Nadav Assor

Nadav Assor began his work as an assistant professor of art at Connecticut College in August, 2012, leading the development of the new Expanded Media area in the Studio Art department.  Assor's current classes, all cross-listed between studio art and the Ammerman Center for Art and Technology, include Introduction to Digital Concepts in Time Based Media, Video Installation, Sound Art, and Experimental 3D. 

He has additionally taught classes on subjects such as Live Media Systems for Performance and Installation and Physical Computing.

Assor was born in the U.S. and grew up in southern Israel. Following his graduation from high school and three years of mandatory service, he traveled the world, backpacking across Canada, China and Mongolia, and worked as a freelance media producer for two years.

He then earned his bachelor's degree from the honors programs at the Midrasha School Art in Beit Berl College near Tel Aviv, where he also earned a teaching certificate, and later taught for two years as an adjunct professor in the digital art department. Alongside his work at the College, Assor taught for three years at Alon, one of Israel's leading art and sciences high schools.

Starting from the year 2000, Assor has worked as a freelance new media producer, creating websites, games and interactive prototypes for clients ranging from health service providers, to colleges, artists and start-up companies. Alongside his jobs, Assor maintained an active studio practice in Tel Aviv. He exhibited and performed in multiple venues across the country, including the Tel Aviv and Haifa Museums, the Center for Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv and many others, and has collaborated with Israeli artists across the creative spectrum, from theater directors to orchestras. Since 2007, Assor has been represented by Julie M Gallery in Tel Aviv, where he has exhibited several solo shows.

In 2008 Assor moved to the United States to attend the Art & Technology Studies M.F.A. program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as a full merit fellow. Upon graduation he became the inaugural recipient of the school's prestigious Edes Fellowship.

During his time in Chicago, Assor kept exhibiting locally as well as internationally, including shows in China, Germany and Israel.

During 2011-2012 Assor served as Visiting Assistant Professor of New Media at the University of North Texas, where he was also a fellow of the IARTA Center for Art and Science research.

He will soon become a resident of Providence, Rhode Island, along with his partner.

Recent publications, articles

"Building a More Perfect Drone," Media-N Journal, published by the New Media Caucus of the College Art Association, Summer 2013. http://median.newmediacaucus.org/caa-conference-edition-2013/building-a-more-perfect-drone/

Recent honors and awards

2012, Artis Contemporary Grant recipient, USA/Israel
2011, Young Artist Award, The Israeli Ministry of Culture
2010, Edes Foundation Prize for Emerging Artists, USA
2008-2010, Presidential Trustee Merit Fellowship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA

Recent public presentations

2014, "Building a More Perfect Drone," Artist Talk at Theorizing the Web 14 Conference, New York
2014, "Building a More Perfect Drone," Artist Talk at On Location Biennial Symposium, Ammerman Center for Arts & Technology, Connecticut College
2014, Public interview with Marcel Schwierin, Curator, Transmediale 2014 Festival, Berlin, Germany
2013, Art in the Age of High Security, panelist, College Art Association Annual Conference, New York

Recent exhibitions and performances (see attached CV for an expanded list):

Assor has recently screened, exhibited or performed his work at the Transmediale Festival in Berlin, Spectrum New York City, the Berlin Director's Lounge, the European Media Art Festival, the Soundwave Biennial in San Francisco, and Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago. He is currently at work on a solo show for the Julie M Gallery, Tel Aviv, and an installation for the Koffler Center, Toronto.

Artist's Statement

The digital medium I utilize in my work is inextricably entangled with my own body. Both serve as machines of transfiguration: transforming and reconstructing my surroundings, be they stories or neighborhoods. All become part of a live, bare, unstable, and often absurd process. Military-industrial technologies which define our civilization's perception of reality are re-enacted in lo-fi form. These “techne” may range from wartime tactics involving tunneling through adjacent house walls, through the use of eye-tracking glasses for market research, to the ubiquitous scanning of streetscapes by army drones and Google vans. Actions based on all of these are performed live, on video in a manner which exposes their very human sources, teasing out invisible threads in the entangled nature of technological mediation. My latest body of work is based on extensive research into the current state of domestic drone technology and culture, exploring the symbolic and spiritual implications of autonomous, flying, seeing machines, using a range of mediums, from sound installation, to documentary film, to interactive video.

Visit Nadav Assor's personal website nadassor.net.  Assor, Nadav Curriculum Vitae (pdf). 

Visit the art department at Connecticut College website.

Majoring in Art.