| Jeroen Lapré |
| Founder of Distant
Galaxy |
Jeroen at Industrial Light + Magic Kerner
Facility
2005,
during Maelstrom II Live HD Shoot.
|
Bio (Summary)
- Senior Digital Artist / Technical Director
with over 11 years of
feature film visual effects experience at Industrial Light + Magic.
- Life long passion for science, space
exploration, and environmental
sustainability.
- Producing / Directing science based mini drama
based on the short story
Maelstrom II, by Sir Arthur C. Clarke. Target audience will be
students of celestial mechanics in the high school, college and
university classroom. The goal is to combine a human story with
technical accuracy, to make science compelling.
- Conducting R & D in the area of the
Semantic Web. Launching
collection of open source projects to enable individuals and
organisations in the Wikinomic endevor.
Jeroen is a motivated human concerned about the
future of our species.
He strongly believes that a combination of science education,
teaching respect for each other and the environment, and developing
socially positive productivity tools, are key to our survival.
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Biography
1966: Born in Rotterdam, Holland.
1968: Parents relocated to Sydney Australia.
1968-1997:Grew up in Sydney Australia.
1997: Relocated to Marin County CA USA, with his wife, Donna Lapré,
in order to pursue a career at ILM in digital visual effects for the
feature film industry.
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| Filmography
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Filmography
(continued)
www.imdb.com
movies.yahoo.com |
Interests
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Science Fiction
|
Jeroen has had a
life-long
love for science fiction.
He saw Star Wars: Episode IV, at the impressionable age of 12. He was
inspired by that experience to be somehow involved in the science
fiction film industry.
The same life-changing filmgoing experience also
inspired the young Jeroen to read other science fiction novels. He
discovered that there are library shelfs of mind-expanding science
fiction out there.
That is when he discovered Arthur C. Clarke, and
later, Larry Niven, Greg Bear and Vernor Vinge.
It is Jeroen's belief that many of the short stories
and novels by these legendary, mutl-award winning authors, would make
compelling short films, tv shows, and feature films.
He finds the sub-category of "Speculative Fiction"
most interesting. This is because it is based on our current
understanding of the sciences, then extrapolates outwards from there.
This is compelling to Jeroen as he can imagine himself in those
situations, and is fascinated by the social ramifications.
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| Concerns |
The Environment
Jeroen's commitment to education is driven by his concern for the
environment.
Humans are clearly affecting the biosphere of the planet Earth.
It is Jeroen's belief that a better scientific understanding and
appreciation of the Universe and our place in it, will lead to better
stewardship of the Planet Earth. |
Research
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Organic Learning
Traditional teaching methods compartmentalise topics inside artificial
boundaries.
Jeroen's belief is that a student's learning should be driven by their
own curiosity and interests.
Knowledge should grow organically, and interconnected, to reflect
the natural world.
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Computer Graphics
Procedural geometry, textures, material, animation generation, through:
- genetic algorithms
- genetic programming
- Human aesthetics-driven selection
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Artificial Intelligence
- The Semantic Web
- Object-oriented
grammars
- Agent-based
intelligent entities
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Software
Development
|
To
utilise powerful
features of the Java programming language to implement/leverage organic
learning software packages, and productivity applications/web2.0ware.
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| Projects |
Maelstrom II
An HD Digital Film Short, based on the short story by Arthur C. Clarke
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MERalizer
A 3D interactive learning environment, based on the Mars Exploration
Rover Mission. |
Jeroen's
Crazy Memes
Jeroen is blessed/cursed with more ideas than he has the resources to
explore/execute.
This is a page to share Jeroen's "crazy memes" with the rest of the
memespace.
The hope is to generate discussion, and perhaps collaborate in "open
brain-storming".
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