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 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 expanded cinema and all that goes or can go with it.

around the same time i became interested in photography when digital was still a novelty, but as great photos became synonymous with powerful cameras, my interest waned. these days i have picked up the camera again, but i only shoot (develop and print) in medium format analog.

i discovered that the immediacy(!) of analog photography functions as a counterweight to the slowness of screenwriting and from that perspective it is a way of constantly creating something that can be finished in a couple of days, because i need that closure on a regular basis. i also am constantly intrigued by light and movement althought being a formalist composition-wise. they puzzle me. on the contrary i don't have any interest in sound or music.

as a professional side note i am fluently versed in computer programming. i prefer code to create images. 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 because sometimes i mix tech that was not made to be mixed, but somehow it works. 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. before war games (1983, yes, i am that old!) we were called hackers but nowadays with the hijacking of the term by cybercrime i 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 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.

-- jm

mastodon vanoak@nerdculture.de
linkdin https://www.linkedin.com/in/joão-mesquita-214869ab/
ORCID 0000-0002-7380-2202
Ciência Vitae 8810-B09D-A2D6