Talk:Max Weisel

This article should not be speedily deleted for lack of asserted importance because he's in Wired magazine and on display in MoMA.
 * If you can find sources for these, and add them to the page, I will gladly remove the template for you. Currently, there is no mention of that on the page. If you need help with policies on biographies, see WP:BLP. Thanks! Gwickwire (talk) 01:53, 2 November 2011 (UTC)
 * I see the sources listed, but not included in the article. Please include the information about the magizines and MoMA in the article text. Thanks! Gwickwire (talk) 01:54, 2 November 2011 (UTC)
 * How's that? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.83.220.70 (talk) 02:13, 2 November 2011 (UTC)

Suggested Updates 09/2019
Hi all,

Though I'm by no means an official wiki-editor, I've gone ahead and done some research on Max, and have found sources for the data below which I'm hoping might be vetted and added as updates to this page. Please feel free to use this as a starting point/reference to help arrive to whatever is best for accuracy on a BLP page. I appreciate the help of the community!

Bio side bar: Known for: New Media, Virtual Reality, UX Design, Interactive Art

note: (remove Artificial intelligence - there are no prominent sources citing Max's work with AI, and not something Max is seemingly closely associated with at this point)

Movement: Interactive Art

Occupation: Software Engineer, Artist, and Entrepreneur Title: Founder of Normal VR, LLC (2016 - present)

Update 'Top Summary' :

add line - After the acquisition of RelativeWave, Max worked as a Head of Material Design Tools at Google until 2016, when he left to found Normal, a virtual reality and augmented reality software development company.

Remove section: 'Works' (replace with detailed and sourced information below)

Add section: 'Background and Personal Life'

Max was born in Tucson, Arizona on November 12, 1991. After graduating high school, Max attended college in Tuscon for a semester before dropping out to establish and run his own tech company. In 2011, Max moved to San Francisco with a group of friends who later became contractors, where he founded RelativeWave, a research and development studio. After the sale of RelativeWave to Google, Max left San Francisco and moved to New York City, where he now resides as the founder and CEO of virtual and augmented reality company, Normal.

Add section: 'Early projects and iOS apps'

Add sub-section: 'Jailbreak community and MxTube'

In 2008, after the release of the original iPhone, Max began following along with the work of the early iOS jailbreaking community and became involved in developing some of the first iPhone apps not made by Apple. Max developed and released MxTube, an app only available on jailbroken iPhones using Installer.app, which allowed users to download videos from YouTube to watch when offline and disconnected from wi-fi or cellular data networks.

Add sub-section: 'MiTube'

With the launch of the App Store (iOS), Max ported MxTube to Apple’s official software development platform, and released the app on the App Store as MiTube, where it quickly became one of the most popular apps at the time, rising to be the seventh most downloaded app on the day of its launch. Apple_Inc. removed the app from the store shortly after the launch to avoid potential legal action from YouTube’s parent company, Google.

Add sub-section: 'Soundrop'

Following the removal of MiTube from the App Store, and while finishing up his senior year of high school, Max began to work on a new app focusing on sound and music, named Soundrop. Cloning the “Ball Droppings” app created by JT Nimoy, the app is an experimental electronic musical pad designed for the iPad. The user creates sounds by having the user drawing line and connecting dots together which create different audio reactions and behaviors with falling dots that intersect with the drawn lines. The app caught the attention of many in the app development community as well as prominent musicians such as Björk, who contacted Max with an offer to collaborate on an upcoming project after seeing Soundrop, stating in an interview with Pitchfork that “Soundrop by Max Weisel was the best [app] because it really is a musical instrument. It wasn’t just superficial.” From July 24 through November 7, 2011, Soundrop was on display as part of the Museum of Modern Art’s Talk to Me exhibition. Being asked about his inspiration for the app, Max commented in an interview that he found it “embarrassing that [he] didn’t give credit to the original.” Stating that “[he] didn’t think much of it as a kid” and had since then “...talked with the creator of the original” but hadn’t made any modifications or updates since the release. The developer of the app which Soundrop was based on, JT Nimoy, stated on the Ball Droppings website that “Ball Droppings is a community effort and we should celebrate that. Max adds plenty of new concepts in his version.”

Add section: 'Biophilia tour and Björk apps'

In 2010, Max began work on multiple projects for Björk: three “song apps” to be included as part of the release of Björk’s official “app album”, Biophilia. The album is a first of its kind crossover between mobile applications and mainstream musical releases. The album and associated apps were released in 2011. Max also designed and programmed a new musical interface taking advantage of four iPads networked together to create a large touchscreen surface for playing multiple instruments and controlling stage elements for the Biophilia Tour show, including a large Tesla coil used a percussive instrument. Max’s debut performance with Björk was broadcast on The Colbert Report in February 2012. The iPad interface was integrated into the Biophilia tour, with Max performing alongside Björk, where he played as part of the band in her tour appearances from 2012 - 2013. In addition to his work performing on the tour and designing interactive systems for the performances, Max also served as the musical director.

Add sub-section: Biophilia app album and song apps

As part of a development team commissioned by Björk, Max helped to create the Biophilia app, a fully interactive “mother” application which served as the central hub for the individual song apps created by each of the developers commissioned by Björk. Max designed three song apps for the project, Moon, Dark Matter, and Solstice.

Add detail-sub-section: 'Moon app'

For the Moon song app, Björk led Max to create an app that “connects musical structure, human biorhythms, and cycles of the moon and tides…” The app allows users to play a sequencer-like instrument by playing with ‘pearls’ that react to the tide of water in the app. The user creates patterns in the water, which changes height based on the tide, creating liquid patterns represented both visually and by the music generated in the app.

Add detail-sub-section: 'Dark Matter app'

The song app for Dark Matter focuses on musical scales, exploring their “relationships in term[s] of magnetism.” By taking advantage of various musical modes and scales from different cultures, the user in Dark Matter can create “different colours” by shifting between each scale.

Add detail-sub-section: 'Solstice app'

Represented by ‘planets’ orbiting a star, with each planet rendered as colored lines, the user controls strings and vocals within the musical arrangement by changing their orbits, speeds and coordinates as they revolve around the central point. The user can then save their “remix” of the track, creating their own unique version of the Solstice song. A special winter-themed version of the Solstice app was developed by Max and released separately from Biophilia by Björk in December 2011. The winter app was launched with a reimagined design, trading its solar system interface for a Christmas tree.

Add sub-section: 'Induction into MOMA Collection'

Following the success of the Biophilia tour and app releases, the Museum of Modern Art inducted the Biophilia app and corresponding song apps into the permanent collection, making Biophilia the first app entered into the permanent collection. The app’s induction was followed by a retrospective installation on Björk, focusing prominently on the recent interactive and app-based album and instruments used on stage in the tour by Max and others.

Add section: 'RelativeWave'

During Max’s time touring with Björk, he founded a research and development studio named RelativeWave. The studio focused on researching and prototyping tools for the nascent but budding field of mobile app design.

Add sub-section: 'ARTPOP app'

In 2011, while at a dinner in Chicago, Lady Gaga and Max developed an idea for a multimedia creative app to be released alongside her upcoming album, ARTPOP. Like the Biophilia app, the ARTPOP app would serve both as a home for the album and the music itself, but it would also feature multiple interactive elements, allowing the user to the music in a unique and personal way, as well as to create and share their own media, including songs and GIFs, from tools within the app.

Development for the app began and continued through 2013, with previews and demos taking place for press and others, but for uncited reasons, development on the app was ceased, and the completed app was never publicly released.

Despite the cancellation, Gaga thanked Max and the team at RelativeWave in the digital book and physical CD jacket as the official “techhaus”.

Add sub-section: 'Form'

RelativeWave developed and released an interaction design and prototyping software tool called “Form” in 2014. The app was being sold for $150 for a license (later dropped to $80), and utilized a visual programming language that allowed designers to prototype rough designs for apps by connecting nodes together. The app’s main function was to help designers envision and work through design challenges and issues before diving into engineering and programming work. In November 2014, Google acquired RelativeWave, gaining ownership of Form in the deal. The team, including Max, joined Google to continue supporting and developing the app as an internal tool. Form was made free on the date of the acquisition announcement, and in an unparalleled move, early adopters and previous licensees were given a refund for the software they had previously purchased.

Add section: 'Normal'

After the acquisition of RelativeWave by Google, Max continued working on Form at Google until late 2015, when he had a chance to preview a virtual reality headset and decided to leave Google and fully devote himself to creating tools and software for VR applications. In January 2016, Max founded Normal, a research-led virtual and augmented reality startup.

Add sub-section: 'Cutie Keys'

In February 2017, Normal announced and released a keyboard and typing solution for VR, called ”Cutie Keys”. Inspired in part by a Google I/O demo, Cutie Keys deploys a floating keyboard in front of a user in VR, which they can then type on using virtual “drumsticks” attached to their hand controllers. Normal released Cutie Keys as an open source solution for any developers to use freely in their applications, and modify as desired.

Add sub-section: 'Normcore'

In May 2019, Normal released “Normcore”, a multiplayer plugin for the Unity (Game Engine). Noting a lack of universalized resources for multi-user VR and AR experiences and a large overhead required in recreating these resources for every application, Normcore was created to provide a set of fundamental UX and UI implementations, designed specifically for VR and AR, but extendable to any game or application created within Unity.

Update section 'See Also'

Add:

Networking software

VOIP

Virtual Reality

Augmented Reality

Unity (game engine)

Update section 'External Links'

Add:

Cutie Keys github

Normal VR website

Normcore SDK

Nicksava (talk) 00:49, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

Links
added link section.GarbledLecture933 (talk) 22:01, 3 November 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070305223747/http://bjork.com/ to http://bjork.com/

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