JOSHUA THORSON
Curriculum Vitae
EDUCATION
09/2009–8/2013
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Ph.D.—Electronic Art
06/2003–08/2005
Bard College, M.F.A.—Film/Video
09/1996–05/2001
University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, B.A.—Cultural Studies and Film Studies
Additional Education
07/2016
NYS Summer Writer’s Institute, Fiction seminar, Mary Gaitskill & Howard Norman
01/2011–12/2012
State University of New York—Albany, Fiction workshop, Lydia Davis & Lynne Tillman
09/1999–05/2000
Minneapolis Community and Technical College, 16mm Film Production, Bruce Mamer
SCHOLARSHIP
2021
Oklahoma! [projections], US National Tour, 2020-21
2019-20
Oklahoma! [projections], Circle in the Square (Broadway), NYC
To Music, Act 4 [projections], Roulette, Brooklyn, NY
Return to Forbidden Planet, [projections], Red Bull Theater Company, Symphony Space, NYC
Games for Windows [group exhibition], Swampbabes, Rochester, NY
2018
Oklahoma! [projections] St Ann’s Warehouse (Off-Broadway), Brooklyn, NY
To Music, Act 3 [projections], Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY
To Music, Act 3 [projections], Mt. Tremper, Phoenicia, NY
Source of Light, [projections], Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY
2017
In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer [projections], University of Rochester
In Xanadu [solo exhibition & residency], Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY
Words & Text, [group exhibition], Malmo University, Malmo, Sweden
2016
To Music, Act 2 [projections], Experiments in Opera, Merkin Concert Hall, NYC
Silver and Gold by Nao Bustamante, [dancer], Modern Mondays, MoMA, NYC
Words & Text, [group exhibition], Rochester Design Center, Rochester, NY
2015
Urban Renewal [projections], OnEdge Festival, Chicago, IL
To Music, Act 1 [projections], Experiments in Opera, Roulette, Brooklyn, NY
Oklahoma! [projections], Bard Summerscape Festival, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Compartmented, [group exhibition], Lyric Theater Project Space, Rochester, NY
2013
Science Fiction, [group screening], Rencontres Internationales Festival, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
Urban Renewal [projections], Crossing the Line Festival, Florence Gould Hall, NYC; Hermes New Settings Festival, Theatre de la cité, Paris
Tell Me Everything [solo screening], EMPAC, Troy, NY
Space Shifters, [group screening], Video Dumbo, Eyebeam, NYC
Moby Dick—Rehearsed by Orson Welles [projections], Fisher Center at Bard College
2012
Science Fiction, [group screening], Rencontres Internationales, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
Magic Kingdoms, [group screening], Pleasure Dome, Toronto
Joshua Thorson Videos, [solo screening], The Thing, NYC
Strange Attractors [commissioned touring group screening], Anthology Film Archives, NYC, among others
Deep State, [group screening], Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, Chicago, IL
Selected Past Scholarship
Paradise Lost [projections], American Repertory Theater, Harvard University, 2010
Perspectacle, [curator], The New Museum, NYC, 2009
CELLuloid, [group screening], Documentary Fortnight, Museum of Modern Art, 2008
Paradise Park, [projections], Signature Theatre, NYC, 2008
Under the Spell, [group screening], Rotterdam International Film Festival, 2006
Premieres, [group screening], Museum of Modern Art, NYC, 2005
Studio: 7 Months..., [group exhibition], Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, 2005
Studio: 7 Months…, [group exhibition], Musee d'Orsay, Paris, 2004
Editing
Pinochet Porn (2008-16) by Ellen Cantor, [supervising editor]; Modern Mondays, MoMA, NYC, ICA London; Künstlerhaus Stuttgart; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; mumok, Vienna; Tufts University, Boston; REDCAT, Los Angeles (among others).
Turning (2012) by Charles Atlas [assistant editor].
Ocean (2010) by Charles Atlas/Merce Cunningham, [camera and co-editor]; Whitney Biennial, NYC, George Eastman Museum, among others.
Interscape (2001/2008) by Charles Atlas/Merce Cunningham [editor].
CRWDSPCR (2008) by Charles Atlas/Merce Cunningham [additional camera].
Awards/Grants/Residencies
Drama Desk Award Nomination, Outstanding Projection Design (Oklahoma!), 2019
American Theater Wing Obie Award, Special Citation Award (Oklahoma!), 2019
Mt. Tremper Arts Residency (To Music, Act 3), 2018
Visual Studies Workshop Artist Residency, 2017
Programme “New Settings” Grant [w/ Kyle deCamp], Fdtn. d’entreprise Hermès, 2013
Rencontres Internationales Artist Travel Grant [US Embassy], Berlin, 2013
New York Theater Workshop Dartmouth Residency [w/ Kyle deCamp], Dartmouth College
Fisher Center Artists in Residence [w/ Kyle deCamp], Bard College, 2013
Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Fellowship, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2011–
Canadian Video Art Research Fellowship, Vtape, 2010
Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Assistantship, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
Rotterdam International Film Festival Travel Grant, 2006
Curator’s Choice Award, CinemaTexas, 2006
Artist Talks & Panels
In Xanadu, artist talk, Visual Studies Workshop, 2016
The Making of Pinochet Porn, panel, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, NYC, 2016
Requiem Reimagined, artist talkback, Troy City Music Hall, 2015
Science Fiction, artist talkback, Rencontres Internationales, Berlin, Germany, 2013
Urban Renewal, artist talkback, New York Theater Workshop @ Dartmouth College, 2013
Urban Renewal, artist talkback, Fisher Center at Bard College, NY, 2013
Strange Attractors, artist talkback, Anthology Film Archives, NYC, 2012
Making a Case for the Arts in a Research University, Graduate Quorum participant, Michigan Meeting for the Arts, 2011
Paradox Rules, artist talk, EMPAC, Troy, NY, 2010
CELLuloid, artist talkback, Documentary Fortnight, MoMA, NYC, 2008
Published Writing
Atlas, Charles, et al. Charles Atlas. JRP Ringier Kunstverlag, 2018.
“Aura Satz: Eyelids Leaking Light,” The Wire, March 2015.
"An Evening in New York,” Connu, April, 2014.
“Tell Me Everything: A Narrative Video Art Practice,” UMI/ProQuest, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, 2013. [Ph.D. Dissertation].
“Lisa Steele: The Conceptual Anthropology of Narrative Works, 1976-1982,” Vtape, Toronto, 2013. Included in The Complete Works of Lisa Steele DVD boxed-set.
“The Sense Ritual,” MIX NYC Catalogue, 2010.
ArtFancy, Issues 1-3, 2007-2009.
“Perspectacle,” MIX NYC Catalogue, 2008.
“Between a memory, a portrait, a resolution,” They Shoot Homos Don’t They, Issue 3, 2006.
“Video Burnout,” MIX NYC Catalogue, 2006.
Bibliography
Books
Suzie Silver, ed., Strange Attractors: Investigations in Non-Humanoid Extraterrestrial Sexualities (Pittsburgh: Inst. for E.T. Sexualities/Encyclopedia Destructica, 2012).
Lauren Cornell, ed., Younger than Jesus: Artist Directory (New York: Phaidon, 2009).
Neysa Page-Lieberman, ed., dis/BELIEVER: Intersections of Science and Religion in Contemporary Art (Chicago: Columbia College, 2009).
Alex Gartenfeld, ed., Queer Zines (New York: Printed Matter, 2008).
Annie Dufour, ed., Gustave Courbet/Tony Oursler: Studio (Paris: Editions Hazan, 2004).
Articles
Ben Brantley, “A Smashing Oklahoma is Reborn in the Land of Id,” New York Times, April 7, 2019.
Sara Holdren, “Where Storm Clouds Loom Above the Plain,” New York Magazine Vulture, October 8, 2018.
Jeffery Songco, “Fantastic Voyage: An Interview with Christopher Kardambikis,” Bad at Sports, May 8, 2013.
Ben Sachs, “Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival,” Chicago Reader, June 20, 2012.
Bill Stamets, “Onion City Film Festival Goes Way Beyond the Mainstream,” Chicago Sun Times, July 23, 2012.
Linda Matchan, “Video Projection: Expanding Role in Mainstream Theater,” Boston Globe, March, 2010.
David Haskell, “Queer Zines,” New York Magazine, January 1-7, 2008.
Rit Premnath, ed., “Science/Séance,” Shifter, Volume 2 Issue #4, 2006.
Barbara Pollack, “Just Like Courbet’s. Except for a Few Tiny Details,” New York Times, June 5, 2005.
Lauren Cornell, “Studio,” Time Out NY, Issue No. 517 August 25–31, 2005.
Lance Esplund, “Lost in Translation,” NY Sun, May 19, 2005.
Ioannis Mookas, “Midnight at the Oasis,” Senses of Cinema, Issue 33, Oct/Nov., 2004.
Broadcast Appearances
“CELLuloid” [with Sally Berger, MoMA], The Brian Lehrer Show, WNYC, 2008.
TEACHING
Awards
RIT, 2019-2020 Richard & Virginia Eisenhart Provost's Award for Excellence in Teaching
Appointments
10/2019–present
RIT, School of Photographic Arts & Sciences, Director of MFA in Photography & Related Media
07/2015–present
RIT, School of Photographic Arts & Sciences, Assistant Professor, Fine Art Photography
Classes taught:
4D Design [BFA]
Advanced Video for Photographers [BFA]
Research Core II [MFA Photo]
Moving Image and Contemporary Practice [BFA/MFA Photo]
Integrated Practices II [MFA Photo]
NYC Fine Art Photo Field Trip [BFA/MFA Photo]
360 Storytelling [BFA Photo]
Thesis [MFA Photo]
Graduate Seminar [MFA Photo]
Imaging Workshop: Writing as Practice [MFA Photo]
08/2014–2015
RIT, School of Photographic Arts & Sciences, Visiting Assistant Professor, Fine Art Photography
Classes taught:
4D Design [BFA]
Moving Image and Contemporary Practice [BFA/MFA Photo]
Expanded Documentary [Art History]
09/2012–06/2013
Williams College, Department of Art, Visiting Lecturer in Art
Classes taught:
Introduction to Video [Art]
Writing for Film, Video, and Performance [Art/English]
Artists Respond to Dangerous Times [Art/American Studies]
09/2009–05/2011
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Department of the Arts, Teaching Assistant/Co-Instructor
Classes taught:
Media Studio: Video, with Associate Professor Igor Vamos [Art]
Creativity and I.T., with Associate Professor Igor Vamos [IT]
Deep Listening, with Professor Pauline Oliveros [Art]
Multimedia Century, with Professor Michael Century [Art]
Service
Rochester Institute of Technology
Institute Writing Committee [Institute], as co-chair, 2019-present
Institute Writing Committee [Institute], 2017-present
4D Design Coordinator [CAD], 2015-present
Foundations Committee, ad hoc participation [CAD], 2015-present
MIC Center Committee [CAD], 2018
Video Wall Committee with John Aasp [CAD], 2017-18
Moving Media Committee [Photo], 2015-present
Photo Curriculum Committee, [Photo], 2018-19
MFA Curriculum Committee [Photo], 2017-18
Honors Committee [Photo], 2017-18