Aaron Oldenburg is a game designer and new media artist whose primary interest is in game rules as an expressive medium. His video and interactive work has exhibited in festivals and galleries in New York, Berlin, São Paulo and Los Angeles, including SIGGRAPH and FILE Electronic Language International Festival. He currently works on physical computing projects, designing new interfaces and electronic sculptures.

He teaches game design as an Assistant Professor in University of Baltimore's Simulation and Digital Entertainment program and has an MFA from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. In October 2003 he finished two years as an HIV Health Extension Agent for the Peace Corps in Mali, West Africa.

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Juried Group Exhibitions & Screenings:
    2013
  • A State of Un-Play, atelier 35, Bucharest, Romania
  • Hybrid City II: Subtle rEvolutions , National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
  • 24-hour video loop, Gallerie Chartier, Derby, CN
  • net.works, Vector Game + Art Convergence, Toronto, ON
    2012
  • Game Play 2012, The Brick, Brooklyn, NY
  • Silent Surveillance, Serial Box Projects, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
  • CODE 2012 - A Media, Games & Art Conference, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
  • Ready for Extinction, Pleasure Dome, Toronto, ON
  • Endless Plain, MIA Screening Series at The Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
  • Movement Museum, NETwork in moveMENT project, Zagreb, Croatia (online)
  • Nichts, geh8 art space and studios, Dresden, Germany
  • Multiplexer, Emergency Arts Building, Las Vegas, NV
  • Web Art, FONLAD: online digital arts festival_08.2012, Coimbra, Portugal
  • Mis-In-Formation, Fringe Arts Bath, UK
  • Art-Object-Registration, 4 Art & Documentation Festival, Łódź, Poland
  • art:screen fest, Örebro, Sweden
  • A view from outside, Vetlanda museum, Sweden
  • Art for Mobile Devices, Afflatus Project (online)
  • FILE RIO 2012 Media Art Festival, Oi Futuro - Flamengo Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • Cinesonika 2, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC
  • Humanity Explored, Culture Unplugged (online)
    2011
  • SIGHT.SOUND [INTERACTION] 6, Rosenberg Gallery, MICA, Baltimore, MD
  • Salón de Arte Digital - IX Edición, PDVSA La Estancia, Maracaibo, Venezuela
  • FILMIDEO: 6th Annual Film & Video Screenings, Index Art Center, Newark, NJ
  • Letting Go, Rogue Video and Performance, Newark, NJ
  • Interactive Lounge, BetaScape, Baltimore, MD
  • Video Takeaway, Come To Ours, Plymouth Fringe, England
  • Art & the City: Land-scaping, CologneOFF VII (online)
  • Not for Sale, Fictilis Gallery, Seattle, WA
  • Multimedia Showcase 2011, Park Art Magazine, Oporto, Portugal (online)
  • Game Show NYC, Macy Gallery, Columbia University, New York
  • FILE Media Art, 12th Electronic Language International Festival, São Paolo, Brazil
  • D-Art2011 Online Gallery of Digital Art, 15th International Information Visualisation Conference, London, UK
  • danubeVIDEOARTfestival, Stadtkino Grein, Austria
  • 4th International Video-art Festival, Camagüey, Cuba
  • 9x12 Works, Ferencvarosi PinceGallery, Budapest, Hungary
  • The Final Girl, Washington Project for the Arts, D.C.
  • TPS Reports: Performance Documents, SpaceCamp MicroGallery, Indianapolis, IN
  • Action 2011, Prokuplje, Serbia
    2010
  • FILE Media Art, 11th Electronic Language International Festival, São Paolo, Brazil
  • Tel Quel, DUMBO Arts Festival, Brooklyn, NY
  • Reality Show, Video Art for All, Macau
  • Force: On the Culture of Rape, Current Gallery, Baltimore, MD
  • Baltimore vs. the World, Current Gallery, Baltimore, MD
  • Slideluck Potshow, Gallery 4, Baltimore, MD
  • Strangely Funny, ASPECT-EZ (DVD), Boston, MA
  • 6x6 Media Arts Event #6: Mystery, Cinelab, Athens, GA
  • One Shot | 8th International Short Film Festival, Aremenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art, Yerevan, Armenia
  • New Media, Sex and Culture in the 21st Century, Museum of New Art, Detroit, MI
  • Searching for God, Kuhn Fine Art Gallery, Marion, OH
  • The EYE-KEA Project International Video Art Festival, Cork City, Ireland
  • Cyber Human Forms, UAVM & Fonlad #06_2010, Coimbra, Portugal (online)
  • Virtual Worlds, UAVM, Coimbra, Portugal (online)
  • One Minute Film Collection 2, VideoChannel Cologne 2010, Germany (online)
  • JavaMuseum 2010 Celebrate!, Cologne, Germany (online)
  • Flash & Thunder, Festival Miden, Kalamata, Greece (online)
  • TINT Arts Lab online residency exhibition
  • Episode 574: Look What I Found, ArtGrease: Television by Artists, Buffalo, NY
  • You Turn Me On and On and On, Embassy Gallery, Edinburg, Scotland
  • Instructions for Initial Conditions, Drift Station Gallery/Parallax Space, Lincoln, NE
    2009
  • art.tech, The Lab, San Francisco, CA
  • VIDEOKILLS International Video Art Festival 2009, Berlin, Germany
  • As X Approaches Infinity, Krowswork Gallery, Oakland, CA
  • Square Eyes Festival, Arnhem, The Netherlands
  • namaTRE.ba 3 Project, Trebinje, Bosnia & Herzegovina
  • Crosstalk Video Art Festival, Budapest, Hungary
  • HZ Net Gallery #13: December 2009 (online)
  • Articulture, Media, PA
  • R U Evolved: Artists Reflect on Darwin @ 200, A Shenere Velt Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
  • AWKWARD, AVA Gallery, Chattanooga, TN
    2008
  • SIGGRAPH: Slow Art, Los Angeles, CA
  • IMAFY, Cairo, Egypt
    2007
  • artDC New Media Lounge, Washington, D.C.
  • Second Film Festival, Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo, Egypt
  • Portland Underground Film Festival, Portland, OR
  • Nihilist Film Festival, Santa Barbara, CA
  • Electro-online 2007: Alternate Articulation, Newcastle, Australia
  • Film und Videofestival One Minute, Aarau, Switzerland
  • WATCH THIS SPACE!, Warehouse Gallery, Washington, D.C.
    2006
  • Maryland Film Festival, Baltimore, MD
  • Janus, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD
  • Born Again Dada, District of Columbia Art Center, Washington, DC
  • In War/At War: The Practice of Everyday, OPENSOURCE Gallery, Champaign, IL
  • Planet Ant Film & Video Festival, Detroit, MI
  • Holy Crap! What do you believe? Baltimore, MD
  • Takoma Park Film Festival, Takoma Park, MD
  • Sundeis Film Festival, Boston, MA (Best Animated Film)
    2005
  • Fachhochschule International Film Festival, Schwabisch Hall, Germany
  • College Film and Video Bake-off, Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD (Jury Award)

Publications:
  • Simulating Faith, Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, Volume 3, Issue 1, Spring 2011
  • Pieces of Jonestown, The Jonestown Report, October 2010, Volume 12
  • The Mischief of Created Things, NMC Media-N: Foreignness and Translation in New Media (Spring 2009)

Conference Lectures:
  • Ludic Listening: Sound Art in Video Game Design, presented at the 12th International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) 2011, Istanbul, Turkey
  • Irrational Mechanics, presented at Soft Borders, the 4th Upgrade! International Network Conference and Festival, São Paulo, Brazil, 2010
  • Faith-based Games, presented at the 12th Biennial Symposium at the Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology, 2010
  • Intuitive Design of Interactive Narrative, presented at the Game Writers Summit at Game Developers Conference Austin, 2009

Honors and Awards:
  • Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award for Digital Art 2010, $1000
  • Suction and REPENT selected for inclusion in Rhizome.org Artbase

Press:
  • Live Free, Play Hard: The Week's Finest Free Indie Games, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, November 4, 2012
  • Depression (2011), Line Hollis: Videogame Criticism, July 6, 2011
  • Escape the Cage, Pierrec, L'Oujevipo, March 27, 2011
  • GDC Austin: Interactive Narrative As a Counselor, Kris Graft, Gamasutra News, September 15, 2009

Teaching Experience:

August 2008-present: University of Baltimore, School of Information Arts and Technologies
  • Assistant Professor, Simulation and Digital Entertainment program
Fall 2007-Spring 2008:
  • Adjunct Professor, University of Baltimore's School of Information Arts and Technologies and Anne Arundel Community College's Communication Arts Technology, Arundel County, MD
  • Workshop Instructor, Johns Hopkins University, Digital Media Center, Baltimore, MD
Fall 2006: Graduate Student Instructor, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Imaging and Digital Arts


Education:
  • MFA, Imaging and Digital Art, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 2007
  • BFA, Studio Art, Florida State University, 2001.
Other Work Experience:
  • December 2007-December 2008: Independent Contractor, MTV Networks' AddictingGames.com, San Francisco, CA
  • August 2004-June 2007: Graduate Research Assistant, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Art Dept. & Imaging Research Center
  • Summer 2005 & 2006: Camp Director, Cybercamps, Giant Campus, Inc. Fairfax, VA & Baltimore, MD, George Mason Univ., Univ. of Baltimore, and Johns Hopkins Univ.
  • Jan. 2004-Aug. 2004: Art Instructor, Pyramid Studios, Tallahassee, FL
  • Aug. 2001-Nov. 2003: HIV Health Extension Agent, Peace Corps Mali, West Africa
  • 1996-Aug. 2001: Florida HIV/AIDS Hotline Counselor, Program Specialist, various other positions, Florida HIV/AIDS Hotline, Helpline24 Tallahassee, FL