Ari Melenciano

Artist 
Designer 
Technologist 
Researcher 
Theorist Biography,  
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Selected Works, Interviews, Essays, Talks:
Where the Work Has Lived

[Education]Bachelor of Arts from the University of Maryland, where she also spent a year abroad at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona studying Spanish Art History and Architecture
Master of Professional Studies from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP)

[Teaching] From 2018-2025, Ari has taught 25 predominately graduate-level university courses at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), Department of Photography (DPI), and the Interactive Media Arts (IMA) Low Res Program | Pratt Institute‘s Communication Design Program | Hunter College’s Integrated Media Arts (IMA) Program | The New School’s/ Parson’s School of Design Transdisciplinary Design Program | University of Maryland’s Studio Art and Immersive Media Design (IMD) Program | and Rutgers University’s School of Design

[Exhibited at]Venice Biennale in Architecture (Armenia’s Pavilion, 2025), The Bronx Museum of Art (2025), Museum of Modern Art in NYC (2025), Museum of the Future in Dubai (2024), Montclair State Gallery (2023), The Museum of Moving Image (2022), Sundance Film Festival | New Frontier (2021), and The Studio Museum in Harlem (2020), New York University (2018), University of Maryland (2014)

[DJ and Performances]Google Creative Lab’s Infinite Wonderland (2024), Ford Foundation’s What Models Make Worlds (2023), University of Maryland‘s NextNOW Festival (2023), University of California San Diego (2021), The Philadelphia Museum of Art with Sun Ra Arkestra (2020), Eyebeam (2019), Starr Bar (DJ residency 2016-2018), Mana Contemporary (2018), Culture Hub’s Re-Fest (2018), 

[Awarded by]The Eames Institute’s Curious 100 (2025), Ford Foundation (2021-2024), USA Artists Fellowship Nomination (3x - 2021-2024), New York University’s Presidents Service Award (2018), Tisch School of the Arts Dean Fellowship (2017), Urvashi Vaid / Melinda Paras Inclusive Programming Award (2018), and (unexpectedly) the Bollywood Film Festival for Best Cell Phone Cinema Short (2018)

[Residencies, Fellowships] Pioneer Works’ Working Artist Fellowship (2025), University of Maryland’s Inaugural Arts for All Artist-in-Residence (2024), ONX New Media Artist (2020), New York Live Arts Artist in Residence (2020), Maryland Institute College of Art Artist-in-Residence (2020), New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Inaugural Future Imagination Fund Fellow (2020), New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Graduate Program Human-in-Residence (2020), Pioneer Works Technology Resident (2020), Eyebeam’s Rapid Response Artist Fellow (2020), New Inc + Nokia Bell Labs + Rhizome Experiments in Arts and Technology Artist (2019), Culture Hub Technology Resident (2019), Laundromat Project Create Change Fellow (2019), University of Denver’s Center for Open Source Arts Inaugural Contributor-in-Residence (2019), New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program “Postdoc” Research Fellow (2019), Processing Foundation Fellow (2018)

[Commissioned by]The New York Times (2020) and GIPHY (2022) as an animation artist, and as a writer for The New School’s Vera List Center for Art and Politics (2023), The National Endowment for the Arts (2023), and Carnegie Museum of Art  (2024)
[Keynote, Panelist]SXSW, MozFest, Google Design’s SPAN, Harvard, MIT Media Lab, SVA, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Oregon, Fordham,  ArtCenter, California College of the Arts, Carnegie Mellon University, DePaul University, the Pratt Institute, Univ. of Wisconsin, University of Chicago, University of Tennessee, Georgia State, Geneva School of Design, Pacific Northwest University, Whitman College, SUNY Fredonia, Queens College, Wesleyan University, University of Denver, Today at Apple (5th Avenue, NYC), Dubai Future Forum, Sundance Film Festival, NYC Design Pavilion, Simons Foundation, EYEO, Knight Foundation, New Museum,  Anderson Ranch Arts Center, IDEO, Code/Art, Cooper Union, Black Portraitures, TUMO, Eyebeam, ACM Symposium on Computational Fabrication,  International Center of Photography, Iterations.Online, Women of Color in Engineering Collaborative, Design Academy Eindhoven (Netherlands), The Apollo Theater

[Awards Juried]Prix Ars Electronica’s New Media Animation 2024, 2025 | NYU Tisch’s Hear Us 2024 | Creative Capital 2020-2022 | Interaction Design Awards (IxDA) 2020 | United States Artists Inaugural Knight Art + Tech Fellowship 2020 

[Featured by]Forbes, The New York Times, New York Magazine/Curbed, AIGA, Design Milk, Wix.com, Emerson Collective, Google Arts and Culture, It’s Nice That, Design Observer 

[Consulted for]Creative Capital in Designing Community, New York City’s Department of Education on Culturally Relevant STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathemetics) Curriculum Development, Apple’s Made in NYC Mentorship Program, and the Magnum Foundation

[Previously]Has worked at Google’s Creative Lab as a Creative technologist, Research Affiliate of MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative, a member of the Guild of Future Architects, and in her early days - Head of Design at the Marron Institute at NYU’s BetaGov, Head of Creative Technology at Marymount School of New York, Director of Art at the Pine Forest Summer Camp.
©2025Ari Melenciano