provide a framework for members to improve their skills and enhance their professional standing.
iainstitute.org
BayCHI
BayCHI is organized and operated exclusively for educational and scientific purposes in the area of Computer-Human Interaction.
baychi.org
Pragmatic Marketing
Founded in 1993, Pragmatic Marketing addresses getting the most from investments in product management and marketing by providing training, consulting services and an online community for product managers, marketers and business leaders at thousands of today's technology companies.
pragmaticmarketing.com
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