Dave Riedstra is a full-stack web developer and creative coder. His work for web ranges from small business WordPress pages to complex web applications and corporate sites. Riedstra loves creating websites that excel across the range of internet-capable devices and provide effortless user experiences. Riedstra is also interested in the sonic capabilities of browsers and devices. These explorations have resulted in sound art pieces which use speech recognition and synthesis, device motion data, and real-time networking.
I go to Dave whenever I need help – he is a great resource and is very knowledgeable about what he does. He works quickly, does an amazing job, and is easygoing and fun. I won’t work with anyone else!
designer Hannah Browne
Dave Riedstra studied in the Interactive Multimedia program at Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada. His work continues to use the best of HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript, and he has experience with various client- and server-side libraries and frameworks, third-party APIs, and platform paradigms. Refer to his LinkedIn page for a more complete listing or to the selected projects below.
Regimen is a web app designed to help log and visualize your practice – whether it’s playing a musical instrument, doing athletic training, learning a language or forming a new habit. Built in Angular 7 and deployed using Firebase tools, Regimen is an open-source personal project.
AOSP Sensors is a sound sculpture which generates sound by attuning to its surroundings. Information about ambient light, position, temperature, and other aspects of the device’s situation is monitored in real-time, and the device uses this data to manipulate sound sampled from the environment.
The bulk of this piece is a native Android app custom-built for a Nexus S (crespo, 2010). The app gathers environmental data from its sensors and sends that data to a Pure Data patch it hosts.
AOSP Sensors showed at arc·hive artist run centre (2516 Bridge St.) 24-26 August 2018 as part of Integrate Arts Festival.
For a year and a half, Riedstra developed the static website and online portal for self-publishing startup Tellwell Talent. Both products involved close work with a team of designers, project managers, and a back-end developer. Riedstra worked from designs and business requirements provided by the team, implementing both products ground-up on existing server infrastructure.
The portal, affectionately known as octavo, was developed using bleeding-edge SPA technology. Riedstra chose Angular as a front-end framework, and octavo followed the development of this technology through three major releases (Angular 2–5). The application leverages the server-side rendering and tree-shaking capabilities of Webpack and .NET Core.
802.11 constructs a living architecture of sound by fusing the existing physical and electromagnetic structures of its host space. Using techniques developed for network penetration testing, 802.11 transforms environmental WiFi traffic into an immersive soundscape. By revealing the unseen signals traversing the wireless ethernet, Riedstra’s installation offers a new way to explore and consider the omnipresent materials of our digital lives.
This sound installation uses a variety of hardware. The core of each of its six stations is a Raspberry Pi 3 which runs the WiFi monitoring (Python 3) and audio generation (Pure Data). Consumer-grade antennae monitor WiFi signals and transducers transfer the sound directly through the walls on which the piece is installed.
A solo for Google Chrome with live human vocalist. The browser uses the Speech Synthesis API to whisper some garbled text into the human performer’s ear. The performer tries to recreate this sound as closely as possible, but invariably makes mistakes. The browser listens to the result and attempts to interpret it as text using the Speech Recognition API, which also results in mistakes. The browser then repeats the text it thinks it heard – garbling it again – to the performer, who continues to recreate what they hear. The result is an energetic feedback loop which continues as long as the computer “desires.”
Phased is a multi-platform team communication tool which provides productivity updates. Team members post updates manually or through third-party integrations such as Slack, Google Calendar, and GitHub, allowing users to monitor team progress on projects. The core product was built on a MEAN-like stack (using Firebase instead of Mongo) and packaged as a web app, mobile app, and Chrome extension.
An online booking system with public and admin interfaces built as a WordPress plugin for Toronto’s Cherry Jam Rehearsal. In collaboration with designer Hannah Browne.
Online apartment building management for Artsdeir Apartments. Built using ProcessWire, this site features interactive forms for rental application, maintenance requests, and end-of-tenancy notification. angular.js is used for client-side forms and additional scurity for sensitive information is provided by libsodium.
Website for the Strata Music Festival (formerly SaskNewMusic) featuring site-wide integrated interactive schedule, media gallery, and events and personnel profiles. Built in WordPress and based on poster designs by Chris Morin.
A long scrolling WordPress site for fitness trainer and massage therapist Jack Johnston. Designed, developed, and deployed by Riedstra.
