Ethan Proia

Ethan Proia

Designer & Creative Technologist in Brooklyn, NYC, he/him

About

Designing for emerging technologies.

Creative Tech @nasa
Founding Designer @floraai
Technical Director @artificenyc

Work Experience

2024 — Now
Brooklyn, NYC

Building the next generation of creative software.

2024 — Now
NASA HQ

Designing interactive & immersive artworks, data visualizations, & science communication experiences to communicate the effects of human-driven climate change to the public.

TouchDesigner • Unreal Engine • Blender • Figma • Framer

2014 — Now

Freelance work across technology consulting, design, app development, and photography/cinematography.

  • Cinematographer for film, music videos, documentary, and commercials

  • Photography for fashion, portraiture, product, and artist documentation

  • Design & identity for 30+ brands, logos, products, Web, apps, and more

2024 — 2024
Boston, MA

AI-powered B2B SaaS platform for public real estate record search.

Figma • Framer

2022 — 2023
Chicago, IL

Directed and managed the diverse audiovisual, IT, and computing demands of the Art & Technology department while undergoing a significant department merger. Designed, built, and maintained hardware, software, student employees, and facilities systems used annually by ~500 students & faculty.

  • Designed & implemented department-wide design system & real-time digital signage information system

  • Provided technical & conceptual consultation on student & faculty projects & research for international exhibition

  • Managed, maintained, and taught specialty digital fabrication equipment, creative software and hardware packages spanning AV, filmmaking, design, animation, 3D, Web, AI, and mixed reality

2020 — 2021
Miami, NYC, DC

Designed and consulted on virtual & physical production aesthetics, concepts, internal organization initiatives, and technical specifications for immersive installations across all East Coast gallery locations.

  • Design lead for augmented reality app in partnership with the United Nations Foundation

  • Redesigned detailed internal artist technical deck template for all locations from CAD data

  • Created media for the PANTONE Color of the Year 2021 showcase

2017 — 2018
Newton, MA

Conducted client equipment consultations & filmmaking technology demonstrations, built custom cinema equipment packages for clients such as Discovery, The Food Network, CNN, PBS, and NBC. Maintained extensive current technical industry knowledge on cinema equipment such as camera ecosystems, optics, video transmission systems, codecs, and file format standards.

  • Built new testing standards and procedures

  • Consulted on, prototyped, and tested new industry equipment

  • Managed equipment upkeep, status, and repairs

Projects

2024

Custom website redesign & branding for a quantum engineering startup out of MIT.

2023

Concept & case study for a cross-platform iOS, macOS, and visionOS integration of an LLM-based Apple AI assistant.

2020

Lead designer for ARTECHOUSE Extended Reality version 5.0 refresh. Released in collaboration with the United Nations Foundation to celebrate their 50th anniversary and the introduction of the UN's 17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Volunteering

2024 — Now
NYC

Next-generation arts organization exhibiting digital and physical media.

Exhibitions

2019
Alternative Image Capture at Art & Technology Studies Department
Chicago, IL
2018
TEST II at QUE4 Radio
Chicago, IL

Writing

2023

Revisiting techniques for immersion for device-less interactive media.

2021
Sonic Identity

A physical reconsideration of Sound Art. Sound extends far above and below the range of audible sound and has utility beyond this audible range. We must re-conceptualize and broaden our definition of sound and sound art to encompass the mechanical wave spectrum in its entirety.

Features

2024
Featured Profile on read.cv

Education

2017 — 2022
Chicago, IL

Concentration in Art & Technology, Visual Communication, & Film, Video, New Media, and Animation,

Contact

SuperRare
Threads
Twitter
LinkedIn
Figma
Instagram