Edward Bakst

Artist / Designer / Professor

Fulbright Grantee

ideaforia.com

Imagination Workshop Conductor & Consultant

edward@ideaforia.com

US +1 917 603 0262

“Brief Bio”

ideaforia.com unveils creative & academic projects, artwork, photography, animation, drawing, creative concept, exhibit designs, Imagination Workshops enthused by Gravity Free & Reality Independent ideation.

As artist/designer/director I created imaginative concepts, designs, art, innovative proposals and short animated films for: MTV, SCI-FI, Smithsonian, Nickelodeon, ABC, NBC, Ajinomoto, PBS, HBO, AT&T, NGS, FX/M, UNICEF, BIC, Noggin, Showtime, Sesame and others. Many won international awards. SIGGRAPH Theatre presented my 3 films. I won a Guggenheim Fellow and Jerome grants. My photography exhibited by MvVO ‘20 @ Oculus, Westfield, NYC. I presented “Imagine” @ Emerging Innovation Summit, Australia. In April I exhibit @ VIDAK ‘22 International Invitational Poster Exhibition, Seoul, Korea. In May ‘22 I joined Villa-R International Artist Residency, Sicily. June-Oct artwork exhibited @ Human Rights AIAPI- UNESCO, Italy. In Sept I exhibited art, photography, drawing & conduct Master Class @ Qatar International Art Festival ‘22. Articles devoted to my art practice published by: Artventurous Magazine ’22 & ’23 and Global Art Times ’23; Creative Quarterly CQ71 Award Winner Aug ’23. MADS Gallery has exhibited my artworks in: Milan, Canary Island & La PEDRERA Gaudi Room, Barcelona, Spain and recently in “Caos” Aug ‘23. US State Dept. selected 3 of my photos for the “Impact of Exchange” exhibition Sept ’23 to ’24. SIA Summit Creative Awards ’23 and the iPhone IPPAWARDS, both announcements are forthcoming 2023. FWAG World Tour Art Exhibitions ‘23 to ‘24 in: Dubai, Japan, Prague, Georgia, Turkey & others locations.

In the academic career I designed, directed, consulted to and established new creative programs at: Pratt; Columbia U; RMCAD, where I founded “International Animation” and ASIFA-CO; and CCS where I was granted full professor. Invited by NTU, I spearheaded curriculum and building design for the new School of Art, Design & Media. Then also oversaw launch of the School of Technology for the Arts, both in Singapore. As Visiting Professor, I was invited to Kadir Has, Istanbul; Kyoto University, Japan. As endowed Ko Guan Chair to Beijing University. In both creative and academic projects, I forever focus on inspiring imagination, self-discovery, experimentation, ideation sparking empowerment and hunger for creative self-expression. Feb ‘23 as Fulbright Grantee I conducted a month of Imagination Workshops @ women university, Pakistan

I see imagination as the Origin of inspiration, individuality, ideation, innovation and invention. Imagination Workshops I conduct explore Creator’s sways in probing ideas, metamorphic stories, worlds of un-realities and ways of visualizing them. These I’ve conducted in: Germany, Malaysia, Poland, Singapore, S. Korea, UAE, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Japan, Israel, Netherlands, Turkey, Sweden, China, Cuba, USA.

Travel has exposed me to diverse cultures, lifestyles and realities inspiring new ideas as well as passion for photography. My photography from Ireland, Peru, Thailand, Taiwan, Oman, Cambodia, Japan, China, Morocco, Lebanon, Jordan, France, Spain, Sicily, Doha and Pakistan now seeks exhibiting and publishing.

Seamlessly fusing reality & virtuality into a dimension inspiring imagination, I design concepts probing new horizons and ways to entertain, learn, design exhibits, perform, play or fuse interactivity, VR or AR into the “magic wand” enabling us to envision fantastic "un-realities" as far reaching as our imagination allows us. Within them, by controlling chemical & physical properties of one’s worlds, we become the ultimate Creator. I seek technical and practical support for project ideas probing “gravity free & reality independent prospects.

As Fulbright Specialist till Oct ‘24, I welcome worldwide cultural, science museums, academic and artistic institutions or festivals attracted to my Imagination Workshops, creative or academic projects and designs.