H La Vallee – Intro & Portfolio

Introduction

Hi! I am H, a senior finishing up my degree in Chemical Engineering. Most of my art experience comes from courses I have taken at WPI, though I have a bit more experience with making music as I have been composing loops and small pieces casually since high school. I decided when I came here that I wanted to take this opportunity to learn new techniques in physical craft, as a contrast to (or mental escape from) the rigor of engineering. While I don’t have too much official training in art, I have learned the basics of a bunch of different art forms through casual projects and introductory courses, including 3d modeling, MIDI / sound design, bonsai, graphic design glassblowing, pottery… I don’t consider myself an artist, but I do like being able to act on inspiration and make interesting things when I get in the mood, and I like to learn new ways to be creative. I also enjoy playing indie video games, tabletop RPGs, and board games.

Much like my art experience, my programming experience is mainly from casual projects and things that I wanted to make outside of class when the inspiration struck. I have some C experience from VEX robotics in high school, and since then I have learned some python and C#, programmed a keyboard and an arcade cabinet table, and made a website through trial and error and a lot of looking up answers on Stack Overflow.

Recently, I have been mainly inspired by artists that combine nature and organic themes with industrial, surrealist, or electronic elements. This includes sculpture by Ruth Duckworth, the pseudo-alien encyclopedia called the Codex Seraphinianus, and the album “Nurture” by Porter Robinson. I don’t have a solid plan for Light Art yet, but I see it fitting well with these themes and I’m looking forward to working it out!

The most recent creative project I have done is an adaptive audio system for tabletop RPGs (my final project for Topics in MIDI) which I have finished but still want to flesh out a bit more with more features and sound options. The sounds were made in Ableton and the adaptive engine was programmed in Max MSP.

Portfolio / Recent Projects

“cyb”, 2022. An composition for Topics in MIDI

5 Comments Add yours

  1. Kobayashi Kotori says:

    Here’s a quirky badge! I really like your work Sprouting Bean. I used to make ceramics and your work looks awesome.

  2. Sameer says:

    Hi H, I will give you the Impressive badge. Glassblowing seems super hard! I really like how the colors look almost frozen mid swirl in your glass piece “Acetone Molecule” and I also like how the light gets diffused through the piece onto the backdrop.

  3. Julian says:

    I’m giving you the “impressive” badge. You made a lot of cool things in some really awesome mediums. Ceramics and glassblowing seem really difficult

  4. Ty says:

    THOUGHT-PROVOKING: Your Sprouted Bean looks really neat. It makes me wonder what is going on with the sprout. Is it sad? Is it supposed to have some sort of functionality? Or is there another meaning? Regardless, it just looks like a cool, random piece of art that I would put in my house or my garden.

  5. Kaamil says:

    IMPRESSIVE: glass-blowing is so cool, and I really liked your music piece as well. Love to see physical mediums in action.

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