Abe Burmeister, designer, writer and artist
phone | (917) 806-8177
email | abe abstractdynamics org
note | this site is now years out of date, please view it as a historical document...
(-Abe Burmeister 4-11-2009)
Abe Burmeister creates solutions. His process of intensive immersion draws upon design, anthropology, economics and network theory to develop innovative ways to solve problems. In 1999 he co-founded One Infinity, an animation studio that developed cartoons with Disney, Shockwave.com and MCA Records and an award winning animated website for Frog's Leap Winery. After leaving One Infinity in 2003 he obtained a masters degree from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, wrote a book on alternative approaches to economics, Economies of Design and Other Adventures in Nomad Economics, and has been developing real time data visualization tools for stock trading. He also makes art. His blog is www.abstractdynamics.org.
Nomad Economics was my master's thesis at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program. The work is currently being published as a series of public drafts that track the process of the work evolving and allow for a broader base of feedback than traditional publishing models. At it's core the book is a guidebook to building an alternative approach to economics. The book and much more information is available on the website nomadeconomics.org. In addition to writing it all I also designed both the cover and interior layout.
A big game of territorial control played on the city streets using the "fermented technology" of the payphone infrastructure. Designed with Greg Trefry and a team of six for Frank Lantz of Area/Code. It was featured in the Come Out & Play Festival in New York, September 22-24, 2006. Read about it at CNET/News.com, CBS News and CNN. There was TV coverage on CBS and Reuters TV but I have yet to track down the clips, if you have access to them please contact me.
abstractdynamics.org is my weblog and home to much of my writing on design, technology and culture. Of course I designed the logo and developed the site.
I also host a small network of blogs, including those of New Yorker writer Sasha Frere-Jones, feminist rock critic Jessica Hopper, the renegade theorist K-Punk, Poet Joshua Clover aka Jane Dark, and Hyperstition a group blog founded by the Iranian intellectual Reza Negarestani.
I am presently designing interfaces for live stock data for use by the traders at Aurora Technologies. I am currently under NDA and can not say much more here, but the work will probably enter the patent process soon, at which point hopefully I can show people what I have been doing.
Paint Jet Printing documents the long running process of building a "paint jet printer", a device in which I can print out digital artworks using sign painters enamel.
The Future Perfect is the renowned store at the center of the new brooklyn industrial design scene. I developed a prototype for a hybrid ecommerce and social networking system for them, maybe one day it will see the light of day.
A two way video system in which users on both sides share a common virtual pane of glass on which they can draw and write to each other using a light pen. Designed and prototyped with David Nolen and Arianna Orland for Masamichi Udagawa of Antenna Design.
HotSpot is a design system concept created for Masamichi Udagawa of Antenna Design. It was designed and prototyped with Mohit Santram and Jun Oh. It consists of a citywide network of outdoor social heat vending machines and a small keychain device for navigation and automated payment.
Globetime is an ambient networked object, a globe that talks to the atomic clock in Colorado and then translates time back into space, visualizing the time by emulating the light of the sun on the earth. Designed and prototyped with Carlos Borges for Tom Igoe, author of Physical Computing
Predatory Mirror aka Ghost World is a live high resolution video processing system that removes people from video feeds, turning them into ghostly blurs. Created for Luke Dubois of Cycling 74.
I founded One Infinity in 1999 with Seth Fershko. I served as CFO and Creative Director. We produced the first broadcast quality Flash music video, developed award winning immersive websites and optioned an animated TV show to Disney. The company was dissolved profitably in 2003.
Frog's Leap was one of the first organic and biodynamic wineries in the world, and they continue to make a world class product. At One Infinity I produced and lead Flash development for their award winning site, a humorous animated world that still stands out from the "fill in the box" websites of today.
Concrete Jungle was an animated television show that One Infinity developed and option to Walt Disney Television for development. Cyberpunk met skateboarding in the scripts, and we met the world of marketing to 'tweens' and Hollywood absurdity.
Reportista! never got far as a show, but it was my favorite one by far. "Tintin meets Lara Croft" was the Hollywood pitch. Non-violent, high-adrenaline action with a female hero and cool robots, how could it not happen? Well very little actually happens in Hollywood...
The Saturation Engine is an animation software I designed, programmed and used to create a series of artworks that have been show across the US and in Europe. I also prototyped a physical interface designed explicitly for the program.
Logos was created by me and [sic] for the artists group 47. It is a piece of generative software that creates an infinite and ever shifting video piece by alternating and reconstructing corporate logos. It was licensed to DJ Spooky for use as tour graphics.