David Schwittek

I am an artist, designer, filmmaker, and teacher with interests in Digital Media, Politics, Film, Poetry, Prose, Media Literacy, Teaching and Music. My most current resume.

Work Experience:

  • Assistant Professor of Graphic Design and Digital Media,  Lehman College (CUNY); Bronx, NY — 2014-Present
    • I am currently a fulltime member of the Art Department faculty, teaching courses in design, web design, broadcast design, motion graphics, film and tv analysis, and occasionally some other cool stuff! 
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor & Senior College Lab Technician (Tenured),  Lehman College (CUNY); Bronx, NY — 2007-2014
    • As CLT and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Art Department at Lehman College, I was instrumental in helping to form the curriculum as well as ensure that students had the essential tools they needed to create all types of media. My job included extensive user support for both students and faculty on a multitude of applications and platforms. It was my job to assist students with any and all technology needs, maintain and upgrade the Macintosh labs, maintain and operate the printing facilities, administer the Xserve and all student accounts, deploy and maintain an XSAN network, manage the digital photography studio and the equipment therein, and essentially hold together the technological end of the department infrastructure.
    • As an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Lehman College, I taught courses in web design, web publishing, digital design, layout, film and TV production, as well as broadcast design and motion graphics.
    • I also installed, configured and currently assist in maintaining the video editing and media conversion facilities at Lehman’s MultiMedia Center, opened in 2009. This task draws upon my extensive background in networking, computer engineering, programming, storage area networks, server administration and video/audio editing. 
  • Chief Technical Coordinator, FlickerLab; New York City, NY — 2006-2007 
    • As a full-time member of FlickerLab’s staff , I was in charge of installing, maintaining and upgrading their systems, network infrastructure and high-speed Xsan network. I was placed in charge of mission-critical systems that needed to work 100 percent of the time in order to meet steadfast delivery dates. I worked closely with producers, animators and artists, utilizing my skills as a video editor and a sound designer, and I published web content for their website and clients. 
  •  Instructor, Parsons School of Design; New York City, NY — 2005-2007
    • As a part-time instructor at Parsons, I taught both undergraduate and graduate students courses that are designed to familiarize them with commonly used new media applications like Adobe After Effects, Flash, ProTools, and Final Cut Studio, as well as introduce them to new, creative technologies they may never have come in contact with before, such as Python, PHP, PIC Chips and Podcasts (RSS2.0). Working in the Design and Technology Department, of which I am also a graduate, provided me with an ideal venue to teach both professional video and audio production techniques as well as interface and web design.

Education:

  • MFA Design & Technology, 2006 — Parsons School of Design, New York, NY
  • BA Computer Science, 2003 — State University of New York at New Paltz, New Paltz, NY

Skills

Video Editing and Motion Graphics: Apple Final Cut Pro X; Adobe AfterEffects CS6, Flash CS6, Premiere Pro CS6

Sound Design: Apple Logic 9, Soundtrack Pro; Adobe Audition, Digidesign ProTools

Graphic Design: Adobe Creative Suite

Photography: traditional wet; medium format (120); large format; HDR; digital photography and printing

Web Design: HTML5, XHTML, CSS3, jQuery, Mambo/Joomla! and WordPress CMSs

Programming: Cocoa/Objective-C, C++, PHP/MySQL, Python, Javascript, ActionScript 3.0, Java (and Proce55ing)

SysAdmin: Apple Xserve, OSX Server (Leopard & Tiger), Xsan; Networking (TCP/IP, Fiber
Channel, 802.11x, etc.)

 

Certifications:

Apple Certified Pro - Final Cut Studio, 2008
Apple Certified Macintosh Technician, 2010

 

Publications, Awards, Citations, Festivals:

SUNY New Paltz Forty Under 40 honoree: recognized as a distinguished alumni for my 2015 NY Emmy, my web development for New York state, and my work with the Bronx Children’s Museum, a 501(c)(3) trying to develop the first and only children’s museum in the Bronx. 

Historical Typefaces: An Interpretation Through Movement; 2017 Rarebit Animation Festival at the Kingsborough Art Museum, June 1, 2017; 2017 CUNY Film Festival, Macaulay Honors College, Winner: Best Visual Design.

  • For Historical Typefaces: An Interpretation Through Movement, students were tasked with researching famous typefaces, designing still pieces exploring their formal and historical aspects, and then creating a collaborative motion graphics piece from their work. I served as editor and creative director.

Out From Plato’s Cave:  a documentary short examining the metaphor of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave through the experiences of CUNY students.

13th Annual HVG Art Show: select photographs exhibited at the Hudson View Gardens annual art exhibition, NYC. From November 5–13, 2011

Lehman Downtown: group show featuring the faculty of the Lehman College Art Department, members of the Art Gallery of Lehman College and the Math and Computer Science Department. Westbeth Gallery (Manhattan)

2010 mHealth Summit: iRescU - Saving Lives and Data: A New Multi-Platform App to Integrate the Lay End User, Emergency Services and Health Care Research; abstract selected for Research Technology Demonstration, Nov. 8-10, Washington D.C. Info at mhealthsummit.org

Dream Big Initiative: Documentarian for the Bronx Children’s Museum Dream Big Initiative, 2010; Featuring Justice Sonia Sotomayor. More info at http://www.bronxchildrensmuseum.org/

Sustainable CUNY Video Shorts Contest:  First Prize winner (view on YouTube)

Heart of Gold International Film Festival (Australia), 2009: Cards, Letters and Prayers, Official Selection

2008, 2009 & 2010 Lehman College Art Department Faculty Show, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx NY

Sound Shore Video Festival, 2008: Cards, Letters and Prayers, Grand Prize Winner, Best Overall Film

Rochester Short Film Festival, 2007: Cards, Letters and Prayers, Certificate of Merit

Buffalo Niagara Film Festival, 2007: Cards, Letters and Prayers, Official Selection

Little Theater Emerging Filmmakers Series, 2006: Cards, Letters and Prayers, Official Selection

Parsons 7th Annual Animation and Digital Film Festival, 2006: Cards, Letters and Prayers, Winner, Best Digital Film

Internet Movie Database: For more information about my film, Cards, Letters and Prayers, you can read about it and watch an abbreviated version on its Internet Movie Database Page

 

Affiliations, Committees, Panels etc.

The Juggernaut of Empire and the Need for a Whole New World: a program & discussion; presented and discussed work from Redact This! Artists and Writers Against Torture; panel discussion with Andy Zee (Revolution Books) and Jacob George from A Ride Till the End.

2010 CUNY IT Conference: iPads on Campus - Adopting Emerging iOS Platforms; a panel discussion to discuss and demonstrate how iPads might enhance the classroom experience, seen through three distinct, and often skeptical, lenses – of the student, professor and IT administrator; Conference publication link.

2010 LeftForum: Redact This! Artists and Writers Against Torture – Art Activism; a panel discussion (viewable here and here) to discuss my book project of the same name; at Pace University; Press release link.   

MultiMedia Center at Lehman College Advisory Committee - 2008-present

Working Committee on the Web, Division of Arts and Humanites, Lehman College 2009-present

Human Rights and Peace Studies Working Group, Lehman College 2011-present

 

Grants

2010 Research Foundation PSC-CUNY Research Grant: publishing funds for Redact This! Artists Against Torture, a collection of work from numerous artists responding to torture in the post-9/11 world.

2011 Research Foundation PSC CUNY Research Grant: production funds for Documenting the Homeless of Westchester County, a photo essay exploring homelessness and poverty in New York’s wealthiest country.

 

Projects, collaborations and interests

Bronx River Audio Tour: design, recording and production of an 18 minute audio tour of the Bronx River, its environs, flora and fauna. This audio tour is designed to play in the Bronx Children’s Museum’s mobile bus-museum.

This piece also draws extensively from the excellent Macauley Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: http://macaulaylibrary.org

Redact This! Artists Against Torture: grant funded book of artists from all over the world who have made work dealing with human rights violations. Artists include Fernando Botero, Jenny Holzer, Richard Serra, Daniel Heyman, and Dread Scott. I conceived of this project, personally collected the artwork and reproduction rights and designed the layout. This project was funded by the Research Foundation of CUNY in 2010.

WarCrinimalsWatch.org: I am the principle designer of World Can’t Wait’s project website, War Criminals Watch. The mission of War Criminals Watch is to ensure the documentation and prosecution of high officials of the Bush administration, or any subsequent administration, who are guilty of war crimes and/or crimes against humanity.

Dial El Barrio: a project conceived by Professor Stephanie Owens and developed by MFA students at Parsons School of Design that uses a location-based, wireless network to create an embedded documentary in the streets of Spanish Harlem. Via Medianoche

iRescu: a mobile device application that provides realtime CPR feedback and training, AED (Automated External Defibrillator) location and CPR data collection for the medical research community. presented at the 2010 mHealth Summit in Washington, DC.

FourthWall @ Second Stage Theatre, NY: FourthWall is an interactive video installation that was fixed in an heavily trafficked hallway in Manhattan's Second Stage Theatre. Utilizing computer vision and Flash animation, FourthWall aims to solve several of Second Stage's design problems by providing the passive user with a stimulating atmosphere and the active user with a fun and informative experience.