Phillip Tiongson

Making time felt. Artist, filmmaker, and experiential designer, obsessed with time, intention, attention, and expectation. Founded Potion in 2004 and led it for twenty years. New York.

About

I make interactive experiences and films. I founded Potion in 2004 and led it for twenty years. My work includes ARTLENS Exhibition for the Cleveland Museum of Art, Shop Life for the Tenement Museum, Future Energy Chicago for the Museum of Science and Industry, Explore Asia for the Asia Society Texas Center, and Forest Friends for the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. I believe interpretation should be participatory and accessible.

When AI is part of my work, I publish the prompts and directions behind it, including what they get wrong. I studied film directing at Columbia and earned my master's at the MIT Media Lab (thesis: ActiveStories, 1998). I interview MIT applicants and serve on MIT's Council for the Arts. I grew up in rural Tennessee.

Selected work

  1. Pocket watches for five 50th birthdaysCustom pocket watches made for Joel Johnson, Peter Cho, Phoebe Lam, Jonathan Bobrow and Deborah Harrison
  2. We Are All Temporarily EnabledTalk on universal design, given at SoDA and SEGD
  3. ARTLENS Gallery: Designing Meaningful, Barrier-Free Digital Experiences with Museum CollectionsKeynote, El Museo Digital: Futuro y Posibilidades, Mexico City
    2017
  4. Arroyo DriveShort film starring Randall Duk Kim, Daniel Velasco and Ching Valdes
    2004
  5. A Little BetrayalShort film made at Columbia; an early hit for Eveo.com (BusinessWeek, 2000)
    2000
  6. ActiveStoriesMIT Media Lab master's thesis on personal and family narrative. PDF, 5 MB
    1998
  7. MAS 964, Principles of Visual Interface DesignJava applets, MIT Media Lab, with John Maeda
    1997
  8. MAS 962, Computational TypographyJava applets, MIT Media Lab
    1997