Sam Smiley

Assistant Professor, Division of Creative Arts in Learning

M.F.A., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; B.F.A., Massachusetts College of Art

(617) 349-8596
ssmiley@lesley.edu

My name is Sam Smiley, and I am an artist and educator who likes to intervene in media cultures through my artwork. I work in video, performance, music and I archive my interventions on the Internet. I use "surveys" to gather data, and I do performances and installations incorporating this data. One of my earliest projects was called The Virtual Beret: of the Artist in the Online World. I began this in 1994. I posted surveys on Usenet, asking people to invent an artist, describe the artwork of the artist, and describe the artist's beret. I received many responses, and that has affected my own beliefs and practices as an artist.

My undergraduate work was at Massachusetts College of Art in the Studio for Interrelated Media department (S.I.M.) where I concentrated my work in video and audio. After I graduated, I spent several years in different New England communities. I taught video and computers to teachers and community members in a media center in Malden, Massachusetts. I also taught at University of Massachusetts in Boston, I did public artworks with First Night and the Somerville Arts Council, and I worked as the assistant director of the first Boston Cyberarts Festival.

Going back to school after several years of being an artist, teacher and community organizer was a challenge, but I felt I needed to continue my education. I received my M.F.A at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the Electronic Arts Department in 2003. Although this school is primarily an engineering school, the experience of being an artist in a science and technology school was very rigorous, and I learned quite a bit from this environment. My thesis work combined science fiction, science studies, feminism, art, and video to produce a science fiction about Claude Shannon, a real life mathematician whose paper The Mathematical Theory of Communication (co-written with Warren Weaver in 1949) forms the basis of digital telecommunications. From this event in communications history, I created a science fiction called Claude Shannon in the 21st Century.

Currently, I am working on a project called the AstroDime Transit Authority. The AstroDime Transit Authority (ATA) is a Think-Tank and public service organization that is advocating for public transportation in outer space. The ATA organizes several projects, including a curated video show on future and imagined transportation systems, a Space Opera, and surveys and performances about public transportation in outer space.

This fall, I really look forward to working with the faculty, staff, and students at Lesley University. My education has been in interdisciplinary settings, and Lesley feels like a place where teachers and students can transgress the normal academic boundaries between departments and disciplines. I also welcome the opportunity to work with teachers to incorporate creativity into their own disciplines and fields of study in the Creative Arts and Learning Department at Lesley University.

Web Sites:

• Claude Shannon in the 21st Century
• DooDleDaDaData
• AstroDime Transit Authority
• Short examples of some of my videos