Kevin Slavin

Kevin Slavin

As an entrepreneur, Kevin Slavin has successfully integrated digital media, game development, technology and design. He is a pioneer in rethinking game design and development around new technologies (like GPS) and new platforms (like Facebook).

In 2005 he co-founded Area/Code (acquired by Zynga in 2011), where he developed large-scale, real-world games using mobile, pervasive and location-aware technologies. This included work for major companies, including Nokia, Nike and Puma, and also for media giants, including MTV, A&E, the Discovery Channel, CBSl and Disney. He co-founded AFK Labs in 2008, designing next-generation responsive environments, including one for what was then the largest and densest sensor mesh on the planet.

Slavin argues that we’re living in a world designed for–and increasingly controlled by–algorithms. His very popular TED talk, “How Algorithms Shape Our World,” has received over 2 million views. He frequently delivers keynote addresses and has spoken at international venues such as the Royal Society of Art, Aspen Institute, BBC and MIP/Cannes.

Slavin has taught at NYU’s ITP, the Cooper Union and Fabrica, and has worked as a creative director and strategic planner in advertising agencies, including DDB and TBWA\Chiat\Day. He is currently working on producing a TV show for network broadcast. As an artist, his public city-scale work has been exhibited in Frankfurt’s Museum fuer Moderne Kunst and the Design Museum of London. He has been written about in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Wired and Fast Company. He received his BFA from the Cooper Union.

Press
Wired Magazine, Kevin Slavin:”Market trading systems need to be rebuilt for humans”