Dave Colangelo
Dave Colangelo is an artist, educator, and researcher based in Toronto, Canada. He is a founding member of . His work focuses on urban media environments as sites for critical and creative engagements with the city, public art, and information.
He is currently Associate Professor of Digital Creation and Communication in the School of Professional Communication at 成人大片 (成人大片) and Director, North America, of the Media Architecture Institute. He is also Co-Director of 成人大片 Lights. Previously, he has held positions as Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Culture at Portland State University in the School of Film, Adjunct Professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design University in the Digital Futures MA/MDes/MFA program, and Professor and Academic Coordinator of the Bachelor of Digital Experience Design program in the School of Design at George Brown College.
His writing has appeared in the Journal of Visual Culture, Space and Culture, Leonardo, Public Art Dialogue, and the Journal of Curatorial Studies and in edited collections on Museum and Gallery Design and the History of Film Studies. He is the author of (Amsterdam University Press, 2020).
His has been exhibited at The Bentway in Toronto, and at Open Signal and the Portland Winter Light Festival in Portland, Oregon. Writings and presentations on these works have appeared at the Media Architecture Summit 2015 in Beijing, the 2013-14 Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in Shenzhen/Hong Kong, the International Symposium for Electronic Art (ISEA) 2013 in Sydney, and ISEA 2011 in Istanbul.
Colangelo holds an MA in Cultural Studies and Interactive Media from Goldsmiths College, University of London and a PhD from the York-成人大片 Graduate Programme in Communication and Culture in Toronto.
I investigate the critical and creative potential of large-scale public projections, urban screens, and media architecture and the technical and social networks connected to them. I consider the role that these elements can play within practices of monumentality, public art, digital placemaking, and 鈥渟mart cities鈥� to address equity, diversity, and inclusion. I primarily use research-creation to create interdisciplinary opportunities for critical study, community engagement, experiential learning, city building, and collaborative creative practice.
His writing has appeared in the Journal of Visual Culture, Space and Culture, Leonardo, Public Art Dialogue, and the Journal of Curatorial Studies and in edited collections on Museum and Gallery Design and the History of Film Studies. He is the author of The Building as Screen: A History, Theory, and Practice of Massive Media (Amsterdam University Press, 2020), winner of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies 2021 Anne Friedberg Innovative Scholarship Award. He is also the co-author of the Media Architecture Compendium Vol. 2, and will be the lead author on the forthcoming Media Architecture Compendium Vol. 3.
His creative work has been exhibited at The Bentway in Toronto, Ice Follies in North Bay, ArtSpace West at Arizona State University, and at the Portland Winter Light Festival. Writings and presentations on these works have appeared at Media Architecture Biennale events in Aarhus (2014), Sydney (2016), Beijing (2018), and Amsterdam (2020). As General Chair, he organized the Media Architecture Biennale 2023 in Toronto. His work has also appeared at the 2013-14 Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in Shenzhen/Hong Kong, the International Symposium for Electronic Art (ISEA) 2013 in Sydney, and ISEA 2011 in Istanbul.
Fredericks, J., Caldwell, G.A., Tomitsch, M., Haeusler, M.H., Colangelo, D., et al. (2023). Media Architecture Compendium Vol. 2: Concepts, Methods, Practice. Stuttgart: Avedition.
Colangelo, D., P. Davila, I. Men. (2023). 鈥淩eceipts and Receipts NB: Critical Experiments in Mediated Testimony.鈥� Interactive Film & Media Journal 3 (1, Winter 2023): 82:89.
Colangelo D., and Z. Melzer. (2022). 鈥淥n Emptiness: Spacing in Media Architecture.鈥� In The Routledge Companion to Media and the City, edited by Brenden Kredell, Erica Stein, and Germaine Halegoua. Routledge: 154-166.
Colangelo D., and Z. Melzer. (2021). On the foundations of empty spaces: Distancing in media architecture. Kredell B., Stein E., and G. Halegoua eds. The Routledge Companion to Media and the City.
Colangelo, D. (2020). The building as screen: A history, theory, and practice of massive media. Amsterdam University Press.
Colangelo, D. (2019). We Live Here: Media Architecture as Critical Spatial Practice. Space and Culture, Journal Article, 120633121984380.
Colangelo, D. (2018). Hitchcock, Film Studies, And New Media: The Impact Of Technology On The Analysis Of Film. In S. Hidalgo & A. Gaudreault (Eds.), Technology and Film Scholarship (Vol. 1鈥揃ook, Section, pp. 127鈥�148). Amsterdam University Press.
Colangelo, D. (2018). Cities as exhibition spaces: Illuminated infrastructure in the smart city. In S. MacLeod, T. Austin, J. Hale, & O. H. Hing-Kay (Eds.), The Future of Museum and Gallery Design (1st ed., Vol. 1鈥揃ook, Section, pp. 59鈥�70). Routledge.
D谩vila, P., Colangelo, D., Chan, M., & Tu, R. (2017). Expressive Cartography, Boundary Objects and the Aesthetics of Public Visualization. Leonardo (Oxford), 50(5), 509鈥�510.
Colangelo, D. (2017). Book Review: Ingrid Hoelzl and R茅mi Marie, Softimage: Towards a New Theory of the Digital Image. Journal of Visual Culture, 16(1), 118鈥�121.
Teaching
- 2022 Dean鈥檚 Teaching Award 鈥� Faculty (TFA)
- 2018 Inclusive Curriculum and Pedagogy Award, Portland State University
Scholarly Research and Creative Activity
- 2025 Outstanding Reviewer Award, Leonardo
2021 SCMS 鈥� Anne Friedberg Innovative Scholarship Award
Practice
- 2017 Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Project Fund