Biography

Zach Poff is a New York area digital media artist, educator, and maker-of-things. Through his artwork, teaching, and software he examines the tremendous opportunities and challenges that arise from the translation of our experiences into "information". His recent work has been focused on how traditional broadcasting reverberates into digital media and influences notions of an emerging post-broadcast discourse.

He currently teaches Sound Art at Cooper Union School of Art in NYC. He has taught media theory, video art, and digital photography at Bennington College and Cooper Union Continuing Education.

He received a fellowship from New York Foundation for the Arts in 2007, and his work has been shown in the U.S. and internationally at venues including Art Interactive, Artists Space, The Stonington Opera House, Hallwalls Art Center, Unity Performing Arts Center, Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art, and Polli Talu Art Center (Estonia).

He was a member of MAP Intermedia, a group that combined dance, video and sound work in a collaborative environment that challenged the traditions of authorship within the performing arts.

His sound-design credits include Walid Raad's performance/video My Neck is Thinner than a Hair, Lynn Sachs' documentaries States of Unbelonging and Investigation of a Flame, (Golden Gate Award, San Francisco International Film Festival), Hollie Lavenstein's CLEAVE, (Silver Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival, Best Narrative Short at The Ann Arbor Film Festival).

Curriculum Vitae and Resume

EDUCATION

BA University of Maryland Baltimore County - 2001
Visual Arts (photography and film) - Magna Cum Laude with Departmental Honors
Cumulative GPA 3.78 / 4.0

AWARDS and RESIDENCIES

2008 Residency, ISEA 2008, Singapore
2007 Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA)
2004 Residency, Polli Talu, Estonia (with MAP Intermedia performance group)
2001 Residency, Armenia - Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art

EXHIBITIONS, SCREENINGS, PERFORMANCES

2008
SPACE Gallery, Portland, ME - The Past is a Ghost (with nbaldrich)
FILE Electronic Language Festival, Brazil - The Baltic Sea (with nbaldrich)
VELOCITY, Folly Art Center, UK - The Baltic Sea (with nbaldrich)

2007
Art Interactive, Cambridge, MA - installed three new works (with nbaldrich)
Journal of the New Media Caucus - published Artist Statement (with nbaldrich)
MEDIAWORKS, Perimeter Gallery, ME - installed Parallel Rhetoric, Explosions and Reactions
Int. Symposium on Comp. Aesthetics, Banff, Canada - The Shape of Memory (with nbaldrich)
Time Out, CMCA, ME - The Shape of Memory (with nbaldrich)
312 OnScreen, Newfoundland, Canada - Movement Reflection (with nbaldrich)
Zemos98 Festival, Sevilla, Spain - Movement Reflection (with nbaldrich)

2006
Perform.Media festival, Indiana U. - installed Observational Soundscape IV (with nbaldrich)
"When Artists Say We" at Artists Space, NYC - Documentation of work with NB Aldrich
"Dynasty" at Gallery MC, NYC - installed Parallel Rhetoric: 2001 + 2005
Carnegie Art Center, NY - installed Parallel Rhetoric: Coming and Going
Hallwalls Art Center, NY - installed Interactive Soundscape Designer (with nbaldrich)
Bates College, Olin Arts Center - installed Observational Soundscape III (with nbaldrich)

2005
WORK Gallery, Ann Arbor MI - installed "Parallel Rhetoric: 2001 + 2005"
Cooper Union Art School, NYC - installed "The Observational Soundscape II" (with nbaldrich)
Not Still Art festival, NYC - screened "Movement Reflection" (with nbaldrich)
The Imagination Project, ME - created "Stonington Soundscape" (with nbaldrich) during residency
University of Maine at Orono - installed "The Observational Soundscape I" (with nbaldrich)

2004
Stonington Opera House, ME - US premiere of "Variatsioonid" (with nbaldrich and Brendan McCall)
Ayers Island Contemp. Arts Fest, ME - performed "0011" (with nbaldrich and Duane Ingalls)
Polli Talu, Estonia - created "Variatsioonid" (with nbaldrich and Brendan McCall) during residency
Unity Arts Center, ME - performed "Kick in the Eye" (rev 2) (with nbaldrich and Brendan McCall)
St. Marks Church, NYC - performed "Kick in the Eye" (rev 1) (with nbaldrich and Brendan McCall)

2003
Hallwalls Art Center, NY - installed "Explosions and Reactions" and "Search Signals"
Bennington College, VT - performed "Institution" (with nbaldrich and Brendan McCall)
Antifreeze: Armenian Center for Experimental Art - screened 3 films

2002 and earlier
New Work: Bennington College, VT - installed 5 pieces in group show
Armenian Center for Experimental Art - resident artist in Yerevan, Armenia
Faculty Show: Bennington College, VT - installed "Public Haunting" in group show

INSTRUCTION

Cooper Union School of Art - 2003 - present
Projects in Sound Art - studio class introducing aurality within individual artistic practice
Digital Photography - comprehensive digital photo class for the Continuing Education program
Film and Video Seminars - techniques instruction within intro classes

Bennington College - 2001 - 2003
Intro to Video Art - comprehensive course covering the history, theory, and techniques of video art
Electric Art (with nbaldrich) - course exploring the rise of the media culture in the 20th Century
Video Toolbox - video techniques course to accompany intro classes
Breaking the Frame - course focusing on audio and video as installation techniques
Summer Intro to Video (assisted Kate Howard) - intro for high-school students

The Imagination Project - 2005
Intro to Final Cut Pro - FCP workshop for a Maine community media arts project

SOUND FOR FILM

Lay Down Tracks - Danielle Lombardi / Brigid McCaffrey - 2006
My Neck is Thinner than a Hair (version 2) - Walid Raad - 2006
States of Unbelonging - Lynne Sachs - 2005
My Neck is Thinner than a Hair - Walid Raad - 2004
Cellar - Ben Hickernell - 2004
Investigation of a Flame - Lynne Sachs - 2001
CLEAVE - Hollie Lavenstein - 2000
Euphoria - Lee Boot, John Chester - 2000

ARTIST ASSISTANT WORK

Please, Please, Pleased to Meet'Cha - Nina Katchadourian - 2006
Makedown (take 2) - Dennis Adams - 2005
Makedown (take 1) - Dennis Adams - 2004
Freeload - Dennis Adams - 2004

MEDIA FACILITIES MANAGEMENT

Head Film Technician, Cooper Union School of Art, NYC - 2003 – present
Manage and maintain Final Cut Pro, Media 100, and Pro Tools MIX systems
Oversee equipment checkout (16mm, Super8, lighting, sound)
Create and maintain borrowing policies and oversee staff and student workers
Instruct students on shooting and editing 16mm and Super8 film
Cooperate in budget and planning

Manager of Video Facilities, Bennington College, VT - 2001 – 2003
Build and manage a Final Cut Pro editing facility and equipment checkout
Create and maintain borrowing policies and oversee student workers
Design presentation equipment for a 40-seat screening room
Manage day-to-day operations of screening room (booking, training, maintenance)
Budget and planning

Recording Studio Technician, Bennington College, VT - 2001 – 2003
Redesign and manage the operations of a Pro Tools based 16track recording studio
Budget and planning

Assistant Video Engineer, UMBCTV, University of Maryland - 2000 - 2001
Maintain broadcast equipment in professional TV studio
Install head-end for campus-wide cable television system

Digital Pre-press and Printing, Bay Imagery Inc. Baltimore, MD - 1997 - 1999
Provide extensive troubleshooting and customer service throughout imaging workflow
Hi-res scanning, retouch and image-manipulation
Digital printing on electrostatic plotters, large-format inkjets, and digital C-Print systems

Audio Consultant, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD - 1999 - 2000
Digitally restore audio for museum exhibitions
Location sound-recordings for oral history interviews