Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Happy New Year! I wish you all a wonderful 2023!

This past year was a metamorphic one for me, finishing two doctorates after a decade of working on both in parallel. I’m reaching out to my network as I need some help with next steps to transition into a career that leverages my full potential.

In the past months, I have been reflecting on what is important in my life to facilitate creative, educational, and entrepreneurial outcomes within my areas of research. I hope to involve you in both my continued academic path and entrepreneurial vision for the future.

Ideally, I would love to find something that allows me to apply my knowledge and continue my research in a meaningful way to help others, so as to create lasting change in the world. Stepping stones are welcome and perhaps needed in the interim.

I am asking my network for any leads on my next career adventure, or simply leads on any temporary intermediate work. I’m on the lookout for full-time work (preferably with flexible hours), part-time work, consulting work, or any other temporary gigs, starting immediately, remote or in the LA area, ideally (or SB/Central Coast).

In addition to any leads, I also welcome advice on potential networking opportunities to gain momentum on my journey through this next phase of life.

My UCSB dissertation is available here: https://escholarship.org/content/qt5fs230zd/qt5fs230zd.pdf

For more detailed information, please read my Career Summary below.

 Thank you for all your support!

Alexis Story Crawshaw

Ph.D. (Media Arts and Technology, Cognitive Science Emphasis; UCSB, 2022)

Ph.D. (Aesthetics, Sciences and Technologies of Arts, Specialty: Music; Université Paris 8, 2022)

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LINKS

Email: alexis at mat.ucsb.edu

Website/Portfolio: https://www.alexisstorycrawshaw.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexis-story-crawshaw/

Fiverr: https://www.fiverr.com/users/storycrow

Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~017fdda7cc05a690a8

IG: @storycrow

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CAREER SUMMARY

Qualifications/Interests:

In addition to two research doctorates in the cross-disciplinary digital arts and over 8 years of university-level teaching, I have expertise in creative computing, creative/innovative thinking and strategy, pedagogical development, and mentoring students with cross-disciplinary interests. My creative computing work includes interactive design and virtual environments, especially with haptics, sound, gestural control, physical computing, and worldmaking.

I can: 

• • consult/manage (creativity, innovation, haptics, technology, ethics, education),
  • teach (classes, tutoring, mentorship—all ages, levels),
  • create/code digital content (sound design, VR, 3D models/assets, motion graphics, worldmaking),
  • prototype (art technology/haptics/VR),
  • compose music (electroacoustic, songwriting, orchestral, chamber, choir, solo instrument),
  • write/edit (copy, proofreading, research writing, academic writing, creative writing),
  • create visual art (abstract drawings, 3D models, 3D prints),
  • do videography,
  • do audiovisual editing, and
  • do photography (I even have archived photography work in the MOMA).

Research: 

Through my research at UCSB, I sought to develop the key theories and skills to reimagine public education, empowering students as future-makers—designing and shaping the world with vision, purpose, and compassion. To prepare students in this way, I created and tested novel strategies to optimize:

• • innovative problem-solving through creativity;
  • creativity through cross-disciplinary art-making;
  • contemporary skills through creative computation;
  • an active, capable mindset through hands-on making; and
  • values and curiosity through critical making, using art as a philosophical and research tool.

My research at Paris 8 on haptic music and related interactive feedback in virtual environments provided me with novel tools for creatively enacting this in learning-by-making scenarios, where students can probe the building blocks of reality and their body’s relationship to such constructs.

My research spanned the following areas:

• • digital arts,
  • cognitive sciences,
  • learning sciences,
  • humanities,
  • STEM,
  • and more.

Through this peer-reviewed work, I feel like I have hit upon some novel and valuable insight, poised to create substantial impact.

I see that with just the right opportunity, my research can also serve contexts beyond public education, including professionals in industry, politics, and academic research.

Entrepreneurship:

I have been working on a think-and-make start-up toward these ends, working with a business mentor from SCORE and other colleagues. While I am making strides, getting this start-up to the point of generating income requires some baseline financial security and other resources that I do not presently have. Any leads for funding in this area would be much appreciated.

As a first step, I plan to offer a paid cross-disciplinary worldmaking class over Zoom to children and/or to older students/adults. The format would be similar to this course: https://youtu.be/rasIrsOATzg. If this would be of interest to you or others in your network, do let me know, as it would be helpful to gauge general interest and timing.