Matthew Bejtlich © 2020
Matthew (b. 1991) grew up in the countryside of rural Massachusetts. He is a data scientist, designer, photographer, and music composer interested in sustainability and storytelling for impact. His latest research has focused on the design of participatory systems to enable new forms of play, knowledge generation, community-building, and discovery.
For the past ten years, Matthew has been deeply invested in the global electronic music scene, producing electronic music as part of the audio-visual duo Dayspired. He is a current partner at Rhythm Section International (London, UK), where he is being mentored by record label founder Bradley Zero (DJ at BBC Radio 1, NTS Radio, Boiler Room). Soon he will also be exploring more minimal and atmospheric directions in solo work released under his own name.
Matthew recently graduated with his MFA from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) after receiving his MS in Data Science from Brown University. He was a graduate researcher at Brown’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab and the head teaching assistant for the class Machine Learning and Design. He is currently open to full time work and freelancing opportunities.
Connect
Email, Resume, Music, Instagram, LinkedIn, GitHub
Client list
He has worked or collaborated with Google, Holition, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, British Fashion Council, Brown University HCI Lab, and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center.
Education
Rhode Island School of Design
MFA Graphic Design, 2021
Brown University
MS Data Science, 2018
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
BS Electrical Engineering, 2015
SOUND MAPPING AND EMOTIONAL RESONANCE
How do we connect to a landscape through sound? How can sound be a creative medium for long-distance human connection? I asked 10 friends from around the world (e.g. Los Angeles, Brooklyn, London, Vancouver, Cologne, Raja Ampat Islands, and Copenhagen) to take part in a collaborative sound mapping activity by recording distinct sounds from places they found inspirational, and to supply an additional personal reflection (through voice).
From these personal contributions, I then made a video to tell the full sonic journey taken by the group, working specifically with the devices of sound collage and video, in order to reveal any unexpected relationships and juxtapositions between the responses.
Date: 2019
Client: Self
Class: Graduate Studio I (RISD)
Instructor: Paul Soulellis
How do we connect to a landscape through sound? How can sound be a creative medium for long-distance human connection? I asked 10 friends from around the world (e.g. Los Angeles, Brooklyn, London, Vancouver, Cologne, Raja Ampat Islands, and Copenhagen) to take part in a collaborative sound mapping activity by recording distinct sounds from places they found inspirational, and to supply an additional personal reflection (through voice).
From these personal contributions, I then made a video to tell the full sonic journey taken by the group, working specifically with the devices of sound collage and video, in order to reveal any unexpected relationships and juxtapositions between the responses.
Date: 2019
Client: Self
Class: Graduate Studio I (RISD)
Instructor: Paul Soulellis
Data Science, Experiential Design, Videography
OPEN ARTICULATIONS (RISD MFA THESIS)
Open Articulations invites an exchange between human and environmental worlds through cycles of improvisation, reflection, and rebirth. It is a study of how exchanges emerge, what forms they can take, how they are mediated, and how we can sustain them with each other and with our surroundings. Embodied within this book are the traces and tonal accents of these exchanges. Breathless acts. Careful watchings. Open and conjoined articulations. Here is my side of it. What is yours?
Date: 2021
Class: Graduate Thesis II (RISD)
Primary Advisor: Paul Soulellis
Secondary Advisor: Aki Nurosi
External Critic: Keira Alexandra
GPD: Bethany Johns
Printed and Bound at HF Group
Format: Book (Hardcover)
Pages: 196
Size: 8.46″ by 11.6″
Open Articulations invites an exchange between human and environmental worlds through cycles of improvisation, reflection, and rebirth. It is a study of how exchanges emerge, what forms they can take, how they are mediated, and how we can sustain them with each other and with our surroundings. Embodied within this book are the traces and tonal accents of these exchanges. Breathless acts. Careful watchings. Open and conjoined articulations. Here is my side of it. What is yours?
Date: 2021
Class: Graduate Thesis II (RISD)
Primary Advisor: Paul Soulellis
Secondary Advisor: Aki Nurosi
External Critic: Keira Alexandra
GPD: Bethany Johns
Printed and Bound at HF Group
Format: Book (Hardcover)
Pages: 196
Size: 8.46″ by 11.6″
MAGNET
A short narrative film depicting how I move through space and how space moves around me. It invites the viewer to draw associations and juxtopositions between the synthetic and the natural materials encountered along the way.
Date: 2020
Client: Self
Class: Graduate Studio II (RISD)
Instructor: Lucy Hitchcock, MFA
A short narrative film depicting how I move through space and how space moves around me. It invites the viewer to draw associations and juxtopositions between the synthetic and the natural materials encountered along the way.
Date: 2020
Client: Self
Class: Graduate Studio II (RISD)
Instructor: Lucy Hitchcock, MFA
Direction, videography
KINESTHETIC
Who am I? As part of my Graduate Studio I class at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), each student was asked to contributed a 16-page signature in response to this question, which began with a series of tasks as a way to set off the path of exploring, responding, and collecting in and around Providence, RI.
The spreads shown to the right depict my personal kinesthetic and psychological experiences as I explore the space around Providence and carry out ritualistic daily athletic movements—biking, ping pong, tennis, and soccer. The photography arrangement is inspired by that of a musical passage or score, the score of my kinesthetic seasons.
Date: 2019
Client: Self
Class: Graduate Studio I (RISD)
Instructor: Paul Soulellis, B.Arch
Who am I? As part of my Graduate Studio I class at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), each student was asked to contributed a 16-page signature in response to this question, which began with a series of tasks as a way to set off the path of exploring, responding, and collecting in and around Providence, RI.
The spreads shown to the right depict my personal kinesthetic and psychological experiences as I explore the space around Providence and carry out ritualistic daily athletic movements—biking, ping pong, tennis, and soccer. The photography arrangement is inspired by that of a musical passage or score, the score of my kinesthetic seasons.
Date: 2019
Client: Self
Class: Graduate Studio I (RISD)
Instructor: Paul Soulellis, B.Arch
Editorial design, Photography, Print
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ASSORTED ALBUM ARTWORK
A collection of record sleeves created over the years.
Client: Self, Dayspired
Date: 2010–2020
A collection of record sleeves created over the years.
Client: Self, Dayspired
Date: 2010–2020
Album artwork, Print
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SPATIAL PERCUSSION THROUGH MOVEMENT
Spatial Percussion is an expressive musical composition tool which uses hand gesture to enable the real-time positioning of percussive sounds in spatial audio (ambisonics format). The project was born out of the desire to compose a spatially-located percussive beat through movement. All drum sounds were recorded manually. The project was programmed in Max/MSP.
Date: 2019
Client: Self
Class: Spatial Audio (RISD)
Collaborator: Arjun Shah
Instructor: Shawn Greenlee, PhD
Spatial Percussion is an expressive musical composition tool which uses hand gesture to enable the real-time positioning of percussive sounds in spatial audio (ambisonics format). The project was born out of the desire to compose a spatially-located percussive beat through movement. All drum sounds were recorded manually. The project was programmed in Max/MSP.
Date: 2019
Client: Self
Class: Spatial Audio (RISD)
Collaborator: Arjun Shah
Instructor: Shawn Greenlee, PhD
Data science, Sound design
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FORCE AND POSITION MIDI CONTROLLER
For my senior capstone project in electrical engineering, I led a team of five other engineering students to design a highly customizable position and force sensing MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) controller prototype for a small synth repair company based in Southern Maine called New England Analog. MIDI is a technical standard for digitally representing and transmitting sounds — it is used as a touch surface to allow the user to control a wide range of sound parameters (e.g velocity, pitch, and panning) base upon the force of the applied touch.
Over the course of the year, my team developed and produced a working prototype satisfying the major requirement and needs of the customer. We presented the result in front of a panel of judges and industry leaders.
Date: 2014
Client: New England Analog
Class: Electrical Enginnering Senior Capstone
Collaborators: Cameron Connor, Jean Pierre, Aaron
DaPonte, Greg Ladd, Devin Honeycutt
Advisors: David Rancour, PhD and Howard Michel, PhD
For my senior capstone project in electrical engineering, I led a team of five other engineering students to design a highly customizable position and force sensing MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) controller prototype for a small synth repair company based in Southern Maine called New England Analog. MIDI is a technical standard for digitally representing and transmitting sounds — it is used as a touch surface to allow the user to control a wide range of sound parameters (e.g velocity, pitch, and panning) base upon the force of the applied touch.
Over the course of the year, my team developed and produced a working prototype satisfying the major requirement and needs of the customer. We presented the result in front of a panel of judges and industry leaders.
Date: 2014
Client: New England Analog
Class: Electrical Enginnering Senior Capstone
Collaborators: Cameron Connor, Jean Pierre, Aaron
DaPonte, Greg Ladd, Devin Honeycutt
Advisors: David Rancour, PhD and Howard Michel, PhD
SCULPTURAL AUDIO
Visualizing music through photography and paper folding. The images shown here were created using a wet paper folding technique, set overnight to dry in abstract forms, and then arranged and photographed.
The song depicted is my own, called “It’s a Secret.” The foundation of the song revolves around a kalimba pattern that I played, manipulated, and layered with washed out, rising synth passages. The smooth, sloping forms of the paper draw attention to the music’s high dynamic range. The translucent parts of the image are evocative of the tracks lush, layered percussion.
Date: 2019
Client: Self
Class: Graduate Form II
Instructor: Tom Wedell
Visualizing music through photography and paper folding. The images shown here were created using a wet paper folding technique, set overnight to dry in abstract forms, and then arranged and photographed.
The song depicted is my own, called “It’s a Secret.” The foundation of the song revolves around a kalimba pattern that I played, manipulated, and layered with washed out, rising synth passages. The smooth, sloping forms of the paper draw attention to the music’s high dynamic range. The translucent parts of the image are evocative of the tracks lush, layered percussion.
Date: 2019
Client: Self
Class: Graduate Form II
Instructor: Tom Wedell
Photography
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NATURE’S EGG
Nature’s Egg is my short-film response to the class prompt: “How do you make the perfect hardboiled egg?”
Date: 2019
Client: Self
Class: Design Studio (RISD)
Instructor: Tom Wedell, MFA
Sound: Olafur Arnalds — unfold
Nature’s Egg is my short-film response to the class prompt: “How do you make the perfect hardboiled egg?”
Date: 2019
Client: Self
Class: Design Studio (RISD)
Instructor: Tom Wedell, MFA
Sound: Olafur Arnalds — unfold
Direction, Videography, Sound editing
UPCYCLED JACKET & INSTALLATION
Archetype is an interactive future retail concept which showcases unique repaired garments—created from old, damaged, or abandoned source material—and digitally augments them with granular data narratives to tell the story of the upcycled piece.
This project was two-fold and took place in a quick span of two weeks for a proof of concept. A billowy upcycled jacket was created from a 50-year-old spinnaker sail. Next, in the audio-visual component, visitors learn of the rich historical and cultural significance of the garment through archival sailing footage, overlaid audio recordings about upcycling practice, and personal maritime stories. The garment silhouette is superimposed back into the video image in real-time.
Date: 2019
Client: Self
Class: In/On/Between (RISD)
Collaborator: Misha Gehring
Instructor: Catherine Andreozzi, BFA
Archetype is an interactive future retail concept which showcases unique repaired garments—created from old, damaged, or abandoned source material—and digitally augments them with granular data narratives to tell the story of the upcycled piece.
This project was two-fold and took place in a quick span of two weeks for a proof of concept. A billowy upcycled jacket was created from a 50-year-old spinnaker sail. Next, in the audio-visual component, visitors learn of the rich historical and cultural significance of the garment through archival sailing footage, overlaid audio recordings about upcycling practice, and personal maritime stories. The garment silhouette is superimposed back into the video image in real-time.
Date: 2019
Client: Self
Class: In/On/Between (RISD)
Collaborator: Misha Gehring
Instructor: Catherine Andreozzi, BFA
Experience design, Apparel design
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