Hi, my name is Kunal D Patel and I'm a creative technologist with a wide range of experience and interests. In the last few years, I've done everything from redesign brands in print and online, designed and developed websites, won a Sony-sponsored game jam with an amazing team, taught mobile game design to kids, programming to graduate students (Processing and PHP) and been to China twice (soon to be three times). I'm an avid user of Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare, and interested in how we can leverage these services to create new experiences that mitigate the information overload they encourage.
Before I became personally and professionally involved in interaction design, I was a junior architect in Manhattan working on residential construction. My education and experience as an architect has been invaluable in my pursuits since that time, from the way I think conceptually, my sensitivity to context, engagement with clients, and inhuman ability to work for long hours. While I have moved from thinking about the human condition in physical spaces to the virtual, the intersection between the two (augmented reality, mobile software, installation design) continues to interest me.
In my spare time, I am an avid music snob, diehard sports fan, and vegetarian foodie. If you ever need recommendations for good vegetarian restaurants or dessert shops in Manhattan, I'm your guy!

Not For Bots is both an end and a beginning. This site represents the beginning record of what will hopefully be a long ongoing series of personal work. As a thesis project, it represents the culmination of my education and experience as a member of the School of Art, Media and Technology at Parsons The New School for Design. The two years spent obtaining my MFA in Design and Technology have been a period of incredible personal and professional growth. I would be remiss without acknowledging the faculty who supported and guided me through the 1-year thesis process:

Spring 2010: Cynthia Lawson & Ethan Silverman
Fall 2010: David Carroll & Chris Prentice

First and foremost, I'd like to thank Carlos Noguera for being my unofficial mentor, advisor and a great friend throughout this process. Over the last 2 years I've leaned on my talented friends for advice, support, testing, collaboration and simply to retain my sanity. In no particular order - Jessica Floeh, Zach Gage, Steve Varga, Grace Salem - thanks for helping me make it to the finish line.
During my wild goose chases of research and concepts, I stumbled upon the Web Ecology Project, a righteous group of web researchers based in Boston and New York. Their input was invaluable throughout this process and I look forward to future collaborations with this talented group of individuals. Finally, I'd like to thank Cynthia Lawson, whose encouragement, sharp wit and open mind gave me the confidence to pursue what I was really interested in and do it my own way.