Hi. I'm Andy Maskin. Over the last twelve years or so I've been focused on the discovery, exploration and demonstration of emerging technologies related to consumer behavior. My adjacent specialty has been to build and curate compelling experiences that convey key future-facing insights to clients & other guests in a physical environment. When COVID-19 hit, I had an Innovation Lab role that was in part predicated on innovators and executives gathering together in person. As one might expect, this role was eliminated in a big round of layoffs and I sought a nice big pivot. A couple decades ago I might have taken a "gap year" to backpack through Europe. Instead, I launched Gap Year Media to host little passion projects. I got familiar with AWS and made some things. Then I started working full-time again, but have still found time to make a thing or two.
An Alexa Skill
Add this skill to your Alexa-enabled device simply by saying "Alexa, enable 10 things", or search for "10 Things" in the skill store. Each time you open the skill you'll hear 10 randomly chosen things from Wikipedia. Each thing is one sentence, spanning the entire banal spectrum of human knowledge.
June 2020
Blood Sugar Lighting
An "ambient information" proof of concept for diabetics that controls a Philips Hue bulb based on Dexcom sensor readings. As a patient's blood sugar rises and falls, the lighting color changes within minutes to reflect the broad range of this level. For instance, green is within target range, orange is a too high and purple is a too low.
July 2020
6 Rules. 2 Pages. 1 PDF.
In these fraught times, a lot of companies are questioning the business value of physical space. There is ROI to be had, and in this 2-pager I try to make the case for how to do that with a specific type of space.
August 2020
How far are you from the closest Olive Garden?
Here is an Android app that does one simple thing: it tells you to within a hundredth of a mile how far away your device is from the nearest location (as the crow fles) of the famed fast-casual Italian restaurant that serves unlimited breadsticks with your entree. The app comes with a home screen widget so you can keep tabs on your UBPI with even more ease.
Janurary 2021
JPGs for sale! Get your JPGs here!
With the rise of digital art sold* for cryptocurrency as Non-Fungible Tokens, the time was ripe for the mysterious artist GR8DANE to make his debut. As part of "remix culture" he takes famous works and puts the Danish flag on them. That's pretty much it.
* You're typically buying a digital token representing the art, not the art itself
April 2021
Around and around I go
As my first augmented reality project, I created a Snapchat "lens", a visual effect you can add to your creations. When you activate the effect you can grow and shrink a spinning 3D image of yours truly and place it anywhere in your environment, then take a picture or record a video. Guaranteed to make your content go viral and catapult you into social media stardom.
May 2021
An Alexa Skill
An audio shuffle of global air traffic control chatter with an ambient & relaxing feeling. Volunteer aviation enthusiasts from around the world relay their local air traffic control frequencies to the Internet. These clips are from August 10th, 2021.
September 2021
At Your Fingertip
A TikTok effect that detects when you raise your index finger, and then puts a tiny spinning Andy above your fingertip using augemented reality.
June 2022
An Audiovisual Human/AI Collaboration
A 16-song album of songs composed using generative AI with substantial human editing, curating and coding. Includes lyric videos with GenAI images prompted in part by each line of lyrics.
June 2024
It was a small operation but at least we had a stronger balance sheet than FTX
Co-founder, CEO
This is my eternal boss. She's tough but fair. She is known for her attention to detail and interest in large home appliances. She is seen here "on a call with my colleagues."
Co-founder, Chief Innovation Officer
In addition to making dubiously useful passion projects, he is a key point person in the CEO's bedtime.
Director, Cryptocurrency Research
With decades of experience as a tree, our most controversial hire has been researching the potential for pine needles to be used as a form of currency.
A couple years ago I read about a loophole in Kansas election law and ran for governor as an out-of-state candidate. Although it was an interesting little project, it was ultimately unsuccessful - but you already knew that because I'm not presently governor of Kansas.
Along the way I designed campaign merchandise. I don't think I earn anything off purchases, but it's fun that I have merch at all. Here's the Cafe Press page.
Lets get in touch. I'm fun to talk to.