The Department of Media Study’s PLASMA (Performances, Lectures, And Screenings in Media Art)​ will host a presentation by Dr. Elia Vargas, Visiting Assistant Professor in Media Study.

Dr. Elia Vargas is an artist and a scholar working across multiple mediums, ranging from video and sound to writing and performance, focused on naturecultural media practices. His work is critical, speculative, ecological, energetic, and technocultural. It is engaged in an interdisciplinary approach with contemporary and historical experimental media, digital cultural, and feminist science studies. His current work considers the cultural, philosophical, and techno-scientific conditions of the early American oil industry and argues for refiguring crude oil as media to decenter anthropocentric representations of nature.

Towards the pursuit of challenging historical forms of meaning-making, he is interested in concepts that perform change—a multi-species, or posthumanist practice of worlding. His work seeks non-representational ways to trouble the entanglements of nature, culture, and technology. Vargas collaborates widely with artists, musicians, and institutions. He holds a PhD from UC Santa Cruz. He is currently a visiting assistant professor of Media Study at the University at Buffalo, and is commissioned by Goethe Institute to host and produce a monthly podcast on global technocultural exchange. He is the co-founder of the SF Bay Area art and technology organization, the Living Room Light Exchange.

As always, PLASMA lectures are free and open to the UB community and the public.​

PLASMA is sponsored by the University at Buffalo’s Department of Media Study and funding is provided by the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. The series is taught and organized by Dr. Paige Sarlin, Assistant Professor of Media Study, in collaboration with Sylvie Fortin, UB Art Gallery, Ekrem Serdar, and Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center.

For more information regarding the series or to access an event Zoom link: https://arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/media-study/news-events/plasma.html
The recordings of previous presentations can be found on MediaStudy@UB’s PLASMA YouTube Channel