I'm an American technologist with 13 years of experience building with technologies for the web. In practice, I'm neither a cynic nor optimist, but biased towards prototyping and experimentation. My preference is to work in cross-functional groups (designers, engineers, research, product & strategy) with individuals of open mind and clear purpose.

WORK — I prototype and develop websites, apps, and installations, both as an independent professional and as a part of multidisciplinary design, product, & research teams. The bulk of my recent work has been in open source software contributions to WordPress, in the form of themes, plugins, and the CMS itself, Gutenberg. A selection of projects and more about my work can be found here.

EMPLOYMENT — I've been employed by Automattic (2019 - 2024), frog design (2015 - 2018), barbarian (2012 - 2014). My titles included design director, software engineer, creative technologist, and design technologist.

PRACTICE — I make music and perform under the moniker Off-Brand. I'm a resident of the Lot Radio, co-hosting a monthly show SLUICE with Laenz. My most recent sound performance collaboration with CACHE Collective took place at the Museum Siam in Bangkok.

My media artwork has been exhibited at SIGGRAPH, CURRENTS Festival, NYC Resistor, and the Dumbo Arts Festival. My master’s thesis, The Medium is the Machine (2015) looked at the commercial use of artificial intelligence in mediating personal identity. I spoke about the automation of design at the St. Etienne Design Biennale (2019).

BACKGROUND — I was born and raised in Michigan (1990 - 2012), and currently live in New York City (2012 - present). I graduated from the University of Michigan (2008) and New York University (2015) with degrees in business and computers, respectively. I am the third child of two immigrants from Hong Kong and Malaysia to the United States.

KIN — The following people are important collaborators and direct influences on my life and thinking: https://gordonwantuch.com/, https://www.wipawe.com/, https://nicsedlazek.com/, https://www.xlaenz.com/, https://mebenedetto.com/, https://www.meiravong.com/, https://x.com/ycmizrahi, https://lav.io/, https://christynyiri.com/, https://maedastudio.com/, https://sekai.co.uk/.

OTHER — I enjoy books, movies, writing, amaro, and cooking. I’m currently studying Japanese. A spreadsheet of citations from things I’m reading can be found here, and some collections of things here.

I would love to hear from you, please get in touch by email at jonger4 at gmail.com.