The Avatar's Avatar to Speak at The Hill

Jaron Lanier

The Hill School will welcome Jaron Lanier - author, computer scientist, composer, and artist – to campus on Thursday, Feb. 16,  at 7:30 p.m. in the Center For The Arts.


Lanier will speak on this year’s School theme of Community. Interested members of the Pottstown community are invited to attend this free event.

Lanier’s early work involved creating innovative technologies that now are part of our every-day vocabulary. In the 1980s, he created VPL Research where he coined the term “virtual reality”; VPL was the first company to sell virtual reality products.

He also was the lead of the team that created the first “avatars.” Lanier currently is a partner architect at Microsoft Research.

In 2009, Lanier received a Lifetime Career Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

In 2010, he published You are Not a Gadget, A Manifesto.

The book was on multiple best –seller’s lists and was named by the New York Times as one of the best books of the year. That same year, Time magazine named him one of the Top 100 People Who Most Affect Our World. In that article, his book “compels readers to take a fresh look at the power — and limitations — of human interaction in a socially networked world.”

Lanier also is a composer, musician, and artist.

He's also a musician

He plays the piano as well as unique string and wind instruments from Asia.

He has been commissioned by many organizations to compose music, including the National Endowment of the Arts, and his original compositions have been featured on the soundtracks on a number of documentaries and films.

His artwork has been displayed in many galleries throughout the United States and Europe.

In addition to his performing, writing, and speaking endeavors, Lanier currently serves as an innovator-in-residence at U.S.C. Annenberg (since 2010); interdisciplinary scholar-in-residence at U.C. Berkeley (since 2006); a Fellow at the International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley (since 2004); and visiting faculty at Dartmouth College (since 2002).