Studio Ian Callender

I am a New York City-based artist and designer exploring the intersection of the built environment and digital technologies.

As I was growing up, Central Park was my backyard and the city my playground. I developed loves for architecture and urbanism early, as well as a critical engagement with the issues that underly them. Simultaneously, through computer science, I became fascinated by the active and responsive manipulation of virtual space. Through physical computing I learned I could merge the two: the playground, so to speak, became of my own derivation. Its logic was easy to adjust and explore, and working in the physical domain, to me, meant working in grounded and veritably human experience.

[sic] itself is a Latin term inserted into text after a quote with an error. It means as found. It calls out the complexities of context. The practice is thus underpinned by asking how the toolboxes of architectural design and theory can simultaneously guide and confront standard modes of material engagement with digital media. There is little distinction in the studio's work between provocation, prototype, and installation: drawing from art, a sketch (in whatever medium) is a valid and sufficient expression of an idea; drawing from architecture, the resolution of that idea must carry across all scales. It is at times rebellious, though never antagonistic, to land on center of bold. The studio was founded in 2022.

Ian Benjamin Callender, MNAL, Assoc. AIA investigates material digital ecologies. His research spans media architecture and art; digital infrastructure, both urban and rural; interaction design and physical computing; and architectural history and media archaeology. Ian holds a Master of Architecture from Columbia University GSAPP and a Bachelor of Arts in architectural history from Brown University. He has also conducted coursework at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL and at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, as well as held professional positions in experience/exhibition design and real estate development. His work has been presented at the European Cultural Centre / Venice Biennale of Architecture (2023) as well as the International Symposium on Electronic Art (2022) and the Media Architecture Biennale (2021); recognized by the Architizer A+ Awards, the SEGD Global Design Awards, and the A+D Museum Awards; and published in ArchDaily, Hyperallergic, and MIT's Thresholds. He is a co-editor of the volume Provocations on Media Architecture (Set Margins Press, 2023), is an associate member of the American Institute of Architects, and is a registered architect in Norway.

Studio _at_ IanCallender.net | Instagram | LinkedIn