Roopa Vasudevan

Bio

Roopa Vasudevan is an American visual artist, computer programmer and researcher currently based in Philadelphia.

Roopa’s work uses data and technology in order to interrogate or subvert social and cultural practices, focusing on issues of human identity and agency in the digital era; power relationships and how they manifest through technology; and coming up with more creative and ethical practices for tech-based art and design. She has exhibited internationally in Belgium, China and the United States, and been featured on Reuters, Slate, Hyperallergic, Jezebel, Complex, The FADER, PBS NewsHour, Public Radio International, and more, as well as on American, French and German television.

Roopa's work has been supported by the Philadelphia Area Creative Collaboratives (Haverford, PA); SOHO20 Gallery (Brooklyn, NY); the Arctic Circle Residency (Svalbard); China Residencies; SPACES (Cleveland, OH); and Flux Factory (Queens, NY). She is currently a member artist at Vox Populi, a 30+ year old collectively run arts space in Philadelphia.

Rapid Response Project

Vasudevan is designing a practical toolkit for creative resistance through tech-based art. It will be based on a theory that the artist has been developing, called “strategic transparency.” It is the notion that critical tech art relies too much on overt revelation and exposure, and that, instead, we could affect greater change by, in fact, taking advantage of conformity, or “blending into the background in key ways.” Phase 1 will include a collectively written manifesto for the goals of this approach, as well as blueprints for several projects that use its principles.