Artist Bios

Roderick Coover

Filmmaker / Media Artist / Professor · b. 1967

Roderick Coover is a filmmaker and media artist specializing in expanded cinematic and multimodal arts. He is Professor of Film and Media Arts at Temple University, where his current roles include directing the Documentary Arts and Ethnographic Research graduate certificate and the Documentary Arts and Visual Research program, as well as co-directing the MA program. Coover has made pioneering works in interactive film, algorithmic cinema, augmented reality, large-scale virtual reality, cinematic spectacle, and experimental ethnography since the early 1990s. His recent and ongoing projects include It Will Happen Here, The Altering Shores Cycle, The Key to Time, The Grand Hotels of Joseph Cornell, and The Crossing, alongside CRchange collaborations such as Toxi•City, Hearts and Minds: The Interrogations Project, Three Rails Live, and The Catastrophe Trilogy. His work explores narrative, memory, place, climate change, migration, and human rights, and has been presented internationally in museums, galleries, cinemas, festivals, and public-space commissions. Learn more at roderickcoover.com.

Scott Rettberg

Writer / Scholar / Center Director · b. 1970

Scott Rettberg is Professor of Digital Culture in the Department of Linguistic, Literary, and Aesthetic Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway, and Director of the Center for Digital Narrative, a Norwegian Centre of Research Excellence running from 2023 to 2033. His research and creative practice focus on electronic literature, digital narrative, combinatory poetics, and algorithmic storytelling. He is the author of Electronic Literature and the author or coauthor of works including The Unknown, Kind of Blue, Implementation, Frequency, The Catastrophe Trilogy, Three Rails Live, Toxi•City, Hearts and Minds: The Interrogations Project, and Penelope. Rettberg cofounded the Electronic Literature Organization, led the HERA-funded ELMCIP research project, directs the ELMCIP Electronic Literature Knowledge Base, and leads CDN's Extending Digital Narrative node. Learn more at retts.net.

Daria Tsoupikova

Collaborating Artist

Daria Tsoupikova, collaborating artist on Hearts and Minds: The Interrogations Project, is an Associate Professor in the School of Design and the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research and artwork include the development of virtual reality art projects and networked multi-user exhibitions for VR projection systems such as the CAVE, as well as interactive educational multimedia for children. Her VR research, publications, and artwork explore the relationship between the aesthetics of virtual environments, traditional arts, and the effects of VR aesthetics on perception and emotion. Her work lies at the crossroads of artistic and technological innovation and explores the potential of new media and interactivity in relation to traditional arts. Her current work applies computer graphics to educational multimedia, cultural heritage, and virtual rehabilitation for stroke survivors. Her work has been exhibited and published at ACM SIGGRAPH, IEEE VR, ISEA, and many other venues.

Arthur Nishimoto

Collaborating Scientist

Arthur Nishimoto, collaborating scientist on Hearts and Minds: The Interrogations Project, is a doctoral student in the Department of Computer Science and Research Assistant at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research interests include user interaction on large scalable resolution display environments, virtual reality, and video game design. He has previously developed interactive applications on the EVL Cyber-Commons multi-touch wall, including the 20-foot Virtual Canvas and Fleet Commander, which has been exhibited at SIGGRAPH and Supercomputing. He works on user interface design for large multi-touch walls as well as immersive interactive applications for the CAVE2 hybrid-reality environment.

Nick Montfort

Poet / Artist / Professor of Digital Media

Nick Montfort develops computational poetry and art, often collaboratively. He is Professor of Digital Media at MIT and a principal investigator in the Center for Digital Narrative at the University of Bergen. He directs The Trope Tank, a lab/studio with locations in New York City and at MIT, and works as an artist, researcher, organizer, curator, editor, and publisher in computational art and media. His recent books include Output: An Anthology of Computer-Generated Text, 1953–2023, co-edited with Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Narcissystem, Rubrique Technologie / Tech Section, and the constrained poetry project All the Way for the Win. His projects and collaborations include Sea and Spar Between, The Deletionist, The Altering Shores Cycle, and Three Rails Live. His MIT Press work includes Twisty Little Passages, Racing the Beam, 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10, and Exploratory Programming for the Arts and Humanities. Find out more at nickm.com.