nogordio.com is the personal/professional homepage of joão mesquita (aka vanoak). hi and welcome.

i have a phd in visual arts, metamedia and design and i work at lusíada university as professor in communication and multimedia studies as well as multimedia design. i also am invited professor at évora university in visual arts and communication design.

i am mostly a screenwriter. i mostly write graphic novels. i had my first bande dessiné when I turned 5 years old (asterix and cleopatra). i still have that album.

i started doing research in digital media 25 years ago. as a theoretical basis i am interested in the connections between visual arts, design and communication within the context of digital media - i like things in triangles - or put more clearly, everything that may concern cybernetic cinema and all that goes or can go with it.

as a professional side note i am fluently versed in computer programming. i prefer code to create images, animations and sounds. it remains my preferred interface to computers. i grew up watching demoscene computer animations. i still do. i build my own software if there is none that makes what i want. that is a small detail that freaks out most of my designer/artist colleagues. on the other side of the spectrum, because i am self-taught, my engineer colleagues shriek in horror with some of the code i write. in that sense, i see myself often as having a somewhat hybrid profile, which i am very proud of while everybody else is trying to figure out where to place me. I think the new kids use the term "creative technologist".

on a personal note i am also a chronic introvert - for real; the perfect stereotype. i don't start conversations. i end a lot of conversations. i prefer to observe instead. it helps me do my work.

i live in seixal, portugal. i'm a husband and a father. in my house also lives a cat, a dog, a turtle and a guinea pig. sometimes they acknowledge my presence, mostly when they are hungry. except the dog. the dog always acknowledge my presence. even when i don't want to.

did i said that i am mostly a screenwriter? i am.

i also have a sense of humour - it does not show often - and i try not to take myself too seriously - i fail most of the time at that.