ABOUT

STEFANI BYRD (b. 1984, United States, she / they)

Stefani Byrd’s art practice includes video, new media, and interactive technologies. Byrd’s early work addressed social justice issues in the form of interactive temporary public art installations that created role reversal, or "empathy training,” experiences for the audience. Her current work focuses on creating psychologically charged immersive media environments addressing topics such as digital feminism, gun violence, and how technology impacts empathy in digitally mediated spaces. Their practice aims to shed light on the complicated nature of communication and emotional fluency in a networked culture where imbalanced power structures continue to shape our interactions. Often her work confronts or undermines these systems by turning the tables on traditional power relationships.

Her work has been exhibited at places such as the CICA Museum (South Korea), SONIC MATTER New Music Festival (Zurich), Museum of Contemporary Art of Alicante (Spain), Athens Digital Arts Festival (Greece), the Museum of Contemporary Art of San Diego (San Diego), the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (Atlanta), San Luis Obispo Museum of Art (San Luis Obispo), A.I.R. Gallery (Brooklyn), Artist Television Access (San Francisco), and the Athens Institute for Contemporary Art (Athens). Byrd’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia and the Columbus Museum of American Art.

In 2015, she trained in The Abramovic Method of Performance with Marina Abramovic. They hold Level I Certification in Pauline Oliveros’ method of Deep Listening with The Center for Deep Listening through Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. They have received grants and support from groups such as: Creative Capital of New York, Flux Projects, the InLight Richmond Festival, Atlanta Celebrates Photography, Filmatic Festival, IDEA Festival, and Idea Capital. Her work has been reviewed and featured in such places as the Public Art Review Magazine, the Public Art Archive, the Huffington Post, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, New Media Caucus, and Art Papers Magazine.

She received a BFA degree in Photography from Georgia State University. They hold a Masters Degree in Visual Art from the University of California San Diego. Byrd is currently Assistant Professor of Experimental Media in the Film Studies Department at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She previously served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Experimental Media Art at the University of Arkansas. They are a former Lecturer in the Digital Arts division of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California Irvine and the Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts (ICAM) major in the Visual Arts department at the University of California San Diego.

Byrd is also the Founding Director of the Intersectional Feminist Media Lab embedded in the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Film Studies Department. The IFML is a space focused on equitable access, training, education, awareness, and representation for marginalized identities and voices in media.