HAL director David Stout is a visual artist, composer, performer and video director exploring cross-media synthesis and interdisciplinary approaches to new genres bridging the arts, design and sciences. He holds an inter-arts MFA from the California Institute of the Arts where he studied with Ed Emshwiller, Jim Pomeroy, Bill Viola and Gene Youngblood. Since 2002 he has worked closely with HAL research associate, Cory Metcalf to examine the aesthetic possibilities for evolutionary generative systems, artificial life networks and simulation environments.

Stephen Lucas has primary interests in electronics, cybernetics, and metaphysics, leading him to develop interactive hardware/software solutions for HAL projects. His primary tasks at HAL have been to incorporate widely available controllers (such as the Keith McMillen SoftStep, the Akai LPD8, and the Microsoft Kinect Camera) into functional modules for large multimedia structures.

UNT faculty member Jon Christopher Nelson acts as a research advisor for HAL personnel. His individual research focuses on acousmatic music, including work in physical modeling, granular synthesis, sound diffusion, and digital signal processing. His compositions have been performed widely throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He has been honored with numerous awards including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Fulbright Commission. He is the recipient of Luigi Russolo and Bourges Prizes and recently was recognized as the recipient of the International Computer Music Association's 2013 Americas Regional Award.

Christopher Poovey is a composer and creative programer who uses electronics to extend the normal capabilities of acoustic instrurments.  Additionaly, Chris has worked on software for diffusing sound in a 24-channel space, sampling video, fft based effects proccessing, and a browser based conductor application for cueing many enssembles independantly from a single position.    

Morehshin Allahyari is a new media artist and an art activist. Her creative and research interest vave encompassed experimental 3D animation, digital filmmaking, installation, performance and extensive activity as a curator and producer. Coming from a social science background, the topics of her practice have included political and social art, creative writing, art activism, community building and collaborative art. This expertise has made her a primary associate of public interaction and curation for HAL projects.

Andrew Blanton is a composer and media artist.  Andrew has  frequently performed his percussion and audio environments works. is more current work has focused on the emergent potential between cross-disciplinary arts and technology, building sound environments through software development, and writing music for those environments.

Filip Celander is a documentary artist and digital cinematographer exploring emerging videographic techniques including advanced HDR time-lapse photography. Filip has served as a board member for the Currents International New Media Festival, which has taken place annually in Santa Fe, NM. Filip’s work with the Hybrid Arts Laboratory has included media archiving and documentation, advanced video system architectures and outreach to regional and international arts organizations.

Elaine Di Falco is a senior graduate student in interdisciplinary music composition integrating new media art into her work. Her interests include the production of documentary filmmaking for planetarium domes that explore the topics of music, astronomy and cosmology. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Western Oregon University where she studied composition with Pulitzer Prize nominee, and UNT alumni, Kevin Walczyk.

Ben Johansen is a multimedia composer that collaborated on early HAL work. His main projects have been modified joystick controllers, IR sensor clusters and mounts, ergonomically functional potentiometer installations, and modular digital port data capturing. He also has facilitated work on HAL related art exhibitions, including a video monitor wall installation.

Reiner Kramer is a researcher in computer music, sound synthesis, and algorthmic composition. His primary work at HAL has been to develop software modules that allow for flexible sound synthesis for low computational power. This has been combined with work on the sonification of a complex 3D particle system, which required large quantities of active elements to be represented. His experience in algorithmic composition also has helped combine these systems into multimedia technology with emergent behaviors.

Chaz Underriner is a composer and guitarist. Most of Chaz’s work has revolved around the notions of landscape and portraiture in the context of experimental music and multimedia. His primary work at HAL has been curation/production of events such as the Intermedia Performance Art class and the ex mus concert series.