CV
ABOUT
Maria Magdalena Maciak is an artist, educator, and permanent alien. She works in film, performance, and installation, and is co-founder of Research Mattress, a collective inspired by Jinen Butoh and dedicated to sensory unlearnings of anthropocentrism. Her works embrace animisms as revolutionary forces against exploitation.
Maria has directed media initiatives at the Ross Institute for Innovation in Education, creating interactive educational apps and curricula, leading social-justice art projects, and establishing the Ross School Media Studies program. With the Smithsonian Institution, she led audiovisual fieldwork in Moʻorea (French Polynesia) and the Solomon Islands.
Her practice has been supported by the Catwalk Art Residency, Tisch Creative Research Grant, School of the Pluriverse / NOMASMETÁFORAS, and Eric Forman Studio. She currently teaches Decolonizing Cinema at Montclair State University and 50 Days of Making at NYU's Interactive Media Arts Graduate Program.
EMPLOYMENT
ADJUNCT PROFESSOR
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
2024 - present
50 Days of Making, Interactive Media Arts Low Res graduate program, Tisch School of the Arts, Brooklyn, New York
MONTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSITY
2022 - present
Decolonizing Cinema, College of Communications & Media, Montclair, New Jersey
Documentary Lab, College of Communications & Media, Montclair, New Jersey
TEACHING ARTIST
OLA MEDIA LAB
2019 - 2020
Created and led OLA Media Lab within Organización Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island, developing digital arts workshops for Latinx youth. Work presented at the Parrish Art Museum, Sag Harbor Cinema, and Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York.
DIRECTOR, ROSS LEARNING SYSTEM
ROSS INSTITUTE FOR INNOVATION IN EDUCATION
2016 - 2019
Directed development of a custom online learning environment for the Ross School Evolution of Human Consciousness curriculum housing interactive video galleries, digital art collections, and collaborative tools for K-12 interdisciplinary education, oversaw UX/UI design through faculty piloting with 80+ institutions.
DIRECTOR OF MEDIA / EXPERIENTIAL PRODUCER
ROSS SCHOOL / ROSS INSTITUTE FOR INNOVATION IN EDUCATION
2006 - 2016
Led media production, fieldwork expeditions, and experimental curriculum design for a K-12 lab school. Directed Smithsonian audiovisual expeditions aboard a biodiversity research vessel to the Solomon Islands; collaborated with UC Berkeley Research Station on expeditions to Moorea and Tetiaroa in support of Mo’orea Biocode and Mo’orea IDEA projects. Produced interactive data visualizations including the Spiral visualization of the Evolution of Human Consciousness, premiered at Visualized Conference, featured by Fast Company and Art of Networks at Northeastern University Network Science Institute. Produced Project Circles web app in collaboration with the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University; prototype presented at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Led design and implementation of interdisciplinary 5-12 Media Studies curriculum at the Ross School. Directed video content for multichannel installations and conference showcases. Curated film festivals and international symposia in collaboration with Human Rights Watch, Hamptons Film Festival, and the Shinnecock Nation.
RESIDENCIES + ENGAGEMENTS
2026 Statocyst Elegy, workshops, speculative design, video installation, in partnership with Tactical Tech’s RePlaybook: A field guide to the climate and information crisis
2026 La Bohème/Priscilla Heine live painting, video art/projection mapping with Opera Vermont and Highland Center for the Arts, VT
2026 Catwalk Art Residency, with Research Mattress, Catskill, NY
2025 Oh No, Rain Will Not Cleanse Us, street action in collaboration with Alice Xiaodi Tang, Times Square, New York, NY
2025 p5.score with Kate Sicchio, code and choreography workshop, Processing Foundation/VCU Arts, Richmond, VA
2024 Find a Mound of Thick Hope! Sensory Unlearnings, installation, performative cinema, manifesto, with Research Mattress, Brooklyn, NY
2024 Catwalk Art Residency, with Research Mattress, Catskill, NY
2024 School of the Pluriverse: Humans But Not Only, residency, NOMASMETÁFORAS Collective and the Autonomous Intercultural Indigenous University of the Indigenous Regional Council of Cauca (CRIC), Popayán, Cauca, Colombia
2024 Caged Waterfall, public performance/intervention series, video, sound design, Brooklyn, NY. Made possible by NYC DOT.
2023 Kinder Kin Garden, research and design collective supported by the Tisch Creative Research Grant and Tony Patrick’s Share Lab, exhibited at NYU Shanghai and the Shanghai International Design Festival
2023 Hole Society (Rituals,) guest presenter, Urban Ecologies with Prof. Jamie Allen, NYU IMA Masters Program, Berlin
2022 ROBOTA (44°34'39.5"N 72°14'45.2"W), single-channel video, screenings: Future Vision Festival, Tokyo and Amsterdam (2022); Bideodromo Experimental Film Festival, Bilbao, Spain (2023); Stockholm Film Festival (2023); Europa Film Festival, Barcelona, Spain (2024)
2022 Rain Falls Humbled We Go On, single-channel video haiku, Lights Out: A Group Video Exhibition, Brentwood Arts Exchange, Brentwood, MD
2022 Hole Society (Process,) guest artist, Urban Ecologies with Prof. Jamie Allen, NYU IMA Masters Program, Berlin
2021 Mama, Soil, and Spirit, interactive three-channel installation at NYU ITP, Brooklyn, NY
2021 Pass By/Pass Through (Butoh Dance with a Rock), live online performance, NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression)
2020-2021 Cyborgian Rock, web-based chatbot, NYU ITP/IMA/Low Res Winter Show, featured on The Coding Train
2016 Spiral (Evolution of Human Consciousness), interactive visualization, Visualized Conference in NY; Art of Networks, Northeastern University Network Science Institute; featured by Fast Company, collaboration with Santiago Ortiz
2014 HERE IS NO INSECTS, performance/video installation, with Bronwyn Roe, Pollock-Krasner House, East Hampton, NY. Y
Unmasking the Muse, panel participant with Laurie Anderson and Andrea Cote, Pollock-Krasner House, East Hampton, NY
2011 BOMB Live: Sharon Hayes & Lawrence Weiner, editor, presented at the New Museum, New York, NY
EDUCATION
MA, Interactive Media Arts, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts
BA, Film & Television, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts