Jared Bendis

Chair of Game Design
Cleveland Institute of Art

Jared Bendis is an artist and teacher from Cleveland, Ohio who specializes in game design, virtual reality, photography, and interactive & new media. He received his MFA in Contemporary Dance at CWRU with a focus in Performance Media, his MA in Art Education from the CWRU and CIA joint program, and his BA from CWRU in Psychology with minors in Music and Art Studio.

Prior to becoming Chair in 2021, Jared had served as adjunct in Game Design at CIA since 2006 and has held adjunct appointments at CWRU in Cognitive Science, Art Studio, and SAGES. He has worked at CWRU since 1994, and continues to serve as the Creative New Media Officer for the Kelvin Smith Library.

Jared’s art practice includes creating immersive installations that provide interactive social and sensory experiences. As a photographer he prefers to view the world, especially castles, though a wide-angle lens and specializes in spherical panoramic and stereoscopic photography. He also has extensive experience digitizing collections in museums all over the world.

Jared is also an installation artist, photographer, teacher, playwright and filmmaker. As a visual artist Jared focuses on the way people see, augmenting their reality via technology and visual perception. As a photographer he prefers to view the world though a wide-angle lens and specializes in spherical panoramic and stereoscopic photography. On his first trip overseas, in March 2000, Jared visited the Chateau de Pierrefonds in France and became driven (if not obsessed) with capturing and sharing cultural and architectural experiences and has photographed over 500 architectural, archeological and cultural sites (primarily castles) in 14 countries. Jared’s art practice also includes creating immersive installations that provide interactive social and sensory experiences for viewers.

Jared has extensive experience in the Museum world digitizing collection materials from: The Cleveland Museum of Art (where he served as their Virtual Reality Specialist), The Cleveland Botanical Garden, The Western Reserve Historical Society, The Cleveland Natural History Museum, The Cleveland Zoo, The musée des beaux-arts Dijon (in coordination with the French Regional American Museum Exchange), and the Isparta Museum in Turkey.

Jared is lead developer, designer, and co-owner of Lemming Labs Limited that develops interactive media applications and games. He also owns ATBOSH Media Ltd. a publishing company that specializes in traditional print media, game, web, and app development.

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