David Tinapple

David Tinapple is an Associate Professor at Arizona State University's Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, specifically within the School of Art, Media, and Engineering (AME). He is also affiliated with ASU's Learning Sciences Institute and The GAME School. His work bridges the gap between art, technology, and education, focusing on designing better tools and systems for teaching and learning.

Dr. Tinapple earned his BFA from The Ohio State University in 2003 and his MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 2007. Prior to his academic career, he worked in Cognitive Engineering, a branch of interface design focused on supporting human cognition and performance in complex task domains.

Tinapple's research interests span Digital and Interactive Art, Interface Design, and Educational Technology. His work explores the complex cognitive strategies employed by people at the intersection of technology and work, with a particular focus on developing innovative educational tools. He is part of the team that designed ASU's Digital Culture degree program, an experimental undergraduate program that bridges technical and creative mindsets. His research group, the Learning Environments Research Group, develops tools like CritViz.com, an online platform for peer review and critique in classrooms.

Analysis of Tinapple's publications reveals a consistent focus on creating technology-enhanced learning environments that bridge artistic practice with educational innovation. His work spans tangible interfaces, peer assessment systems, flexible curriculum design, and interactive art installations. The trajectory shows increasing emphasis on scaling educational innovations for larger classrooms while maintaining the quality of creative feedback processes.

Dr. Tinapple actively teaches courses related to interactive environments, digital culture, and media installations across multiple semesters. His course offerings include AME 244 (Intro Interactive Environments), AME 485/486 (Digital Culture Capstone), and various special topics courses. He also supervises graduate research through courses like AME 792 (Research) and AME 799 (Dissertation).

His creative work includes numerous interactive installations such as Rotary Tumble (an experiment in projection mapping onto a moving tangible object), War Peace (a multimedia performance), Building with a Memory (a responsive intervention using light and color), and The Face of TV (an exploration of media representation). These works demonstrate his commitment to exploring human-computer interaction through artistic practice.