ITP Spring Show

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NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) has been pumping out amazing people into the NYC tech scene (and the worldwide tech scene) for almost 20 years now. I think ITP is one of the things that makes NY’s tech/web community what it is. It’s a combination of art/design/technology/media and it’s a special place that turns out special people who do special things.

Every spring they do a "spring show" that gives each student an opportunity to present their work to the public. It last for two days and is open to the public from 5pm to 9pm. Last night was the first night and tonight is the last night. It’s at 721 Broadway at Broadway and Waverly.

I try to go every year because it’s such an awesome experience that fills me with pride and optimism. Pride because I am proud to belong to such a great technology scene that combines art and technology in such incredible ways. And optimism because these projects are going to be the basis for companies in the coming years.

John Geraci’s FoundCity at the 2005 ITP Spring Show blew me away and I played with it for weeks. That work certainly led in part to Geraci’s and Steven Johnson’s Outside.in, which is a USV portfolio companiy.

I am pretty sure that a number of our other portfolio companies have roots at ITP, it’s gotten to the point that ITP has pretty much infected all of NY’s tech companies. And that’s a good thing.

Not only are the students at ITP terrific, so is the faculty, including our friend Clay Shirky who was there last night in a suite and tie. Never seen that look from Clay before!

I took Josh with me last night for two reasons. First I knew he’d love it and he did. And second, his computer programming teacher Pravin was there showing off his work. Here’s a cool shot of his art study on the words Mumbai and Bombay created with a 3D printer.

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Here are some more photos of Pravin’s magic with the 3D printer.

Make Magazine had a photgrapher there last night and he’s got all of his photos up on Flickr now. If you can’t make it to the show, spend a few minutes browsing these photos. I suspect you’ll be enchanted and amazed as we all were last night.

#VC & Technology

Comments (Archived):

  1. bryanthatcher

    Cool, Thanks for the overview, this looks awesome. I’m planing on stopping by ITP today

  2. Fred

    Hi Fred, thanks or checking out the show. I wanted to drop you a link to my project in it, that I think you might have missed because I was back in the ‘mobile room’ …Anyway its called Cause Caller and its a virtual phone bank web application that allows anyone to create lists of politicians and scripts for people who support their cause. The application then uses Asterisk to connect users sequentially to the politicians on the list, removing the hassle of finding phone numbers and so on.The database is a semantic media wiki that had hundreds of federal politicians already, but allows anyone to add their own.I made a couple of videos that explain it all, so drop by if you have a minute:http://www.causecaller.comThanks!Fred

  3. Bryan

    Hey Fred,Very cool event – wish I were going to be in town and could swing by. And as a heads up to your southern-based readers, Intel’s International Science and Engineering Fair is being held in Atlanta this week (http://www.intelisef2008.org/). Some really cutting edge projects from some really impressive kids. Definitely worth checking out if anyone is in the area.

    1. Alberto Escarlate

      I was there last night and was very impressed with some of the work I saw. Lots of the kids hacking mobile apps at ITP.