Tom De Smedt | Curriculum vitae
Tom De Smedt
Born 27/09/1978 in Antwerp, Belgium
E-mail: tomdesmedt at domain trapdoor dot be
http://nodebox.net
Work experience
- 1990: secondary school, classical orientation (Latin)
- 1992: secondary school, modern orientation (language and science)
- 1996: started a programming masters at the Free University of Brussels
1st bachelor: failed
- 1997: warehouseman at Nollekens NV, paints and cleaning products
- 1997: warehouseman at GB Unic NV, distribution centre
- 1997: intern at the Free University of Brussels accountancy department
- 1997: started a programming bachelor at the Hogeschool Antwerpen Campus Zuid
- 2000: internship at Real Software Belgium, worked on the Remax ERP application
- 2000: graduated at the Hogeschool Antwerpen Campus Zuid in programming
1st bachelor: distinction
2nd bachelor: distinction
3rd bachelor: distinction
- 2000: started a graphic design masters at the St. Lucas School of Arts, Anwterp, Belgium
- 2003: internship at Vision&Factory, Brussels, including work for Living Tomorrow
- 2003: lead developer for the Mecca pen & paper storytelling game
- 2004: released a publication on automation in graphic design
- 2004: graduated at the St. Lucas School of Arts, Antwerp, Belgium in graphic design
1st bachelor: distinction
2nd bachelor: distinction
1st master: great distinction
2nd master: great distinction
- 2004: worked as a freelance graphic designer for Samsonite
- 2004: worked as a freelance graphic designer for Champ d’Action
- 2004: co-founder of the Experimental Media Group at the St. Lucas School of Arts, Antwerp, Belgium
- 2004: release of NodeBox, a graphic design tool developed in collaboration with Frederik De Bleser
- 2005: spokesman for the youth division of the Groen! left-wing party in the Antwerp suburbs
- 2006: started a PhD on Artificial Creativity (University of Antwerp, Computer Linguistics)
- 2006: employed as a researcher in an IWT/TETRA-project (Gravital), a collaboration of St. Lucas School of Arts Antwerp, the department of Computer Linguistics at the University of Antwerp and 14 Belgian companies.
Projects
- 1997: lead developer for a pen & paper role-playing game
- 2000: one of the leading artists for the stage decoration of the Hove Live festival, Belgium
- 2001: one of the leading artists for the stage decoration of the Hove Live festival, Belgium
- 2004-2006, NodeBox: research project on computer graphics at St. Lucas Antwerp
- 2007-2009, Gravital: an IWT-project on Artificial Creativity (IWT/60121, EUR 267612)
- 2007-2008, Creatures: a VAF-project on gaming (Creatures, 06/EX/096/06-295, EUR 22560)
Exhibitions
- 2005: exhibition at the MuHKA, Antwerp, Belgium, at Champ d’Action’s Time Canvas exposition, http://old.champdaction.be/cda.php?p=Blotter
- 2006: exhibition at the Beursschouwburg, Brussels, Belgium of the Evolution project, http://nodebox.net/code/index.php/Evolution
Papers and publications
- 2004, NodeBox: Lahti Automation Workshop book
- 2005, Artificial Creativity: http://research.NodeBox.net/Emergence
- 2005, Artificial Creativity: http://replica.trapdoor.be/index.php/On_artificial_creativity
- 2005, Artificial Creativity: http://replica.trapdoor.be/index.php/Learning_learning
- 2005, NodeBox: Tech-Art paper
- 2005, Blotter: http://www.champdaction.be/cda.php?p=Blotter
- 2005, NodeBox: Flowerewolf, on generative poetry
- 2005, NodeBox: Computers and the Zen of Programming Art book, on emergence
- 2005, NodeBox: interview in De Standaard and on Radio2
- 2006, NodeBox: article in Counterform in Motion, a Russian magazine on typography
- 2006, NodeBox: article in ADD-magazine on the Champdaction logo
- 2006, Artificial Creativity: article in Add!ct-magazine #26
- 2007, Artificial Creativity: article in Add!ct-magazine #27 on gaming
Lectures and workshops
- 2003: participant in an experimental typography workshop at the Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Ireland
- 2004: presentation of NodeBox at Dorkbot, Ghent
- 2004: speaker at the AtypI 2004 conference in Prague on automation in graphic design.
- 2004: "Design Automation" workshop at the Lahti Institute of Design, Finland
- 2005: speaker at the AtypI 2005 conference in Helsinki on artificial intelligence in graphic design
- 2005: "Intelligence" workshop at the Lahti Institute of Design, Finland
- 2006: presentation of NodeBox at ELIA (European League of the Institutes of Arts), Gent, Belgium
- 2006: presentation of NodeBox at Dorkbot, Ghent
- 2007: "Memetics" workshop at the Lahti Institute of Design, Finland
Mentions
- 2005, NodeBox: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/math_science/NodeBox.html
- 2005, NodeBox: http://www.python.org/pycon/2005/papers/57/PyObjC-Intro.pd
- 2005, NodeBox: http://www.generatorx.no/20050921/NodeBox/
- 2005, NodeBox: http://www.ipb.pt/~vquelhas/research/project_links/view.php?cat=3
- 2005, NodeBox: http://www.freelists.org/archives/the_posthumans/03-2005/msg00026.html
- 2005, NodeBox: http://digitalmind.de/limited/shownews_111_2.html
- 2005, NodeBox: http://webagora.idd.tamabi.ac.jp/wiki/index.php?NodeBox
- 2005, NodeBox: http://www.peter.com.au/programming/scripted-drawing.html
- 2005, Artificial Intelligence: http://www.atypi.org/news_tool/news_rss_html?newsid=331
- 2005, NodeBox: http://www.ganyet.com/index.php/weblog/NodeBox-let-the-bot-design/
- 2005, NodeBox: http://www.tiblond.com/blog/index.php/2005/12/07/NodeBox
- 2005, NodeBox: http://www.regarde.org/blog/2005/09/27/info-art/NodeBox-de-lart-par-le-code/
- 2005, Flowerewolf: http://cart_355b.hybrid.concordia.ca/resources.html
- 2005, Flowerewolf: http://www.generatorx.no/20050922/oekandana/
- 2005, Flowerewolf: http://www.regarde.org/blog/category/info-art
- 2005, Flowerewolf: http://www.ipb.pt/~vquelhas/research/project_links/view.php?cat=3
Languages
- Dutch: native language
- English: excellent
- French: fair
- German: fair
Computer knowledge
- Operating systems: Windows, Unix and Mac operating systems
- Networking: servers, LAN networking and management
- Databases: MYSQL, MS Access, SQLite
- Programming languages: Cobol, Pascal, C++, Java, Python, Ruby, PyObjC, Cocoa, C
- Web practices: Rails, PHP, Javascript, DHTML, XHTML, XML, CSS, W3C standards, CMS, wiki
- Print practices: Certified PDF
- Software applications: Office, Gimp, Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Acrobat, Pitstop, Fontlab, Director, Dreamweaver, Processing, NodeBox
- Practices and experience: OOP, Java design patterns, extreme programming, templating, Web 2.0, Artificial Intelligence for game development