Ari Melenciano

Ari Melenciano is a Brooklyn-based artist, designer, creative technologist, researcher, and futurist who is passionate about exploring the relationships between various forms of design and the human experience.

Her research lies at the intersections of human/computer interactive technologies, the social impacts of technology, counterculture, sound, multisensory experiential design, experimental pedagogy, and speculative design. She's the founder of Afrotectopia, a social institution fostering interdisciplinary innovation at the intersections of art, design, technology, Black culture, and activism. Afrotectopia is most commonly experienced via their annual New Media Arts, Culture and Technology Festival.

Melenciano currently teaches technology, society, and design at the interactive telecommunications graduate program (ITP) at New York University (NYU) and at the Pratt Institute’s communications design school. She's continuing her research as an NYU ITP fellow and the inaugural NYU Future Imagination Fund fellow.