Jonathan Feinberg •


I was born in 1967, when computers looked like .
At the time of this writing, computers mostly look like , but to me, computers are actually supposed to look like , so I'm kind of perpetually bewildered.

I found all of these little images by using a web site created and maintained by my employer.

Wordle Thumbnail

I created the Wordle word-cloud layout algorithms while working on a social bookmarking application at IBM Research, in 2005. I created the “Wordle” web application in 2008. Since that time, hundreds of thousands of people have saved over 4,000,000 word clouds to Wordle's public gallery.

Beautiful Visualization I contributed a chapter about Wordle to the O'Reilly book “Beautiful Visualization”. You can buy the book—all royalties go to Architecture for Humanity—or you can download a copy of the chapter I wrote by clicking on this.

News and philosophizing about Wordle go to the Wordle Blog.

Supraphonic, yo

I used to be a musician, in New York City. From about 1990 to 2003 I played drums, guitar, and bass on many records and at shows.

Here are a few samples of my work as a musician.

Round Band - Hypocrites on TV

by Dan Seiden
  • Dan Seiden‑guitar, vocals
  • Joe Quigley‑bass
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums

Church of Betty - Comedy of Animals

by Chris Rael
  • Chris Rael‑guitar and vocals
  • Deep Singh‑tabla
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums and Vibra‑Tone
  • Joe Quigley‑bass
  • Kenny Siegal‑GRYARNK GRONK

Samsara - I'm Sorry

by Tim Bright & Paris Hampton
  • Paris Hampton‑vocals
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums
  • Tim Bright‑everything else!

Michael Holt - Singing Part

  • Michael Holt‑acoustic guitar, piano, vocals
  • Cora Simone‑back vocals
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums and percussion
  • Joe Quigley‑bass
  • Chris Rael‑electric guitar
  • Erik Pearson‑electric guitar
  • Dan Seiden‑electric guitar and Yeah yeah!

Pajama Garden - Ernie Pie

by Michael Holt
  • Michael Holt‑Fender Rhodes and vocals
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑objects strewn about the room

Ed Pastorini - I Love New York

  • Ed Pastorini‑piano and vocals
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑traps

Brian Woodbury's Popular Music Group - I Burn the Flag

  • Brian Woodbury‑vocals and acoustic guitar
  • Marc Muller‑guitar
  • Erik Boyd‑bass
  • Elma Mayer‑keyboards
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums

Fluffer - Slick

  • Anna Kim‑guitar
  • Janet Treadaway‑guitar
  • Laura Galpin‑vocals
  • "Kasual" Lineberger‑bass
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums

Mike Errico - God

  • Mike Errico‑guitar, hamonica and vocals
  • John Abbey‑bass
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums

Church of Betty - Red Line

by Chris Rael
  • Chris Rael‑sitar and vocals
  • Deep Singh‑tabla and tuning hammer
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑fretless bass
  • Gregor Kitzis‑violin
  • Matthew Goeke‑cello

Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories - Stay

by Lisa Loeb
  • Lisa Loeb‑guitar and vocals
  • Tim Bright‑guitar
  • Joe Quigley‑bass
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums
  • With Paul Schaeffer and the Late Night band!

Church of Betty - Electric Chair

by Chris Rael
  • Chris Rael‑guitar and vocals
  • Deep Singh‑tabla
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums
  • Joe Quigley‑bass
  • Gregor Kitzis‑violin

They Might Be Giants - The Statue Got Me High

by John Linnell and John Flansberg
  • John Linnel‑accordian and vocals
  • John  Flansberg‑guitar and vocals
  • Tony Maimone‑bass
  • Kurt Hoffman‑sax
  • Jonathan Feinberg‑drums

I've made a few little pieces of free software, which I maintain on github. These include:

  • cue.language - A small Java library for simple text analysis - counting strings, identifying languages, and removing stop words.
  • haikufinder - A python library for locating accidental haikus in unstructured text.
  • Patchy - 3D parametric surfaces—“patches”—for Processing.
  • PeasyCam - easy-peasy camera control for 3D sketches in Processing.

In fact, they do speak English in What.