Rebecca Allen

After advancing her academic career, Allen spent two years working at Virgin Interactive Entertainment as a video game designer. Allen eventually left due to working conditions that didn’t allow her to experience new growth, as stated in an interview with Erriki Hutamo. She then accepted an offer for the chair position at UCLA, serving as the chair of the Department of Design Media Arts at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), retiring in 2019. Allen spent two terms in this position (1996–2000 and 2014–2016). Alongside her working as the chair of this department, she was also a professor at UCLA, teaching within the same department. Allen spent time working in the Computer Graphics Laboratory at the New York Institute of Technology.

Aside from practicing within the academic field, Allen also was a director at Nokia’s research labs which grew her interest in research within interactive design and new technology. She later completed many works such as The Brain Stripped Bare, Coexistence, The Bush Soul#1, #1, #3.

Fast Company named Allen one of the Most Creative People in Business for 2010. She helped pioneer digital computer art by creating one of the first music videos to use 3D graphics, for the 1986 Musique Non-Stop by Kraftwerk. Her artwork is part of the permanent museum collection the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

"OLPC XO" (2005) was an inexpensive computer project built in the MIT Media lab for children who live in the developing world. This initiative was composed by researchers Rebecca Allen, Nicholas Negroponte, Mary Lou Jepsen, Mark Foster, Michail Bletsas, V. Michael Bove, and many other artists. The OLPC laptop was usable because it was recyclable, drop proof, splash proof, and dust proof.The laptop was also the size of a textbook, but lighter than a lunchbox. It had features like a rubber keyboard, a handle, and had soft edges. Several hundreds of thousands of these laptops have been distributed to schools all over the world. Some distributed countries include: Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Ethiopia, Libya, Mexico, Mongolia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Rwanda, Thailand, and Uruguay. This project functioned as a tool to help children from these countries connect to the internet and learn.

The Brain Stripped Bare was an installation and performance by Allen where she considers a future where we live simultaneously in multiple realities, where the boundaries between physical and virtual reality are blurred and thoughts are expressed telepathically. The technology she created provided an enhanced life experience. With this in mind though, Allen created sophisticated forms of surveillance that track our behaviors, our movements and our identity. This piece was Commissioned as part of the rhein.tanzmedia.net-Prize Partially funded by the Intel Research Council. This work was also presented in the Duisburger Akzente: ICHS Festival in 2003.

"Bush Soul (#3)" is the third and final art installation the Bush Soul series. "Bush Soul #3" was built off of the similar concepts Allen envisioned and practiced in "The Bush Soul #2" and "The Bush Soul #1". Allen continued to work with generating a world based around artificial life, the interaction on human behavior, tactile interfaces and 3D virtual environment, similar to the prior projects. This final addition to the three piece installation functions by having A haptic, force-feedback joystick. This provides the user with both navigation and tactile sensations. These aspects, when combined connect one's physical body and virtual soul. Also, it got its software program from the same software used in "Bush Soul #2" called Emergence. This piece was also worked on and funded by the Stephen Petronio Dance Company. Also, it received funding in part by Intel Research Council. This piece also was featured in several Exhibitions, such as Women in Science (Genomically Yours) in 2003, ACM Siggraph festival in 2001, and more (see 'Art Exhibitions and Performances' section below).

The "Bush Soul (#2)" is the second piece of a three art installation from the same title by Rebecca Allen, falling back on the concepts from its predecessor, ("The Bush Soul #1") building on the ideas of artificial life, behavior, tactile interfaces and 3D virtual environment. This is Allen's second piece of work to be created with the "Emergence" software. The medium that it falls under, and the method of which it was presented was by the use of a Panorama picture. The piece was later noted for being included in the Exhibition Art and Aesthetics of Artificial Life in the year 1998, as well as being featured in the art exhibition in the museum Centro Culturale Claudio Trevi in 1999.

The first piece of a series of three interactive art installations which involve artificial life, behavior, tactile interfaces and 3D virtual environment. This piece is set on a 4 inch by 8 inch digital screen and allows for people to role play and become avatars in an artificial world. The Bush soul is a concept based off of a West African belief that a person can have more than one soul, and plays with that idea in order to involve people in role playing into their avatar. The software that was used in this installation was one that Allen created, entitled Emergence. The art installation was also featured in the SIGGRAPH Touchware Art show in the year of 1998.

"Steps" is a video performance that Rebecca Allen animated with the goal of creating a human in a virtual space. The video itself showcases a series of digitally animated people walking up a staircase on a looped motion. This piece was displayed in the 1986 exhibition entitled A Retrospective, showcased by SIGGRAPH.

"Swimmer" is a looping video animation. This is a piece Rebecca Allen curated to show human animation using technology. It was displayed on the exhibition entitled A Retrospective in 1986., which was hosted by SIGGRAPH.

Allen began her practice with design while working toward a B.F.A. degree at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1975. She received her master (M.S.) degree from the Architecture Machine Group (predecessor to the MIT Media Lab) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980.

Rebecca Allen (born 1954) is an American designer, artist, pioneer, researcher, and educator, known for her research in the field of digital art. Starting in the 1970's, Allen started to compose works for computer imaging. This included still graphics, animation, television logos, music videos, video games, large-scale performance work, artificial life systems, and interactive installations. Her work addresses humanizing technology.