“It may seem like an odd fit for an artist,” Professor Teipen said. “However, ACM has special interest groups like SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques), a global community that focuses on computer graphics and interactive techniques. I previously presented my work at SIGGRAPH conferences in Yokohama (2009) and Denver (2024).”
Founded in 1947, ACM is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, providing its Digital Library to advance computing through leading edge publications and career resources. ACM SIGGRAPH brings together researchers, artists, developers, filmmakers, scientists and business professionals.
ACM’s mission is to nurture, champion and connect like-minded researchers and practitioners to catalyze innovation in the industry. Professor Teipen’s SIGGRAPH peers encouraged him to submit his work for digital artists working on computer-human interactions (CHI). Hosted by Italian universities in Venice, the conference brought together academics, researchers and practitioners working at the intersection of CHI and AVI. Its debut Interactive Experiences track provided an opportunity for Professor Teipen. He was motivated by the history of AVI, concurrence with La Biennale di Venezia contemporary art exhibition, and AVI2026 Keynote Speaker Hiroshi Ishii.
“The most significant experience was that after I received the award, Hiroshi Ishii approached me to have a conversation about my work and gave me career advice,” Professor Teipen said. “He is not only a huge influence on my research, but also the Associate Director of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a pioneer of interactive design in human-computer interaction with his research on Tangible User Interfaces.”
Professor Teipen’s award-winning work, Always Controlled by What We Control: Rewiring Algorithmic Perception in an Interactive Installation, explores how algorithmic prediction systems shape perception, behavior, and beliefs. Participants placed in a hybrid physical/virtual space become both operators and subjects. They explore a padded wall with a psychiatric observation room containing luxury faux animal skin and a gilded logo item; a brain-like interface; virtual environment projection; and depth camera for tracking presence and movement. Physical interactions with the wall trigger animated hallucinations and alter the virtual environment. Patch cables can be used to rewire the interface, changing the parameters and rules, altering interactions.
Professor Teipen is exhibiting an expanded version of his interactive installation in New York. To see the work in use, go to https://vimeo.com/1229166972.
About Hudson County Community College
Hudson County Community College serves more than 21,000 credit and non-credit students annually. The College offers more than 90 degree and certificate programs, including award-winning English as a Second Language; Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM); Culinary Arts/Hospitality Management; Nursing and Health Professions; and Humanities and Social Sciences. The HCCC Culinary Arts/Hospitality Management program was ranked number six in the U.S. by Best Choice Schools. The College’s School of Continuing Education and Workforce Development offers cutting-edge, industry-recognized, stackable credentials in alignment with high-priority workforce needs.
HCCC has partnerships with major four-year colleges and universities in the greater New Jersey-New York area and beyond, accommodating seamless transfer of credits for further undergraduate and graduate education.
The College has received dozens of national awards throughout the years. HCCC was a finalist in seven categories of the 2026 American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) “Awards of Excellence” and earned 2026 Advancing Institutional Equity and Belonging, Faculty Innovation, and Faculty of the Year Awards, in addition to Dale P. Parnell Faculty Recognition. HCCC earned AACC 2024 “Awards of Excellence” CEO of the Year, Faculty of the Year, and Student Success Awards. In 2023, HCCC received the Outstanding Member-Institution Award from the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU).
For the sixth consecutive year, HCCC was selected as one of only a few community colleges in the United States to be named a “2026 Most Promising Place to Work in Community Colleges” by the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD). HCCC was one of 22 community colleges in the nation, and the only college in New Jersey, to be recognized by ModernThink LLC and the “Chronicle of Higher Education” as a 2025, 2024, 2023 and 2022 “Great College to Work For®” and named to the 2024 and 2023 “Great Colleges Honor Roll of Distinction.”
HCCC is one of two colleges in the United States to be named a Top Ten Finalist in all three program categories for the nationally recognized 2023 Bellwether Awards, and received the 2023 Bellwether Award for the College’s cutting-edge “Hudson Scholars” program, which also won the 2024 Bellwether Legacy Award. HCCC also earned the 2026 Bellwether “Best in Showcase Award.”
The College’s exemplary work in advancing student success has been recognized with “Leader College of Distinction” designation by Achieving the Dream, the national nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing community colleges as catalysts for equity and mobility in their communities. HCCC also earned the Campus Prevention Network Seal of Prevention in 2025, 2024 and 2023 for demonstrating leadership in digital prevention programming focused on student safety, well-being, and inclusion.
The Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) named the College the inaugural recipient of the 2025 ACCT national “Impact and Success Award.”
