About
Hi, my name is Amit Pitaru.

I make unusual software. Or rather, software for unusual problems.

As you'll see below, my work spans across a wide range of fields. This is because every 2-4 years I seek a new area to apply my skills to.

Why 2-4? It is the least amount of time it takes me to learn a new field and do at least one useful thing in it.

This site holds my work in animation, music, dance, assistive technology, video games, and...

My latest sharp turn:
The recent financial storm turned my attention to the field of personal finance. I’m currently spending most of my time building a small financial tool that I hope will answer the basic investment needs of people like myself.

Those who know me from my previous projects might be scratching their beards because this may seam to be an unlikely project for me to pursue. Yet those who know me well understand that this is exactly why I'm pursuing it.

If you get a moment, check it out and let me know what you think: http://plantly.com

Tools for creativity
If you've ever heard my name, it is probably through my work on tools for drawing, animation, music, and dance. 

Rhonda helps artists draw in 3D while remaining loose and creative: http://rhondaforever.com

Sonic Wire Sculptor is a musical instrument, interactive museum installation, and recently an iPhone app: http://sws.cc

Smashup is a contemporary dance show that I collaborated with on with choreographer Dana Gingra and artist James Paterson of Presstube.

The animation and choreography were made using custom tools I designed together with James. Here's a video excerpt from one of our favorite pieces on the show "I am chain reaction".

InsertSilence
Speaking of James Paterson … here’s our old collaborative website where we explored connections between animation and music: http://insertsilence.com

Archives
These are the archived interactive works that used to live on pitaru.com in the past:
http://pitaru.com/archives

Video games and Accessibility:
Everyone deserves to hack a monster with a chainsaw. Between 2004-2007 I  looked into how video games can be made more accessible to children with special needs, and the impact of these games on their daily lives.

To pursue this project, I enrolled as a full time student at NYU's ITP - the same department I've been previously teaching at.

My thesis project was later extended to a grant by the MacArthur foundation. The result was published by MIT press. Here's a PDF of it.

I'll need to make a site for this project. It's long overdue.
For now, the most accessible Tetris game ever is in the works here: http://pitaru.com/tetris/beta/

Teaching
At different times in my life I taught at several schools, including Pratt, NYU, and Cooper Union. My classes ranged in tandem with my career. Those included:

- Working with artists on how to use code as a creative tool.
- A class that promotes minimalist design principles.
- A game design class, we made video games accessible to children with special needs.

More
My Twitter page: http://twitter.com/pitaru
My linkedIn page: http://www.linkedin.com/in/amitpitaru

Contact me by emailing to a at pitaru dot com