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David Shuff

David Shuff

Editor, Secret Life Team

David Shuff is tremendously pleased to be cutting this season of ‘Secret Life.” When he’s not delighting in the miracle of editing, he puts his energies towards filmmaking, essay writing, live storytelling, radio documentaries, and more creative side projects than he can handle. His History Eraser device is nearly complete, but don’t worry, you won’t feel a thing even if it works. David has worked for a list of advertising agencies that would make any “Mad Men” character proud, but it was his lecture on Disney’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” ride that got him onto Japanese TV. He is also the proud owner of the sweetest therapy dog in the world and a board member of the fantastic nonprofit Girls Write Now.

David's Secret Life Posts

David Shuff

America’s Most Wanted/Unwanted!

Posted by David Shuff | 07 April 2011

As if conducting an Elephant Orchestra weren’t enough, Dave Sulzer (AKA Dave Soldier) is also famous in our minds for a project he did in the ‘90s with the Russian-American artist duo Komar & Melamid.

At that time, Komar & Melamid were already well known for their tongue-in-cheek, survey-based art project, “The People’s Choice: The Most Wanted Painting.” For the project they asked people about the specific aspects of art that they like and disliked, then used the results to create paintings that—statistically speaking—should be the “most wanted” and “most unwanted” paintings possible. Not surprisingly the resulting paintings were more humorous and thought provoking than fine art in their own right. You can view the results here.

To follow it up, Komar & Melamid decided to apply “The People’s Choice” formulae to music, surveying people on the various aspects of music that they liked/disliked the most. And that’s where our Dave comes into the picture…the story is best told (and heard) from here by this video:

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David Shuff

Color Your World

Posted by David Shuff | 09 March 2011

It would seem that no amount of explanation could truly convey the unique way in which synesthetes experience the world. But for those of you still left reaching for what synethesia actually feels like after listening to Steffie Tomson’s fascinating descriptions, there is hope!

In 2001 Japanese game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi set out to create a video game that would allow anyone to experience the sensation of synesthesia. The game he and his team produced is called “Rez.” At first glance it appears to simply be an action game set in a virtual computer world. But in fact, it’s much more.

“Rez” is an experience uniquely tailored to blur the lines between the senses of sight, sound, and touch. Players can even chose whether they want the game to challenge them with danger, or they can select a “traveling” mode to take it all in unmolested. In lieu of gunfire and explosions, every event in the game produces musical notes that fall perfectly in sync with the electronic soundtrack. The controller also produces a rising series of synchronized vibrations; these build in complexity with the music over the 10 or so minutes it takes to traverse each level. While it’s a tenuous result, when “Rez” works the player can actually experience a unified sensation that’s wholly distinct from sight, sound, and touch alone. Synethesia!

For many years “Rez” was quite a rare game that only a few avid collectors were able to play. But today those of you who would like to dive in are in luck. The game is currently available for a modern console; it’s been updated to take advantage of HD televisions and is able to control the rumble of all four controllers independently. Even more exciting is that Mizuguchi’s next project, “Child of Eden,” will be in 3D and use hands-free motion controls. Hopefully it will help many more of us relate to synesthetes everywhere!

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David Shuff

Maker Faire

Posted by David Shuff | 02 November 2010

Maker Faire is an event created by MAKE Magazine to celebrate arts, crafts, engineering, science projects, and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. The most recent Faire was held in September at the New York Hall of Science, in Queens, New York.

The Faire was an overwhelming concentration of fascinating inventions and delightful creations; we couldn’t get enough and here are some highlights that caught our eye! If you have any questions about what you see, leave a comment and we’ll try to fill you in.

And for more information about an upcoming Maker Faire near you, visit makerfaire.com.

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David Shuff

Safety First, But….

Posted by David Shuff | 27 October 2010

When it comes to wrestling, Rachel is as skilled as they come. Safety is just about her first concern—right after kicking butt, of course! But like any physical activity that involves flying through the air, And she always came back! injuries can happen and Rachel has seen her fair share.

For Rachel’s “Secret” video we created a damage chart of all the memorable hits she’s taken, and though that scene ended up on the cutting room floor, we still thought the illustration would be fun to share with you.

Some of Rachel’s injuries have included separating both shoulders, losing both of her ACLs, spraining an ankle in four places, and dislocating a pinkie finger. And you thought wrestling wasn’t “real”!

[Our drawing is actually based on a woman from another very famous scientific illustration. Do you recognize her? Post a comment below if you do; if no one gets it in a few days we’ll post the answer!]

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David Shuff

Mollie, Math, And Frogs

Posted by David Shuff | 05 October 2010

In the process of editing videos for our series, I often find myself having to research some of the fascinating topics our scientists and engineers talk about. While doing my research, it’s not uncommon for me to find that I’ve gotten carried away and read an entire Wikipedia article; an entire hour blown. Then it’s time to scramble to catch up!

She means it… and so do we! For Mollie’s “secret” video, I knew right away that I wanted to visualize the MIT cheer on-screen as dense and nerdy as possible! But I also wanted to show it correctly (well, as correctly as a cheer comprised of nonsensical mathematics can be rendered), so I started in on my research. And while doing some digging around, I came up with numerous variants of her MIT cheer adapted for a menagerie of universities.

Here’s one from RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute):

e to the x dy dx

tangent, secant, cosine, sine

3.14159

square root, cube root, log of pi

disintegrate them RPI!

Northwestern University introduced the asymptote to bend the cheer it to their will:

e to the x, dx dy

e to the y, dy

cosine, tangent, inverse, sine

add an asymptotic line

come on Wildcats, hold that line!

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