EDUCATION

Ph.D. University of Southern California, School of Cinematic Arts, Media Arts and Practice.

Dissertation: Machines of the Unreal: Mapping the Passage between the Virtual and the Material in the Attraction.

B.A. Swarthmore College, Philosophy.

MUSEUMS AND THE ARTS

White Box Gallery, New York. Administration and media intern.

Co-organized artists’ exhibitions, acted as liaison with the artists, and promoted exhibitions on social media. (2016)

World Building Media Lab. Project Manager.

University of Southern California.

Co-designed the Rilao Project, a transmedia narrative distributed across games, virtual reality experiences, and architectural renderings. (Summer 2014; Fall 2014)

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Conservation intern.

Department of Time-Based Media Exhibitions.

Los Angeles, California.

Member of the team that installed video works for LACMA’s blockbuster retrospective on Stanley Kubrick. Part of a research initiative to develop a curatorial standard for archiving and exhibiting media art in the museum’s collection. Worked on restoring and preserving video art pieces in the collection. (Summer 2012; Fall 2012)

Annenberg Innovation Lab: Research in Public Interactives. Research assistant.                               

University of Southern California.

Designed augmented reality applications for museums and art festivals. (Fall 2011; Spring 2012)

EXHIBITIONS

Polyangylene. Lauren Fenton. Projection mapping on kinetic sculpture. 

Solo exhibition “Spectacular Assemblages.” Cinematic Arts Gallery. Los Angeles, California. 4-6 December (2014)

Kinetic Theater for the Historical Imagination. Lauren Fenton. Interactive stereoscopic film. 

Solo exhibition “Spectacular Assemblages”. Cinematic Arts Gallery. Los Angeles, California. 4-6 December (2014)

Almost Everything Can And Shall Be Cut. Lauren Fenton. Short film. 

Solo exhibition “Spectacular Assemblages”. Cinematic Arts Gallery. Los Angeles, California. 4-6 December (2014)

MetaBook1: The Book of Luna. Lauren Fenton and Clea T.Waite. Interactive installation.       

American University of Sharjah. Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 30 October – 08 November (2014)

Exospace. Lauren Fenton and Karl Baumann.

Fulldome film. 

State of the Arts 2013: The Future of Fulldome Festival. Los Angeles, California. 12 December (2013)

Cinema Detour: Meet the Middletons. Lauren Fenton, Veronica Paredes, and Susana Ruiz.                                      

Game and storytelling application. Presented during Chicago Summer of Learning 2013 at the Game Changer Chicago Design Lab, University of Chicago. Chicago, Illinois. 16 August (2013)

The AIDS Quilt Digital Experience. The USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. Interface design and content creation. Large-scale interactive exhibit for the digitized AIDS Memorial Quilt. 

Quilt in the Capital 2012. Washington, D.C. 21-24 July. Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Washington, D.C. 26 June – 7 July (2012) 

The Interactive GeoSurface Map. Principal Investigator. In collaboration with The Center for Land Use Interpretation and Onomy Labs. A kinetic, body-scale interface that allows users to navigate a database narrative about land use and oil extraction in Los Angeles. 

TEDxUSC.12 April (2011)

Nano Flow. Lauren Fenton. Projection mapping installation.

Rhythm + Visions: Expanded + Live Festival. Los Angeles, California. 22 April (2012)

The Inflatable Synthesizer. Lauren Fenton. Interactive sound installation.

USC Helen Lindhurst Fine Arts Gallery. Los Angeles, California (2011)

Tweet Jockey. Lauren Fenton, Diego Costa, Amanda Tasse. 270° video installation with a crowd-sourced interface.

USC Robert Zemeckis Media Lab. Los Angeles, California (2009)

Remainder. Lauren Fenton. Short animated film.

Chapman Gallery, Los Angeles, California. (2009)

ART DIRECTION

Science of Fiction 2014. Curator and organizer of the exhibition of international multimedia works at the conference. Oversaw the construction of an architectural installation for the exhibition. Co-designed the world-building game played by participants at the conference. Los Angeles, California. 24-30 October (2014) 

Singularities: Interactive Media and Games Division Thesis Show. Art director for the themed space of the exhibition. Designed and constructed a textile sculpture. (2010)

iMappening: Media Arts and Practice Ph.D. Exhibition. Art director. Designed and wrote exhibition catalog. (2009-2014)

GRANTS AND AWARDS

Annenberg Fellowship. (2008 -2009; 2012-2013

Microsoft Imagine Cup, Honorable Mention for “The Interactive Geo-Surface Map”. 

International design, media, and technology competition. (2011)

Annenberg Innovation Lab Design Challenge. 

winner in the Transmedia Storytelling category. (2011)

Fulbright research grant, Russia, for directing and filming the documentary Altai Jan.   (2006-2007)

TEACHING DESIGN 

Imagining Worlds: Narrative Design Across Disciplines. Co-instructor.

Department of Media Arts and Practice. University of Southern California. 

Co-designed the curriculum, mentored student projects, built class website. (Spring 2014; Fall 2014)

Reality Ends Here: Introduction to Emerging Forms of Immersive Entertainment. 

Teaching assistant. Department of Cinema-Television. University of Southern California.  

Taught three discussion sections. (Fall 2013)

Survey of Interactive Media. Teaching assistant.

Department of Critical Studies. University of Southern California. (Fall 2010; Spring 2011) 

Multimedia Literacy. Co-Instructor/Teaching assistant.

2013 USC Provost’s Prize for Teaching with Technology for the course “The American War in Vietnam”. College of Arts and Letters. University of Southern California 

Taught workshops on design, video production and the digital humanities. (Fall 2009; Spring 2010)

PUBLICATIONS

Lauren Fenton. “A Garden of Machines: the Emergence of Robotic Art”. Techno-Ecologies II. Spec. issue of Acoustic Space 12.1 (2014)

Lauren Fenton and Clea T. Waite. “Selenology and the Curious Topology of Narrative”. Proceedings of ISEA 2014: the 20th International Symposium of Electronic Arts. (2014)

Lauren Fenton. “Expanded Cinema as Universe-in-a-Box: the Neo-Baroque Poetics of Space”.    Re-New 2013 Proceedings/ Digital Arts Forum. Gunalan Nadarajan and Edward A. Shanken (Eds.). ISSN 2245-7801. (2013)

Lauren Fenton and Clea T. Waite. “Cine-Installation: The Book of Luna”. Proceedings of ISEA 2013: the 19th International Symposium of Electronic Arts. Kathy Cleland, Laura Fisher, and Ross Harley (Eds.). ISEA International and the University of Sydney, Sydney. (2013)

DESIGN CONFERENCE TALKS

“From Tropical Fish to Fantasy Museums: the Theme-ing of Space”. The 7th International Conference on Design Principles and Practices. Los Angeles, California. 20-22 January (2012)

“Toy Logic: Experience and Design”. ISEA 2011: The 17th International Symposium of Electronic Arts. Istanbul, Turkey, 14-21 September (2011)

 “The Emergence of Baroque Entertainment Worlds”.  Kitsch, Curios, Camp Comparative Literature Conference, University of Southern California. Los Angeles, California. 22 April (2011)