(Short)

Ven Qiu is an archivist and creative technologist based in New York. As a memory worker committed to data sovereignty, they are interested in the sociopolitical and infrastructural conditions of digital preservation.

(Long)
Ven Qiu is an archivist and creative technologist based New York, co-parented by Chinese immigrants and the internet. As a memory worker committed to data sovereignty, Qiu conceptualizes deletion as a mechanism through which sociopolitical and infrastructural conditions of memory are made legible (e.g. censorship, data ecologies, copyright, surveillance). These focuses materialize in their archival project, Dump Site, a digital repository of deleted media. Qiu draws from their work as a tattooer, archivist, and perfumer to explore the textures of memory and multimodal archives. Their practice incorporates oral history, field recording, body-modification, scent, and new media.

Qiu is currently pursuing an MA in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation at NYU. They hold a BA in Industrial Design with a concentration in Intelligent Environments from Carnegie Mellon University.

Qiu has been featured for their work in experimental art and new media at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, California College of the Arts, The Lab, Gray Area, New Art City, Melrose Botanical Garden, and Los Angeles Contemporary Archive. They have given talks about expanded archival practice and embodied memory at Stanford University’s Art History department and UPenn’s Center for Experimental Ethnography.

Contact Ven for collaborations, lectures, or freelance experience design work: talk@venqiu.net