Hi, my name is Ryan Aasen. I'm an artist, photographer, researcher, and educator, and I'm broadly interested in the intersecting politics and histories of media technology, privacy, and class structure. Lately I've been thinking about rural queer identities.

I was an MIT Transmedia Storytelling Initiative fellow, a Northern Lights.mn Art(ists) on the Verge fellow, and my work has been exhibited internationally. I have an MS in Art, Culture and Technology from MIT, and a BFA in Integrated Media from St. Cloud State University. My resume is here.

Let's talk:
ryan@ryanaasen.com
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selected projects ⬇
lonewolf (2016-ongoing) is a nonlinear exploration and documentation of contemporary anxieties around ideas of surveillance, terrorism, and nationalism, and their relationship to the commons.
and the common law in its eternal youth grows to meet the demands of society (2021) looks at the history of privacy in the United States, and its relationship to wealth, media technologies, and sexuality.
Closet Flag (2021)
Butt Pirates (2021) is an essay about the effects of geography and class structure on sexual identites.
linknyc.info (2017) was a guerilla video installation for LinkNYC kiosks.
NSA (2015) is a multimedia installation mapping the intersecting politics of surveillance, national security, and sexuality.
Push (2014-ongoing)
Photograph (2013)
Vigilant/What I Know (2013) is a video made from found photos of some of the people who helped build Facebook's facial recognition technology.
Homage to a Paper Degree (2013) was my undergraduate senior thesis project. A multi-media installation based around a series of performances, Homage to a Paper Degree explores the intersections of physical and digital spaces across distance, time, xenophobia, and truth.
Footprint (2012) uses consumer facial recognition technology in an attempt to find people and images deleted from social media.
Anonymous (2011) looks the politics of anonymity through the use of burner phones.
Proxy I (2011)