About Me
I'm a new dad living in Atlanta, Georgia. I try my best to creatively leverage new media technology, solve complex problems, and generally create value. I also sing and make music.
I'm a new dad living in Atlanta, Georgia. I try my best to creatively leverage new media technology, solve complex problems, and generally create value. I also sing and make music.
About Me
Combining undergraduate work in Cognitive Science (an interdisciplinary major involving Computer Science, Philosophy, Psychology, Anthropology, and Linguistics) with graduate work in Mass Media and New Media Studies, I am constantly refining an expertise in new media, technology, and how they interact with the human mind. I feel at home in a fast-paced, idea-driven, team-based environment with a focus on innovation and creativity.
THE WHOLE STORY
What the heck is Cognitive Science?
Cognitive Science sounds so mysterious, doesn’t it? Philosophy of Mind, Neuroscience, Cognitive Psychology, Artificial Intelligence–those were the types of classes I took early on in the Cognitive Science major at UGA. As I progressed further into the field of Cognitive Science, I ventured into the world of Computer Science–namely, how we can use computers to replicate, supplement, or recreate processes in the human brain. Now, I didn’t spend countless hours writing code or building robots, the classes focused on the high-level concepts and theories associated with using computers as analogies for human mental processes. If you think that sounds incredibly dorky, you’re absolutely right.
I didn’t start out as a Cognitive Science major. Initially, I was interested Political Science due to my heavy involvement in Debate, Student Government, and Youth-In-Government in high school. But I quickly realized that PoliSci wasn’t for me, so I switched to become a Marketing major in the Terry College of Business. Marketing was fun, but one class destroyed all of my hopes and dreams for that field: Accounting. Enough said.
Then, in a wandering journey through a Philosophy 1000 course, I heard about a small, interdisciplinary major called Cognitive Science. I was hooked. The major allowed me to skip the low-level, prerequisite classes and take upper-level coursework in 5 different majors across 5 different colleges. I had the opportunity explore the philosophical questions that are inherently involved in conceiving of the human mind, then head to my next class where I was writing a program in Java that would simulate a poker game using a virtual deck of cards. From there I could switch gears into a Sense and Perception class that investigated exactly how our body and brain work together to see, hear, feel, smell, taste, and more. And finally, I could end the day in a linguistics class during which I would discover the widely unknown origins of the languages we know and love today. Now, find me another major that would allow an inquisitive young college mind to experience all of those wildly different subjects in one day. It was perfect for me, but I was missing two things about which I cared deeply: technology & business. Enter the New Media Institute.
The UGA New Media Institute: Best Decision I Ever Made
The UGA New Media Institute
My time spent in the New Media Institute was the most productive, enlightening, intellectually stimulating time of my life. And that’s saying something, because the latter two years of high school were filled with debates on religion, writing sappy poetry to woo high school loves, week-long cases of mock trial during Youth-In-Government, and all-night games of Risk. There’s nothing that brings on deep conversation like a 5 hour game of Risk with 4 of your closest friends. So even though I did spend my evenings hanging out with friends during college, it was during the day that I found my true intellectual joy. My story is the same as every other New Media Institute (NMI) graduate: it all started with an intro class.
I sat among the rows of students, about 250 in total, in a lecture hall in the Fall of 2006. A shiny-headed man bounded into the room, announcing himself by verbally accosting various students in the front row. He had an athletic build, wore a tie, and was accompanied by a tech-savvy assistant. His presence was captivating. His booming, energetic voice tended to edge on the side of loud. He spoke every word of every lecture as if it were the most interesting word he had ever said. And I, as a student, drank up the lectures like the knowledge was water. I felt like my thirst, previously unbeknownst to me, was suddenly unquenchable. I did not know this at the time, but this man, this character, would soon become a teacher, a mentor, a friend, an inspiration, and ultimately a hero to me.
Dr. Scott Shamp
The man is, of course, Dr. Scott Shamp. Dr. Shamp is the director of the New Media Institute, which is an “interdisciplinary teaching and research program of The University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication.” The New Media Institute, or “NMI” as the students call it, is located on the fourth floor of Grady in a colorful space with all sorts of computers, TVs, gadgets, and technology. It may sound boring to some, but to me it was heaven. It was where I felt most at home. But we didn’t start off in the nice space that the NMI enjoys now.
When I made it through the NMIX 2020: Intro to New Media class, I was completely dedicated to the NMI. If I could have, I would’ve immediately switched my major to New Media and never looked back. But alas, it was capped out at a 17-hour certificate program. But I didn’t care, I was a Junior at UGA and I intended to take every class the NMI offered before I left the school.
At this time in 2006, the NMI was located in the Bank of America building in downtown Athens. That’s right, it wasn’t even on the campus. I remember the first time I used my key card to get into the building and went up the elevator, waltzing in to an entire floor that was dedicated to the research of new media technologies–needless to say, I was just about the happiest kid on earth. After a memorable project in the intro class, I was honored to be chosen as one of four Mobile Media Scholars. The following semester would define my path, my passion, and my career.
In the New Media Institute, we try to start every project by asking the question “Wouldn’t it be cool if…?” That question led me, with the other Mobile Media Scholars, to build a working digital picture frame that would allow proud residents in nursing homes to show off pictures of their family. We called it ALPS, or the “Assisted Living Picture Service.” What made ALPS cool? In assisted living facilities, there is often a central room in which the residents can congregate and socialize, but there is rarely enough space for the residents to put up pictures of their family in the main room. ALPS stores pictures of all of the various residents’ families, and with the simple swipe of a bracelet or card (using RFID) the resident would immediately see a slideshow of his or her family. After about 30 seconds, ALPS would return to the home screen and would wait for another resident to swipe their card. Cool, huh? It gets better. Not only would ALPS store pictures of the residents’ family members, but we set up a system so that the family members could text, email, or upload recent photos to the ALPS unit remotely, so that Grandma or Grandpa would always see recent, new pictures. Now remember, this was back in 2006. Digital picture frames were just barely hitting the market, and no one was even coming close to allowing people to add photos to the frame remotely. It was cutting edge. It was cool. It was fun.
Zack Goulet
I went on to take every single class the New Media Institute offered. But I wasn’t satisfied. I started creating my own classes within the NMI, bringing along 2-3 fellow students each time. We created podcasts, built technology, design virtual 3-dimensional environments, and so much more. One of the most rewarding projects I worked on was with my best friend and fellow NMI graduate, Zack Goulet. Zack and I met in the Digital Brown Bag class, a weekly seminar in which Dr. Shamp invited various speakers from the tech industry to discuss their field and their careers. I mentioned to Zack that he should check out Diggnation, one of my favorite podcasts, and we instantly became friends. A few years later, after many different podcasts and trial-and-error shows, we created our most successful show to date: New Media Update.
Throughout all of the different classes, projects, and lessons I learned in the NMI, Dr. Shamp always framed the endeavors in a business context. We never just built anything for the heck of it. Always, Dr. Shamp would ask, “What’s the ROI?” Why would an investor be interested in this project or technology? Is it core, or is it just cool? His guidance helped me shape my excitement about new media into a viable business knowledge. Technology and media is filled with tempting tangents at every turn, without Dr. Shamp’s real-world, business-oriented leadership we could have been lost in the vast world of What-If’s. He kept us grounded, he gave us direction, and we delivered results that were worth a damn.
I apply the lessons I learned in the NMI every single day in my career, a path that I certainly would not have found without the program. Every morning I wake up and thank God that I had the opportunity to be a part of something so incredible and life-changing.
The UGA Accidentals: More than a Collegiate A Cappella Group
It was the summer of 1998, and I was in a wood cabin in the north Georgia mountains. I was attending my favorite 4-week summer camp when my friend Daniel Reiser ushered me into the older kids’ cabin to use their stereo. He put in a tape of his brother’s college a cappella group, Michigan Amazin’ Blue. I heard a song I didn’t know at the time (Millenium, originally performed by Robbie Williams) but it sounded…different. I quickly realized that it was all voices. Every sound. The background wasn’t made of guitars and bass and drums, it was all voices. It was incredible. I had been singing all of my life, but I had never heard anything like that. I was floored. I was excited. I was instantly obsessed.
I went home after camp and…acquired…every single a cappella song I could get my hands on. I mean everything. From old doo-wop, barbershop, and choral music to the newest collegiate a cappella. I found it all, and I memorized every song. I started to discover who the best groups in the country were. By the time I was a sophomore in high school, I considered myself to be an a cappella expert. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
Somehow,someway, somebody arranged for Clemson’s all-male a cappella group Tigeroar to come to our high school–Mauldin High in Greenville, South Carolina–to sing for our chorus class. It was the first time I had ever heard a cappella music performed live. The drums consisted of a guy in a white hat beatboxing into a microphone (see the video I recorded on the right).The guitar was created by a trio of guys on the side, bobbing up and down to their own part. The bass echoed through the auditorium as the tall college guys doh-dum’d their way through the song. The soloist was singing “One More Day” (originally performed by Diamond Rio) and I looked at the girls in my chorus class. They were in awe–some were practically drooling. I decided right then and there that I had to be that. I had to find a way to get into a collegiate a cappella group. I started a high school version of an a cappella group called Those 8 Guys (later renamed to InTENse), but we were…how do I put this…terrible. So it became my goal in life, as a Junior in high school, to find a collegiate a cappella group so that girls would look at me the way they were looking at the soloist from Tigeroar. Hey, don’t blame me, I was a guy in high school. Sports and girls pretty much summed up my day-to-day thoughts, with a computer game thrown in here and there to pass the time. Show me a guy who claims anything different, and I’ll show you a liar.
My destiny was set. My collegiate search was completely and entirely moderated by whether or not the school had a decent a cappella group. The academic ranking of the school hardly mattered to me but, coincidentally, schools that were large enough to have a cappella groups at that time tended to be fairly good schools. I guess I lucked out on that one. I decided it either had to be Duke (the Pitchforks), Clemson (Tigeroar), North Carolina (Clef Hangers), Virginia (Hullabahoos), or Georgia (Accidentals). All other schools were ruled out due to the fact that they were either (a) too expensive, (b) too far away, or (c) they didn’t have a suitable a cappella group.
UGA Accidentals
As fate would have it, my high school senior sweetheart decided she was going to the University of Georgia. I racked my brain and remembered that the UGA Accidentals were an all-male a cappella group that was founded in 1974, and was one of the oldest in the country. Without hesitation, I was in. It helped that she would be there, but I knew I had to get my way into that a cappella group. Soon after arriving at UGA and joining the Men’s Glee Club (also a fantastic group of singers of which I became the President for two years), I was approached by a wild-haired guy named Yannick Morgan. After trying out for a solo in Glee Club, Yannick asked if I would be interested in trying out for the UGA Accidentals. Trying to hide my excitement, I said yes. I auditioned with a self-made medley of Josh Groban, The Star-Spangled Banner, and a rap by Outkast. It worked. A freshman at UGA and I was in.
The UGA Accidentals became the single most important extra-curricular activity of my life. Playing soccer for 15 years was great, and running Cross Country in high school taught me all the self-discipline I could ever want, but nothing compared to singing with the UGA Accidentals. It was my life. It filled every night for me, and the guys in the group became some of my closest friends. Not only did I always have access to 13 or 14 guys to play pick-up basketball at the gym, tackle football on Saturdays, or go downtown with on a Friday night. I had a home-away-from-home. Those guys were-and are-my brothers.
We sang all kinds of music and performed at a gig at least every few weeks. Craig Coleman was the business director of the group when I joined in 2004. For some reason, he saw promise in me and took me on in a sort of mentor/apprentice relationship. He taught me the inner workings of the group, showed me how to book gigs and plan the group’s financial strategy. When he left the next year, he left the group in my hands. I was frozen with fear. How could I, a scared 19 year-old, run a group 12 years older than myself? Who was going to help me? The answer, I soon found, was Yannick Morgan.
Yannick Morgan
Yannick, born in Sierra Leone of two European parents, is a brilliant man with an unmatched passion for music. At the time in 2005, however, he was just as scared as I was. As I took the responsibility of running the business side of the Accidentals, Yannick took over the musical responsibilities. He arranged music for us, taught us the music, workshopped every song during rehearsal, and led us in concert. The Accidentals had traditionally released an album every few years, and that time was quickly approaching. Craig left us with a small cushion in the budget, so I had a few months to get my bearings about the job. But I needed to book us a record-breaking holiday season’s worth of gigs in order to raise enough money for us to record an album, and Yannick needed to arrange enough new music for our album to have something on it.
UGA Accidentals - 14 And Change (2006)
It was tough. Raising the money, arranging and learning the music, hiring a well-known a cappella producer, figuring out how to master and duplicate an album, creating the album art and getting everything done without blowing up or destroying our GPA was one of the most difficult and taxing challenges of my life. I specifically remember one night when I had to finish some of the album art because the duplication company needed it at 6am the next morning, and my eyelids were quickly becoming too heavy to bear. Yannick stayed up, constantly chatting with me to keep me awake and help me through the night. We never would have released the CD on time if it weren’t for our teamwork through that night and so many others like it. But that’s the truth of it, Yannick and I were a team. An unstoppable team. The group rallied alongside us, and together we led the Accidentals through the most profitable, successful quarters in the group’s history. It was magical.
I stayed on as the Business Director of the group for many years. I led the group through the recording and release of two albums, two successful international competitions, record-breaking financial growth, immeasurable increase in regional and national brand recognition, and a very important relationship with the all-female group at our school, UGA Noteworthy. In fact, the Accidentals and Noteworthy became the closest of friends during my tenure as Business Director, and we remain close even to this day. Almost every single one of my most important and long-lasting memories from college involved the UGA Accidentals or a function that involved the Accidentals and Noteworthy. We went on trips together, we sang together, we dated each other, we fought like siblings at times, and in the end, we became the wide-reaching family that we are today.
I left the Accidentals in the Spring of 2008 and I passed down the responsibility of Business Director to Cooper Kitching, a capable and vibrant young man. I had every intention of being finished for good. Little did I know, the best was yet to come.
The UGA Accidentals: Shane Fuhrman & The Next Level
I remember when Shane auditioned for the group. He walked into the audition as a graduate student, sang his song, and mentioned that he had created a group called Those Guys at “Juniata,” his undergraduate college. As soon as he walked out of the room, Yannick said, “I like him because he speaks a cappella.” After Yannick gave the thumbs up, it was pretty much decided. Shane was in the group. No one could have predicted it at the time, but Shane would come to lead the Accidentals to the most prestigious and competitive level in the world.
Shane Fuhrman
Shane is somewhat apathetic about many things, but is feverishly passionate about a cappella. He is a creature of habit: he wakes up in the late morning and drives to Mama’s Boy for coffee and breakfast (hands down the best breakfast joint in the South), he takes care of his duties as a graduate student and doctoral candidate in I/O Psychology, and then he focuses every single remaining moment of the day and night on a cappella. He devours it. He knows every group in the US, and he probably has every song they’ve ever recorded. Some people sing a cappella. Some people know a cappella. Shane is a cappella.
Shane accepted the responsibility of Music Director of the Accidentals after a somewhat disheartening year of average performances and mediocre accomplishments. He caught the group in a perfect storm: they were extremely talented singers, they were eager to surpass their discouraging performance the previous year, and the group had just released a brand new album. Shane didn’t have to focus on gigging a great deal because the group had a new album to sell. Motivating the group was simply a matter of pitting the current year against the previous one, and challenging the guys to do better every single day. It soon became apparent that the group was packed with talent that year, so much so that Shane decided he was going to take the group further than it had ever gone before in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (“ICCAs”).
The first year Shane took the Accidentals to ICCAs, they made it to the semi-finals in the Southeast where they were decidedly robbed of first place and of the chance to compete in the International Finals in New York City. The group was devastated, but Shane refused to let them give up. The next fall, he lit a fire under the Accidentals. And he asked me to be a part of it.
The UGA Accidentals - ICCA Semi-Finals (2010)
I was hesitant at first, but something in Shane’s eyes when he asked me made it impossible to resist. I was back. And the Accidentals were better than ever. We hosted, competed in, and won the quarter-finals of ICCAs in Athens. We continued on to the semi-finals in North Carolina–an event that the Accidentals had reached before but never won. We rehearsed for hours upon hours every day. We took trips as a group to build morale and perfect every note of every song. We had semi-professional choreographers come in to workshop our dance moves. We practiced on stages and off stages, in front of crowds and in front of cameras, together and alone. With sheer determination, Shane broke us each down as individuals and built up a new, nearly-perfect group of deeply connected singers. We were closer than we ever had been before, and when it came time for the semi-finals in North Carolina, we were absolutely ready. It paid off. We won first place at semi-finals in NC and–for the first time in the history of the Accidentals–we were headed to New York City for the finals of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella. I wept on stage. Heck, everyone in the group wept on stage. We had accomplished something momentous; we had won a victory that secured our place in the Accidentals’ history books; we proved to ourselves that with enough hard work, anything is possible.
There was but one problem: we didn’t have nearly enough money to get 14 guys from Georgia to New York City, and Varsity Vocals (the company that puts on ICCAs) wasn’t about to pay for us to go one single inch. So it was up to us to raise the money, on top of perfecting our set in a way that exceeded anything we had ever performed. We banded together, we sang at churches, we hosted shows, we tapped every resource we could find. I remembered a budding musician and a friend of mine named Allison Weiss had raised enough money for her first album using a service called Kickstarter. I realized that Kickstarter would be the perfect vehicle for us to raise money from our friends and family, so I created the video below to enlist the help of anyone who watched it:
Lo and behold, we were able to raise $3,800 through our video and the Kickstarter donation page. In addition to a number of private and public donations, it was just enough to get us to New York City for the finals. Raising the money brought us together even more, and we were tight. The music was solid. We had our tickets. It was time to become the world champions of collegiate a cappella.
UGA Accidentals - Headed To ICCA Finals - 2010
We headed to New York City with high hopes. We traveled by car, by train, and by plane. We stayed in a hostel in the center of the city, two blocks from Central Park and only a 5-minute walk to The Lincoln Center, where we would be performing at the finals. We did not rehearse. There was no need. Every movement and every pitch were memorized–solidified in our minds to the point that we could run through the entire show with our eyes closed.
My mom and her husband Fran came to New York to see us perform, as did a number Accidental alumni and a few of our close friends in Noteworthy. It did not occur to us at the time, but there were other important eyes watching us perform on that stage in Alice Tully Hall that night. But I digress.
Varsity Vocals called for all of the groups to enter the auditorium. We filed in, in awe of the indescribably beautiful soft wood that lined the walls of this famous musical venue. When we sat down in our seats, I realized that I was surrounded by the 6 best a cappella groups in the world. The groups that would be competing that night, the groups that were sitting on either side of me, were the winners of their semi-finals. It was surreal. For a brief moment, I remember thinking back to high school. It was almost hilarious, how naive I was to assume that the greatest thing a cappella would bring me was the admiration of a few girls. This. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. This was the result of thousands and thousands of hours of dedicated work. This was the culmination of a short-lived but life-changing career in collegiate a cappella. I was ecstatic.
The next few hours happened in a blur. We rehearsed and warmed up a little bit. We took showers and got dressed. I met my mom and Fran for a brief coffee and bite to eat. I called my girlfriend. Time seemed to both stand still and fly by. Suddenly, I realized I was sitting in a silent room, surrounded by the other guys in the group, and the door was closed.
Slowly, deliberately, we took turns speaking. We shared the deepest worries in our hearts. We shared our greatest joys. We laughed a little. We cried a lot. I shared with those guys, my brothers, that I had never been happier than that very moment. Nothing could take that away from us. I will cherish that memory until the day I die.
In a flash, some supernatural occurrence, I was on stage-right, about to perform. I could feel the crowd just beyond the curtain. I couldn’t hear anything but the echoes of our conversation in the room. I had tears streaming down my face as I walked onto the stage.
We performed. We did our best. I wept with joy and exhaustion.
In the end, we were awarded third place, which amounted to the fact that we were the best all-male a cappella group in the world. One of our soloists, Langdon Quin, took home the award for best solo. Our vocal percussionist, Schafer Gray, took home the award for best vocal percussionist. We did just fine, I’d say.
Walking out of that theatre, with my brothers beside me, was the most victorious feeling I’ve ever felt. It was more than just an outward victory, it was a personal victory that I shared with each and every one of them. It was also a victory that I shared with the ranks of Accidental alumni, especially the ones who made it to the show that night. And finally, it was a victory that signified the final accomplishment of a successful career in collegiate a cappella.
We sang our signature song, Blessing, in a soft harmony that evening. By its words, and in the midst of my brothers in song, I was truly blessed.
What’s Next? The Accidentals & The Sing Off
I went forward from ICCAs, expecting never to sing with the guys again. But, yet again, I was wrong. NBC created a show called “The Sing Off” the previous year, and it was a minor success. But big things were in the works for the second season of the show, and auditions were around the corner all over the country. Shane decided that he was going to get the best-of-the-best together, pull even from the Accidentals alumni, and create an all-star Accidentals group to audition for The Sing Off.
We used almost the same set that we used in NYC, but we switched one song to include one of our greatest soloists of all time: Myers Boicourt. Myers sang the solo to the Josh Groban song “Lullaby,” which Yannick arranged in my car after I suggested it to him at the begging of a long road trip. It’s one of our most poignant songs, and Myers was the perfect soloist for it.
We auditioned for The Sing Off in Nashville, TN during the Summer of 2010. Our group included some of the legends from Accidentals’ history: Yannick, Shane, Rodney, Myers, Cooper, Schafer, Jeff, and more. Our sound was impeccable, and the casting company in Nashville really liked us. We thought we nailed it.
We made it to the final 15 groups to be considered for the show. NBC led us on for months, having us sign contract after contract, performing background checks, and even going so far as to assign hotel room roommates for LA during the filming of the show. But, in the end, they decided to go with a different all-male group to fill that spot in the show. We were heartbroken, to say the least. But we all moved forward and Shane intends to take a group of Accidentals back to audition again. Only time will tell if he can repeat his success with ICCAs in the national television arena. Stay tuned.
Singing4Change: The Trial Run
Singing4Change
In 2007, at UGA, I decided to create an experimental a cappella group called Singing4Change. S4C had no auditions, did not compete or aspire to record an album, and did not have an attendance policy at rehearsals. Instead, it was a come-as-you-are type of group that focused on enjoying singing, discussing music and life, and watching the sunset. It was fun. Eventually, I wanted the group to perform and raise money in an effort to fund the donation of laptops to kids in the developing world. The OneLaptopPerChild campaign had just come out, and I intended to raise hundreds of dollars to send dozens of laptops to Costa Rica.
Long story short: it didn’t pan out. Though, incidentally, I did get money donated through other means and did end up taking 13 OneLaptopPerChild laptops to Costa Rica myself. But that’s another story.
A Cappella: Atlanta & Beyond
Now, in 2011, Sing4Change has been passed on to the capable hands of Langdon Quin. He has big plans and big talent, so I can’t wait to see where he takes the concept.
I’m currently singing in a semi-pro a cappella group in Atlanta called the Atlanta Graduates.
Composing & Acting: My Stint of the Silver Screen
I never really considered myself to be an actor. Though I did grow up on stage (performing every summer in my aunt’s highly successful song-and-dance summer camp Showcamp and acting in 4-5 musical theatre productions), I was never very invested in the art of pretending to be someone you are not.
However, my best friend Zack Goulet is a very talented, aspiring filmmaker who now lives and works in Hollywood. While he was at UGA, he enlisted my help in several of his productions. At first, I showed up with him in podcast after podcast. But eventually, I auditioned for his 20 minute film, Level 84. At the time it was a blast to shoot the film, and be the talent on set. We were just a bunch of students anyway, figuring it out as we went. The kicker was that many of the students working on the film were quite talented. What they were able to accomplish with basic equipment, minimal time, and zero dollars is pretty impressive; however, I’m sure they would all look back at Level 84 and chuckle now that most of them are working in LA.
My true contribution to the Grady telecom department’s productions, however, was my ability to compose scores for films and commercials. After I helped a friend out by composing one score, I was inundated with requests. There as one unforgettable weekend during which I had to start and complete 7 different scores for 7 different short films. It was a nightmare, but a fun one. I loved composing, and I would continue it as a hobby except for the fact that if you do not constantly search for films and spread the word about your scores, you’ll quickly be forgotten.