Steven Geofrey – Project Information Literacy

Senior Researcher in Information Design and Contributing Writer, PIL Provocation Series
Assistant Teaching Professor/Designer in Residence for the Center for Design
Northeastern University, College of Arts, Media and Design

Steven Geofrey is a PIL Senior Researcher in Information Design and Assistant Teaching Professor/Designer in Residence for the Center for Design in the Department of Art + Design at Northeastern University (College of Arts, Media, and Design). As a research-practitioner in data, design, and computation, Steven uses the theories and methods of information design, code, and statistics to interrogate data visualization as a medium for sense-making. Steven’s work is interdisciplinary, drawing on interests and experiences across the arts and humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Inflected by strong leanings toward computational approaches in digital humanities, this work is heavily informed by his experiences living in and studying Japan. Through his creative practice, Steven explores themes of representation, narrative, language, and human experience, seeking to address the varied possible responses to one question in particular: What does it mean to employ visualization as a medium in which radical representation can deconstruct privileged, canonical, and dominant perspectives? To explore this, Steven’s work focuses primarily on the use of data visualization, computation, and design to deconstruct texts, where a text is anything that can be read and interpreted, serves as a set of coherent signs and symbols, and functions as something that is situated and composed: novels, poetry, song lyrics, film screenplay, musical score, cinematography, historiography, urban layout, archival data, the visual design of websites, and beyond.

Steven received his B.A. (2011), summa cum laude, in chemistry (with distinction) and Asian studies (with distinction) from St. Olaf College. After graduating, he lived in Kyoto, Japan as a Fulbright Fellow, carrying out computational biophysics research at Kyoto University. After returning to the United States, he subsequently pursued graduate work at Yale University, receiving his M.S. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry in 2013. Before moving to the Boston metropolitan area, where he now lives, he worked at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities in the Health Sciences Libraries. Steven has worked at Northeastern University since the end of 2015; prior to joining the faculty of the College of Arts, Media, and Design, he served as the Data Analytics/Visualization Specialist in Snell Library.

Outside of his work, Steven enjoys many hobbies, including cooking and baking, playing the clarinet, learning new instruments, studying Japanese, running, and playing video games.