Professional Highlights

1979 - 1982. Produced (world's first?) interactive virtual sculptures.

1985. First public use of the term "virtual sculpture", in paper published by SIGGRAPH conference.

1987. Helped found, and hired as first full-time professor into, Dept. of Computer Graphics at Pratt Institute, first department in U.S. devoted to digital art. Designed and pilot-taught numerous courses. Has mentored hundreds of students worldwide since.

1982 - 1988. Produced a series of abstract three-dimensional computer animations.

1985. Produced digital models for Frank Stella's Cones and Pillars series of sculptures.

1987. World premiere at Kennedy Center for the Arts, Washington, D.C., of Luminescent Modulations, a film+dance+music work in collaboration with Geoffrey Wright and Camille Izard.

1987. Contributing animator to Amnesty International's Human Rights Now! animation, winner of first prize at Los Angeles Animation Festival.

1990 - 1992. Produced a series of digital sculptures for Frank Stella's Smoke sculptures. Produced accompanying graphics, which Stella used for ten years in his paintings and prints.

1993. Presented paper at SCAN conference on importance for artists of bugs in software.

1995. Publication of first edition of Principles of Three-Dimensional Computer Animation. Subsequently translated into Japanese, Korean, and Chinese, and three editions.

1997. Received grant and exhibition from SIGGRAPH organization for two series of digital prints.

2000. One-person exhibition of digital prints at the Hong Gah Museum, Taipei, Taiwan.

2001. First interactive multimedia mural, combining printed imagery, live processed video, and audio, embedded into mural wall.

2005. Exhibition of several interactive multimedia murals, including Picnic, a 7' x 45' mural, at Blue Hill Culture Center, Pearl River, NY.

2008. A retrospective exhibition, "Michael O'Rourke: 30 Years of Digital Art", at the Taoyuan Culture Center, Taoyuan, Taipei.

2014. Produced and exhibited Woods, an interactive multimedia mural combining printed imagery, a real-time interactive human character, and 3d animation.