The Visiting Artist and Scholar Program presents Matthew Peterson

What happens to designers when emerging technologies destabilize the conventions upon which their expertise relies? And how can the generation of knowledge occurring elsewhere in the research university be enriched with design? Matthew Peterson will address these as interrelated questions that present an opportunity for design and designers to contribute to exciting areas of investigation beyond the walls of our classrooms.

Peterson will introduce a collaborative STEM education, engineering, and design project funded by the National Science Foundation (DRL-2055680, $1.35 million) that required the development of a new technique called function mapping to negotiate disciplinary interests and ensure that interactive media fulfills crucial objectives. A virtual environment developed by the team, Scale Worlds, allows students to grow and shrink themselves by powers of ten as they encounter scientific entities beyond everyday experience and to connect those entities to numeric representations. Peterson will extend the discussion beyond the NSF project with brief descriptions of other work that involves visualization issues tied to generative AI and human memory traces (DoD-funded), new typographic conventions for AR, and the complexities of scientific visual displays.

Matthew Peterson, PhD, is Associate Professor of Graphic and Experience Design at NC State University. His research focuses on visual representation, especially in the development of novel interfaces and environments. He integrates design into other disciplines with publications, projects, and proposals in collaboration with experts in STEM education, engineering, psychology, advertising, biology, physics, and data science.