Catherine B. Heller Professor of Art
About
As a feminist media artist working in a variety of forms, Angela Washko is committed to telling complex and unconventional stories about the media we consume from unusual perspectives. Washko's interdisciplinary practice spans interventions in mainstream media and virtual environments, performance art, digital works, video art, documentary film, and video games. In 2012, she founded "The Council on Gender Sensitivity and Behavioral Awareness in World of Warcraft," an intervention and protest platform inside the popular online video game. Her recent project, "The Game: The Game," is a critical video game focused on holding professional pickup artists accountable for their coercive antifeminist practices. She recently completed "Workhorse Queen," a documentary film exploring the impact of reality television on public understandings of gender, sexuality, aging, and community. The film has won numerous awards at international film festivals and was broadcast on STARZ, Amazon Prime, AppleTV, and more. Washko’s newest interactive media art installation and video game project, "Mother, Player," was recently presented at Indiecade (Los Angeles, CA), Slamdance Film Festival (Park City, UT), Now Play This / London Games Festival (London, UK), Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (Liverpool, UK), and a solo exhibition at Public Works Administration Gallery (New York, NY).
A recipient of the United States Artists Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Grant, Creative Capital Award, Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism Fellowship, the Impact Award at Indiecade, and the Franklin Furnace Performance Fund grant, Angela Washko’s practice has been highlighted in The New Yorker, Frieze Magazine, Time Magazine, The Guardian, Artforum, the Los Angeles Times, Art in America, The New York Times, Rhizome, and more. Her projects have been presented internationally at venues including the Museum of the Moving Image (New York), Centre Pompidou-Metz, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Milan Design Triennale, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art (Helsinki), Shenzhen Independent Animation Biennial, and the Korean Film Archive. Washko has recently participated in numerous film labs including the IF/THEN Shorts Finish Line Program and the FilmNorth Inclusive and Socially Conscious Filmmaking Lab. She is a mentor for the Portland Art Museum Center for the Untold Future’s Sustainability Labs program and a programmer for Slamdance Film Festival. Angela Washko is the Catherine B. Heller Collegiate Professor of Art at University of Michigan and the founder of the Roleplaying Realities Lab.
