Hi, my name is Ryan Aasen. I'm an artist, photographer, researcher, and educator broadly interested in the intersecting politics and histories of media technology, privacy, and class structure. My latest work reevaluates the function of the closet in the contemporary age of mass surveillance.
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
instagram, twitter
lonewolf is an ongoing nonlinear exploration and documentation of contemporary anxieties around ideas of surveillance, terrorism, and nationalism, and their relationship to the commons.
Butt Pirates is an essay about the effects of geography and class structure on sexual identites.
linknyc.info was a guerilla video installation for LinkNYC kiosks.
NSA is a multimedia installation mapping the intersecting politics of surveillance, national security, and sexuality.
Vigilant/What I Know 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 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 uses consumer facial recognition technology in an attempt to find people and images deleted from social media.
Anonymous looks the politics of anonymity through the use of burner phones.