Ben Sax is an arts scientist, patented inventor, creative director, and social entrepreneur who explores the relationships between community, technology, and place.
He’s the founder of Perceptoscope, an interactive public arts initiative devoted to engaging people with the places around them through interactive sculpture and immersive public media.
Most recently, he served as Adobe’s first Augmented Reality Producer, leading a creative studio building proof-of-concept projects with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Gensler, Ben & Jerry’s, Gap, Mattel (Barbie), as well as international street artists, local community retailers, and the Adobe MAX conference. He served as creative partnership lead in Adobe’s collaboration with Google around geospatial authoring and delivery via Google’s Geospatial Creator.
He was the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at the SupplyFrame DesignLab, an Arts for LA ACTIVATE Cultural Policy Fellow, and a National Arts Strategies Creative Community Fellow. As an Arts Scientist, his prototyping and field research have been supported by the Knight Foundation and the National Science Foundation, presented at SXSW Eco Place by Design, and featured in pieces from MAKE, Hackaday, UploadVR, the American Alliance of Museums and the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions.
As a filmmaker and creative director, Ben has produced and directed media pieces for public television and museum exhibitions, and crafted messaging for non-profits, major brands, and social causes. Notable client work includes The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, KCET/PBS, TASCHEN, IBM, The Nature Conservancy, the Natural Resource Defense Council, and the Columbia School of Journalism.
As the COVID Response Lead at CRASH Space, a non-profit hackerspace, Ben rallied a team of over 150 volunteers to design, manufacture, and distribute over 25,000 units of Personal Protective Equipment around the country to hospitals, nursing homes, street medics, and tribal nations.
As Affiliated Faculty at Emerson LA, Ben has taught immersive media production and theory, including a semester remotely teaching VR online in VR during the pandemic.
He received his BA from Wesleyan University with a double major in Film Studies and Philosophy, and additional focus in interactive art, installation, and experimental music.