The Role of Mud in the Darien Rainforest
Rolando Vargas, a Rising scholar at the Art Department and Global Studies program, shares how researching mud is an example of the intersection between artist practices and media theory. He will also discuss research topics connecting Global Studies, Art History, and Studio Art practice.
Rolando Vargas is a media artist and scholar working with installation and digital media. He has a BFA in Fine arts from Universidad de los Andes, Colombia, received a Fulbright grant for his MFA in Intermedia and Digital Arts at the University of Maryland, and has a Ph.D. in Film and Digital media from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Rolando’s research «Kuna Indigenous Media and Knowledge in the Darién Tropical Rain Forest» focused on the politics of traversal and terrain, mapping and survival, and the geographies of collective labor and will as modes of indigenous resistance. Rolando has presented his work at Transmediale, the Kassel Documentary Film Festival, SESC Videobrasil, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Kunstverein Düsseldof, EMAF, Ficvaldivia, and other international venues. In 2022, he received a Processing Foundation Fellow for promoting the use by Kuna children of P5.js language while reflecting on digital workflows and appropriating digital methods in their terms and world conceptions. You can read more about his latest project in Darién here.