BIO

Monica Panzarino (b. 1979, New York, NY) is a video artist and educator. Her experimental video, performance, and installation works combine real-time image and sound processing with feminist cultural critique.

Panzarino received a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2002.  Her artwork has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally at venues including Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria, European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück, Germany, WRO Media Art Biennale in Wroclaw, Poland, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Vanity Projects in New York, NY, and Wavefield in Brooklyn, NY. She has been an artist-in-residence at Experimental Television Center in Owego, NY, Institute for Electronic Arts in Alfred, NY, Outpost Artist Resources in Queens, NY, and Signal Culture in Loveland, CO. Panzarino’s writing will be included in the December 2024 issue of Leonardo journal, published by the MIT Press. Her videos are distributed by Vtape in Toronto, Canada.

Panzarino lives and works in Queens, NY, and teaches at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering, in the Integrated Design and Media program (IDM).

ARTIST STATEMENT

My experimental single-channel videos, performances, and installations employ humor, chance, and indeterminacy to subvert idealized representations of femininity in mass media.  By combining real-time image and sound processing with feminist cultural critique, I undermine the way gender is represented in popular culture, particularly in television, music videos, and advertising. 

How I make work is equally important as the final product.  I (nip)ulate video and sound in real-time using audiovisual processing systems that include a unique combination of analog and digital tools.  The majority of my videos use a single take; little post-production editing or special effects occur after the fact.  My process contrasts with commercial moving image media, which is highly edited, fast-paced, and polished.  This method of electronic media-making allows for improvisation, imperfection, and failure to take place. 

With the creation of The Nipulator, my custom-built electronic bra, my practice has expanded to include wearable interfaces and performance for an audience.  This one-of-a-kind real-time processing tool allows the audience to experience the source of the image and sound (nip)ulation as it happens.  The Nipulator addresses the relationship between the body and technology while playfully fetishizing the utilitarian nature of the nipple.