New Media

Art & Design, Studio Art Professor Ben Grosser was recently highlighted as Illinois Artist Spotlight from the Illinois Arts Council. Ben Grosser creates interactive experiences, machines, and systems that examine the cultural, social, and political effects of software. Recent exhibitions include Centre Pompidou in Paris, The Barbican Centre and Somerset House in London, Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin, SXSW in Austin, and the Japan Media Arts Festival in Tokyo. His projects have been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Wired, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, El País, and Folha. The Guardian (UK) proclaimed Grosser’s film ORDER OF MAGNITUDE to be a definitive artwork of the 21st century, “a mesmerising monologue, the story of our times.” RTÉ (Ireland) dubbed him an “antipreneur,” and Slate commended his work as “creative civil disobedience in the digital age.” His artworks are regularly cited in books investigating the cultural effects of technology, including The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, The Metainterface, and Investigative Aesthetics, as well as volumes centered on computational art practices such as Electronic Literature, The New Aesthetic and Art, and Digital Art. Grosser is Professor of New Media at the University of Illinois (USA), and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.

Deke Weaver is a professor of New Media in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois and Jennifer Allen is a choreographer and director when not working at her acupuncture practice in Champaign. Q Magazine sat down with Weaver and Allen ahead of the “CETACEAN” premiere to discuss their careers, the development of their latest show, and the power of theater to dramatize ecological connectedness and crisis.  Read more in Q Magazine's interview.