SIM Faculty

 Crystal Bi, Assistant Professor

Courses: SIM Major Studio, Interrelated Media Projects, Publishing

Crystal Bi (she/they) is a multimedia artist working in the public realm. Her participatory art projects explore themes of radical imagination, storytelling, and belonging. 

As a public artist, former Boston Public School art teacher and Creative Civic Design Lead with Design Studio for Social Intervention, Crystal works with communities to design creative interventions that imagine alternative futures. Her local and national work with Design Studio for Social Intervention focused on designing tools for co-creating a more equitable, beautiful, and welcoming public. As part of her work with ds4si, Crystal worked on the curation team organizing inPUBLIC Festival + Summer Series at Downtown Crossing in 2021 and 2022.

Crystal has been a member of the Creative City cohort through New England Foundation for the Arts, Transformative Public Art Program through the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, and Live Arts Boston through The Boston Foundation for her work on the community archiving project Chinatown Story Cart. Currently, Crystal is a member of the 2022 Olmsted Now Parks Equity and Spatial Justice cohort for the public art project ‘Wilderness’ in collaboration with Dzidzor Azaglo. She earned her MFA from the Dynamic Media Institute at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. 

Crystal’s knowledge base includes:

  • Public art
  • Spatial justice
  • Creative interventions
  • Socially engaged art, participatory art
  • Designing creative tools for community engagement
  • Storytelling as activism, zine-making and self-publishing
  • Event production
  • Collecting voicemails + creating soundscapes 
  • Invasive plant species in Boston’s public parks

Elaine Buckholtz, Professor

Courses: SIM Major Studio ,Mining Meaning, Interrelated Media Practice, Experimental Ensembles, Sound Performance, Sculptural Lighting

Elaine Buckholtz (she/her) is a Light Installation Artist. Her recent work utilizes video and light in relation to sculptural forms, digital prints, and pre-existing sites in architecture and nature under the cover of darkness. Buckholtz has a longstanding background in visual and lighting design for the stage, having worked with the likes of Terry Riley, Merce Cunningham, and Meredith Monk. A significant aspect of her visual work has involved direct experiences and immersive environments for the viewer to engage in – the materials of her work have included light, vision, and perception in relation to objects as large as cathedrals and as small as a pair of glasses. 

In 2021, her work “A Telling of the Light” was exhibited at the Durham Lumiere Festival, in homage to lives lost to the COvid pandemic in England. She has collaborated with Future Farmers at Freshkill; has exhibited at The Minnesota Street Project and Gallery 308 in San Francisco CA; The International House of Japan in Tokyo, Japan; and The Lumiere Festival in London, England. She received a Fulbright Specialist Fellowship in 2018 and the Japan Friendship Commission Fellowship for 2017.  Her work is held in the collections of numerous private collectors on the East and West coasts of the US and abroad. Buckholtz received two consecutive MFA’s from California College of the Arts and Stanford University from 2002 to 2006 with the support of The Jacob K. Javits Fellowship.  

Elaine’s knowledge base includes:

  • Light Installation and Optics
  • Lighting Design 
  • Experiential Scores
  • Contemporary, Sound and Conceptual Art
  • Philosophy
  • Language, Poetry, Text and Image 
  • Natural History
  • Questioning form and translating mediums  
  • Mediated images
  • Unusual occurrences in nature and strange experiments
  • Culinary development 
  • Walking

Dana Moser, Professor

Courses: SIM Major Studio, Electronic Projects, Internet Culture and Techniques

Dana Moser (he/him)has been a transformational architect of the SIM program since his arrival in 1986 and the longest serving full time faculty in the history of the SIM program. He was a pioneer actively involved at the inception of internet art and his Electronic Projects course has inspired generations of students. His research includes artistic applications of video, electronics, music, networks and interactive technologies.

Dana has been a guest lecturer at the Chicago Art Institute, San Francisco Art Institute, Harvard University, Brown University, M.I.T. “Transmit” conference, OSCON International Open Source Conference, Art Technology New England Conference, and the Progress Bar in Bratislava, Slovakia.  He has exhibited all over the world including the Boston Cyberarts Festival, Berlin, Germany; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; MIX Film/Video Festival, NYC; National Museum of Science and Technology, Ottawa; and The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.  At MassArt, Dana created some of the earliest MassArt webpage pages as well as the first SIM website that incorporated groundbreaking social networking features.  

In 1999, Dana was a featured artist on the WGBH-TV and Decordova Museum documentary about the history of video the  “The Electronic Canvas.” His work has been written about in Leonardo Journal, the Technology Review/MIT Press and Art Papers.

Dana’s knowledge base includes:

  • Computer programming (C, Lisp, Java, Python, Processing, PureData, Max/MSP/Jitter)
  • Working with electricity: sensors, homebrew synths, circuits, Arduino, Raspberry Pi
  • Video Art (history and techniques for editing)
  • History of the Internet and Internet  technologies
  • World music and traditional western musical composition
  • Studio for Interrelated Media history
  • Anarchism
  • Queer Culture

Nita Sturiale, Professor 

Courses: SIM Major Studio;  Event and Exhibition Planning and Production; Observation Data and Art; Art, Life and Money

Nita Sturiale (she/her) has been at MassArt on and off since she was an undergrad in 1986. She balances an interdisciplinary life as an artist, teacher, entrepreneur and mother. Nita founded the Regali Artist Residency in Sicily which facilitated the collaboration of 12 artists over 5 years in both Boston, Massachusetts and Favara, Italy.  Her artwork explores natural phenomena, cognition, and emerging technologies. She has presented her work at Boston Museum of Science, MIT’s Media Lab, Cambridge River Arts Festival, Conflux Arts Festival in NYC, Tufts University, Mills College, Harvard University, in Wales, Beijing, and Milan. She is included in Stephen Wilson’s book, Information Arts (MIT Press, 2001). Nita enjoys writing poetry, is the unofficial Studio for Interrelated Media historian, and thrives on supporting her students’ journeys from ideas to action to documentation.

She developed and taught two signature courses at Harvard University for several years – Creative New Media and the Web and Applied Innovation in Wireless Computing. Nita has also taught at Endicott College, Greenfield Community College,  the Pennsylvania’s Governor’s School of Excellence in Science at Carnegie Mellon University, and in various K-12 environments in MetroBoston. She was a founding member of the first Boston Cyberarts Festival‘s Youth committee which pioneered the Festival’s Faces of Tomorrow online portrait gallery for youth in 1999. Recently, Nita helped facilitate and write the Dismantling Racism in Our Town curriculum in Lexington, MA, her current home base.

NIta has received several honors and awards including: Artscience 100K Prize Juror; Marilyn Pappas Faculty Fellowship; Copley Society of Art, First Juror’s Choice; LEF Foundation Grant; Cambridge Arts Council Grant. As a Jacob K. Javits Fellow, 1994-97, Nita received a Ed.M, Harvard Graduate School of Education and a M.F.A., Tufts University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, combining art, science and education. Her BFA is from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a Major in SIM.

Nita’s knowledge base includes:

  • Organization methods
  • Leadership
  • Project management
  • Writing (proposals, grant applications, resumes, artist statements, poems, etc.)
  • Studio for Interrelated Media history
  • Conceptual Art
  • Event Production
  • Art and Science Interconnections
  • International Collaboration
  • Godine Family Gallery and Eventworks Festival

 Max Azanow, Associate Director & Adjunct Faculty

Courses: Stagecraft and Technical Production, Light Lab

Max Azanow (he/him) is a working Lighting Designer with a  touring history in Lasers, Pyrotechnics, Power Distribution, and Backline.
Max’s knowledge base includes:
  • Technical Direction
  • Labor Management
  • Production Design
  • Stagecraft
  • Cat whispering
  • Cultivation

Antony Flackett, AV Manager and Adjunct Faculty

Courses: Beat Research, Experimental Video

Antony Flackett (he/him) is a video/multimedia artist and musician living in the Boston area. He also records and performs under the name DJ Flack.  His single-channel videos and video dioramas have been featured in numerous shows and festivals across the world and he has also been part of many bands and live music/art collectives over the years.  His “Beat Research” electronic music events were an integral part of Boston’s underground electronic music scene since its inception in 2004 and he has been broadcasting local video art on his cable show “Tony’s Choice” since the early 90s.  department. 

Antony holds a BA from Bard College in Film/Video and an MFA from MassArt’s SIM and was featured in “DJ Culture: What is a DJ?” produced by Project New Media Literacies, a research initiative based within MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program. 

Antony’s knowledge base includes:

  • Video editing
  • Audio editing
  • Beats
  • Music Production
  • Live Performance
  • Zoom Video Conference Software

Eric Freeman, Studio Manager and Adjunct Faculty

Courses: Sound Studio, Advanced Sound Studio, Immersive Experience Design, Immersive Media – Full Dome

Eric Freeman (he/him) is a musician, sound engineer, photographer, videographer, and immersive design artist living and working in the Boston area.  He holds a Bachelors degree in Photography from the Mary Myers School of Art and a Masters degree in Interrelated Media from the Massachusetts College of Art.

Eric’s students have screened their work at the Charles Hayden Planetarium at the Boston Museum of Science as well as several full dome theaters around the world. 

Eric’s knowledge base includes:

  • Audio production for music and video
  • Photography – shooting & printing
  • Video – shooting & editing
  • FullDome production
  • Multimedia installation
  • Studio building

Previous Faculty and Staff:

Over the years we’ve been lucky to have had a number of amazing Visiting Lecturers, Adjunct Faculty, Studio Managers and Department Assistants.  Below is an almost complete list of all SIM Faculty and Staff since 1970:

  • Harris Barron*, Professor Emeritus (1969–1988, Harris passed away in 2017)
    www.harrisandrosbarron.com
  • Ros Barron, Founding Advisor and Creative Co-Director of Zone Theater
    www.harrisandrosbarron.com
  • Joe Upham, Studio Manager (1970–1974)
  • Donald Burgy*, Professor Emeritus (1974–2001) www.donaldburgy.com
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Burgy
  • Richard Collier, Studio Manager (1974–1978)
  • Dawn Kramer, Professor Emeritus (1976–2014)
    dawnkramer.info
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_Kramer
  • Bruce Robert Bowen, Studio Manager (1978–2010)
  • John Holland*, Professor Emeritus (1980–2009) johnhollandcomposer.wordpress.com
  • Lowry Burgess*, Professor (1981–1989, Lowry passed away in 2020)
    www.lowryburgessfoundation.org
    http://www.art.cmu.edu/news/faculty/lowry-burgess-1940-2020/
  • Dana Moser*, Professor (1986 – present)
  • Fred Wolflink, Electronic Projects Guru (1986 – present)
  • Ellen Rothenberg, Assistant Professor (1989 – 1993)
  • Leila Daw*, Professor (1990–2000)
    www.leiladaw.com
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leila_Daw
  • Jacqueline Casselly, Department Assistant (1996 – 2020)
  • Nita Sturiale*, Professor (2000 – present)
  • Corey Smithson, Adjunct Faculty (2001 – 2006)
  • Antony Flackett, Academic Media Arts Support Manager and Adjunct Faculty (1996 – present), Assistant Professor (2005-2006)
  • Denise Marika, MFA Program Coordinator (2005–2014, Denise passed away in 2018)
    https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/denise-marika-obituary?id=1738137
  • Eric Freeman, Studio Manager and Adjunct Faculty (2006 – present)
  • Kianga Ford, Associate Professor (2006–2009)
  • Stefan Moore, Adjunct Faculty
  • Elaine Buckholtz*, Professor (2010 – present)
  • Heidi Kayser, Adjunct Faculty (2010)
  • Max Azanow, Studio Manager and Adjunct Faculty (2011 – present)
  • Sandrine Schaefer, Adjunct Faculty (2013-2021)
  • Ben Bigelow, Assistant Professor (2014-2015)
  • Jimena Bermejo, Adjunct Faculty (2015 – 2018)
  • Dana Colley, Adjunct Faculty (2015)
  • Juan Obando*, Professor (2015-2022)
    juanobando.com
  • Tomashi Jackson, Assistant Professor (2017-2018)
  • Darren Cole, Assistant Professor (2018 – 2019) 
  • Elizabeth Mezzacappa, Department Assistant (2020 – present)
  • Crystal Bi, Assistant Professor (2022 – Present)
  • Takahiro Yamamoto, Assistant Professor (2023 – Present)

* Tenured

There are more – working on our records…help us remember – if you have taught or worked in the SIM department send a reminder to nsturiale@massart.edu.