Travel/Art/Journalist and Principal Technical Program Manager, Microsoft Corp.
Michael works on Sketch 360, an app he built and shipped through the Microsoft Garage to help architects, VR designers and artists create 360 drawings that can be on viewed on tablets, phones and in VR headsets. Educated as an architect, Michael has made his career in software development with a particular interest in creative tools. While pursuing his career, Michael has chronicled his journeys across the world in rich travel/art journals with watercoloring, sketching, collage, and even circuitry. At Microsoft for the past 12 years, Michael has focused on helping partners build apps, experiences, and services using Microsoft developer technologies like Windows, Azure, Office, Xbox, and HoloLens.
Interview with Michael Scherotter
Tell us about your background
Educated as an architect, I've made my career in software combing technology in interesting ways, with a particular interest in crafting tools that help with the creative process.
What is your definition of art + tech?
Technology enables artists to create and share in new ways using their existing creative processes and workflows.
Who, or what, inspires you in your art and in your life?
Artists like Picasso, Miro, Escher, architects like Gaudi and Gehry, engineers like Buckminster Fuller, and technologists like John Maeda who discover and cultivate the undiscovered connections between things and express those connections artistically.
What is your process or techniques for creating your work?
I take two things that interest me and explore what kinds of connections can be made with them, whether that is with technology like VR, AI, blockchain or quantum computing, an activity like urban sketching or painting, or something happening in the world like COVID. I want to discover and cultivate the connections between them and possibly find a creative, artistic intersection.
An example is that I before the pandemic, I loved to travel and sketch. That has shut down for me, as it has most people. I saw the opportunity with the new Microsoft Flight Simulator's amazing 3D imagery to be a way that I could create a new genre: virtual flight sketching: https://charette.com/2020/09/20/virtual-flight-sketching/
What is your dream project?
My dream is to travel as "Journalist" with Yusaku Maesawa as he takes a group of artists to the moon in 2023 (https://dearmoon.earth/), keeping a visual log of the journey with my analog and digital journaling tools to inspire others to chronicle their journeys near and far: https://sway.office.com/36E11ctNaVCF6G8E?ref=Link&loc=play
What’s the greater purpose behind your artwork?
I discover and craft connections linking creative processes that delight me with technologies that fascinate me, sharing the results to inspire and motivate others.hat is possible to artists and creators on the web and for open source projects and communities.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Find what you love and become the best at it. Charles Albanese, FAIA (architecture professor)
