About Us

Dr. Prophet was born in Birmingham, UK in 1964. She has held faculty positions at Goldsmiths College, University of London; City University, Hong Kong (where she was Associate Dean for Research); and University of Westminster, London.

Her practice-based research and writing emerges through collaborations with life scientists such as neuroscientists, stem cell researchers, mathematicians and heart surgeons. She works across media and disciplines to produce objects and installations, frequently combining traditional and computational media to produce apps, objects and installations. Her ongoing interest in 3D printing began with Model Landscapes (2005) that includes miniature trees 3D-printed from mathematical data. This one of series of pieces that consider contemporary landscapes, these range from photographic and animation pieces that combine images of real and algorithmic landscapes to Souvenir of England (2007), where she put a life-sized apple tree inside a snowglobe in an English orchard. This interests in trees and landscape continues with the collaborative Augmented Reality app, Pocket Penjing, that grows virtual bonsaii to visualize air quality. Her experiments with the human body include working with neuroscientists to scan her brain during meditations on death to make life-sized 3D printed portraits that are animated with video projections of growth and decay.

Her research foci include the apparatus of contemporary neuroscience experiments, and blended online/offline identities via augmented reality and ubiquitous computing. Her research with neuroscientists into memento mori was supported by a Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Award from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council. Prophet’s papers position art in relation to contemporary debates about new media and mainstream art, feminist technoscience, artificial life and ubiquitous computing.

Jamie Bennett [he/him] works at the intersections of nonprofits, philanthropy, and the public sector with arts, culture, and comprehensive community development, across rural, suburban, Tribal, and urban geographies.

For seven years, Jamie was the Executive Director of ArtPlace America, a ten-year, $150 million philanthropic collaborative that invested in artists working as allies in equitable community development.

Jamie has also served as interim President and CEO of United States Artists; and worked as a Chief of Staff at the National Endowment for the Arts in President Obama’s administration, at the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Mayor Bloomberg’s administration,and to the President of Columbia University.

Jamie provided strategic counsel to the Agnes Gund Foundation and worked in fundraising at the New York Philharmonic and at Columbia University.

Jamie is on the board of directors for the David Rockefeller Fund, the emeritus board of the HERE Arts Center, and advisory councils for the Make Music Alliance and The Heritage Center (Itówapi Owápazo) of the Red Cloud Indian School in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota.

Jamie lives, works, worships, and plays in both Brooklyn, NY and Toronto, ON.

Robert Ransick is the Vice President of Academic Affairs at the Minneapolis College of Art Media and Design

An artist, designer and educator, Robert Ransick most recently served as a member of the visual arts faculty, founding director of the MFA in Public Action, and director of the art and entrepreneurship programs at Bennington College’s Center for the Advancement of Public Action. As a teacher for nearly twenty-five years at Bennington College, The New School, Parsons School of Design and the School of Visual Arts, Ransick is known for developing innovative courses in social and civic engaged practices, technologyand the arts, social entrepreneurship and new forms of democratic leadership.

Ransick served in leadership positions including Director of the Photography Department, Acting Director of the Computer Instruction Center, and Coordinator of Distance Learning at The New School in New York. He also served as Chief Technology Officer of Up Homes, a modern manufacturer of modular and sustainable homes.

His creative work has been exhibited in venues including Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology, Exit Art, Storefront for Art and Architecture, The New Museum, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, Italy, and at the border of the United States and Mexico. He has received funding from Franklin Furnace, the Mellon Foundation, the Boomerang Fund for Artists and the National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network. He was an artist in residence at Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology and LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions).

He holds a BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts, MA in Media Studies from the New School for Social Research, and MBA in Sustainability from Bard College.

Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos holds an LLB degree from Aristotelian University, an LLM from King's College, and a PhD from Birkbeck. Currently, he serves as the Professor of Law & Theory and oversees the Westminster Law & Theory Lab as its Director. This international research hub, situated in London's epicenter, is recognized for its dynamic events, publications, internships, and diverse research sectors.

Professor Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos has a vast array of research interests encompassing critical legal theory, sociolegal studies, autopoiesis, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and even fields like architecture, art, ecophilosophy, object-oriented ontology, and theology, among others. His expertise and thought leadership in these areas have led to invitations from institutions worldwide to share his insights.

Apart from his academic pursuits, Andreas is a committed artist whose mediums span performance, photography, text, installations, and sculpture. His artistry and theoretical work converged when he was chosen to perform at the prestigious 58th Venice Art Biennale in 2019.

His dedication to the field of legal education has been recognized by the Oxford University Press, who honored him with the National Law Teacher of the Year Award in 2011. Following this accolade, he was invited to serve on the Judging Panel for the award until 2019. In acknowledgment of his contribution to environmental law education, Andreas received the IUCN Distinguished Environmental Law Education Global Award in 2016.

Further strengthening his academic connections, Professor Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos retains professorial affiliations with notable institutions such as The Copenhagen Business School, particularly its Centre for Management, Politics, and Philosophy, as well as the Department of Design and Planning in Complex Environments at IUAV, Venice.

Dr. David Sloane is both a Professor and Chair at the Department of Urban Planning and Spatial Analysis

David Sloane, Ph.D., teaches courses in urban planning, policy, history, and community health planning. He facilitates Borthwick George Washington Lecture Series, a USC Price project in collaboration with the Fred W. Smith Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon. His research examines urban planning and public health, health disparities and community development, and public and private commemoration. He is author of The Last Great Necessity: Cemeteries in American History (1991), co-author (with Beverlie Conant Sloane) of Medicine Moves to the Mall (2003), and editor of Planning Los Angeles (2012), as well articles and book chapters on related research topics. His new book, Is the Cemetery Dead? will appear in spring 2018.

Maria del Carmen Montoya work blurs the lines between art and social activism, Montoya’s primary canvas is the communal process of creating significance. As an artist, she endeavors to spark this inherent societal act by introducing situations that challenge the commonplace and emphasize the power of individual intervention. Her approach is rooted in dialogue and collaboration, reflecting her conviction that art can be an influential vehicle for societal transformation. Montoya’s works often confront and challenge norms, overturn power dynamics, and transgress established rules. Yet, she also explores themes of beauty, memory, and humor, recognizing their potential as radical agents for community engagement.

Montoya's global experiences have enriched her perspective. She has resided and contributed extensively in Latin America, assuming roles as diverse as an interpreter for rural farmers in San Salvador, a champion for abused women in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and an English instructor for artisans in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Her art has graced platforms like SIGGRAPH, PERFORMA, the New Museum Festival of Ideas, ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art, the Venice Biennial of Architecture, and the Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras in Morelia, Mexico. Notably, in Morelia, she co-established an artist residency emphasizing multimedia performance art.

Montoya is a pivotal member of Ghana ThinkTank, a unique international artist coalition. They ingeniously "develop the first world" by reversing conventional power structures. By seeking insights from those in the "third world" to address challenges faced by the "developed" world, they expose cultural blind spots, challenge preconceptions about need and dependency, and redefine expertise. A standout project, "The American Riad," rejuvenates derelict buildings and spaces by transforming them into Islamic Riads, focusing on communal housing with intricately designed courtyards. Rather than perpetuating stereotypes about Muslims and immigrants, this initiative emphasizes the adoption of Islamic and African cultural elements as solutions to American issues.

She is also is an Associate Professor of Sculpture and Spatial Practices, holding an M.F.A. in Fine Arts and Social Practice from the Studio Arts Program.

Elizabeth Hamby is an artist and the Acting Director of Health Equity in All Policies working in The Center for Health Equity at New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Elizabeth is the Director of Take Care New York. While serving as the Acting Director of Health Equity in All Policies at The Center for Health Equity, she focused on engaging city agencies and community residents to embed health equity into urban planning and design processes. Her exhibition history includes the Museum of the City of New York,

Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education, and the Brooklyn Children's Museum. She has created public art projects with the New York City Department of Transportation and the New York City Housing Authority, and has been an artist in residence at The Laundromat

Project and the Elizabeth Foundation’s SHIFT Residency program.

Stephen Duncombe's interests lie in media, art, and culture. He teaches and writes on the history of mass and alternative media and the arts, and the intersection of culture and politics. He is the author of Dream: Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy

(The New Press, 2007) and Notes From Underground: Zines and the Politics of Underground Culture (Verso, 1997) co-author of The Art of Activism (O/R, 2021) and The Bobbed Haired Bandit: Crime and Celebrity in 1920s New York(New York University Press, 2006), editor of Open Utopia (Minor Compositions, 2012), Cultural Resistance Reader (Verso, 2002), and co-editor of White Riot: Punk Rock and the Politics of Race (Verso, 2011), and writes on the intersection of culture and politics for a range of scholarly and popular publications. Duncombe is also the creator of Open Utopia, an open-access, open-source, web-based edition of Thomas More's Utopia and co-creator of Actipedia.org, a digital archive of creative activism case studies. In 1998, he was awarded the Chancellor's

Award for Excellence in Teaching by the State University of New York, where he taught before coming to New York University, and in 2012 was awarded the Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching at Gallatin and NYU's Distinguished Teaching Award in 2020. Duncombe is co-founder and Research Director of the Center for Artistic Activism, a research and training institute that helps activists to create more like artists and artists to strategize more like activists. His scholarly and activist work has been supported by, among others, the Open Society and Fulbright foundations and the National Endowment for the Humanities and National Endowment for the Arts. http://stephenduncombe.org

Co-Founder and Research Director Center for Artistic Activism

https://c4aa.org/

Dr. Dietmar Offenhuber is an Associate Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Art + Design College of Social Sciences and Humanities, College of Arts, Media and Design

Dietmar Offenhuber’s research focuses on the relationship between design, technology, and governance. Dietmar is the author of the award-winning monograph Waste is Information (MIT Press), works as an advisor to the United Nations and published books on the subjects of urban data, accountability technologies and urban informatics.