Contemporary technologies often present themselves as a closed system: a magical, seamlessly implemented, fast-moving, omnipotent force that we cannot alter or change. But this imaginary did not simply appear from thin air—it was constructed by those with the power to perpetuate this myth. How might we write a different story, and demand a more just tech ecosystem?
In this talk, media artist and researcher Roopa Vasudevan will discuss how, through her technologically-engaged practice—spanning creative coding, artistic self-publishing, drawing, printmaking, and more—she investigates the stories we tell ourselves about digital systems, providing the friction, space, and critical distance necessary to question how tech infiltrates our lives; understand how it is constructed; and imagine alternative futures to the ones presented to us as inevitable.
An internationally exhibiting artist, Vasudevan is on the faculty of the art department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Vasudevan is a South Asian-American media artist, computer programmer, and researcher based between New York City and Western Massachusetts. Through her research and creative practice, she investigates default technical practices and protocols, and how they intersect with larger social and economic power structures. Bridging digital technologies with tactile and sensory forms, she uses systems and tools that are prevalent in everyday life in poetic, unexpected or reflective ways—surfacing social or political tensions in our taken-for-granted practices and questioning the breakneck speed of technological innovation.
Vasudevan has exhibited her work internationally, and been featured by the New York Times, WHYY, Reuters, Slate, Hyperallergic, PBS NewsHour, and more. She has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to artist-led initiatives, working with spaces in New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Portland, Maine. She has additionally been exhibited or supported by MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA), NEW INC (New Museum, New York), the Processing Foundation, Eyebeam, and the Emerson Collective Culture Council, among others.
An assistant professor in the Department of Art at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Vasudevan holds a PhD in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania and an MPS from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU.
Learn more about her work at https://roopavasudevan.com or on Instagram at @rouxpz .
