Kat Mustatea has written plays in which people turn into lizards, a woman has a sexual relationship with a swan, and a one-eyed cyclops tries to fit into Manhattan society by getting a second eye surgically implanted in his head. The stories are all autobiographical.
Recent
Voidopolis (2023)—out now from The MIT Press Leonardo Series (ORDER)
BodyMouth is a finalist for the Guthman New Musical Instrument Prize (Gizmodo: “[BodyMouth]…creates the possibility for brand new genres of artistic expression.”)
Fellowships Onassis ONX · CPH:LAB Fellow Shows Annka Kultys · Malta Society of Arts · Talks University of Malta · University of Bergen · IUIPUI Interviews NPR · WRKF · MIT Press: What is a book? · The Theatre Times
Awards & Residencies
2022/24 Onassis ONX, Member Artist
2023 CPH:LAB Fellowship, Copenhagen (with Peter Burr)
2023 Lumen Prize, Shortlist—Voidopolis
2023 New York State Council for the Arts, commissioning grant
2023 National Museum of Women in the Arts, Finalist, Women to Watch 2024
2022 Digital Dozen Breakthrough in Storytelling Awards, Columbia Digital Storytelling Lab—Lizardly
2022/23 Greenhouse Lab Fellow, The Orchard Project
2022/23 Project Fellow, ITP/IMA Program, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University
2023 Artist Residency, Nancy Manocherian’s the cell theatre, NY
2022 Artist Residency at Harvestworks—to develop BodyMouth
2021 shortlist Ars Electronica Prize
2021 Dante 700th Prize, Dante Society London
2021 Finalist, Chautauqua Janus Prize, for a literary work of "daring formal and aesthetic innovations that upset and reorder readers’ imaginations"—Voidopolis
2021 New Images Festival, Paris—Official Selection, Voidopolis
2021 Barnard Movement Lab Residency—Lizardly
2021 GALLIM Moving Women Residency, NYC—Lizardly
2021 SloMoCo Micro-Residency, Movement & Computing Conference—The Sirens
2020 Arts and Letters "Unclassifiable" Prize for Literature for “works that blur, bend, blend, erase, or obliterate genre and other labels”—Voidopolis
2020 Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation—Literary Grant, Voidopolis
2020 Finalist, International Carlo Annoni Prize for Playwriting, Milan, Italy—Carlett’s Just Carlett
2019/20 Member, NEW INC, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, NYC
2018/19 Residency at TED
2019 Commission, The Voire Dire Project, NYC—The One And Only Amanda Palmer
2019 Best New Filmmaker, Roselle Park International Film Festival, NJ—The Mall
2017 Shortlist, Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize, Waywiser Press
2013 Commission, Abingdon Theatre, NYC—Leda
2013 Emerging Artist Residency, The Field, NYC
2012 Playwright-in-Residence, True False Theatre, NYC
Selected Shows
2024
Guthman New Musical Instrument Competition, Ferst Center for the Arts, Georgia Tech University, Atlanta GA
CPH:DOX Prototype Pop-Up “Who owns the narrative?” Copenhagen, DK
Night In The Library, Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, NY
2023
Annka Kultys Gallery, Lumen Prize: Shortlisted Artists, London, UK
Taboo, Transgression, Transcendence in Art and Science, Malta Society of Arts, Valletta MT
Red Burns Fellows Exhibition, ITP/IMA Program, New York University, NY
Dimensions: Digital Art Since 1859 (Cur: Richard Castelli), Pittlerwerke Leipzig, GER
Onassis ONX, Showcase for TriBeCa Film Festival, NY
January Showcase, Onassis ONX, NY
2022
Future Bodies Symposium, The Cube, Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech, VA
Stanley Picker Gallery, Digital Sustainability: From Resilience to Transformation, Kingston School of Art, DRHA, London, UK
A Linguistic Bestiary of Oyster Island, Sound Walk September, a festival of soundwalk as art
Weird Media, Laird-Norton Gallery, Winona State University, iDMAa - International Digital Media & Art Association, MN
Earth Day Art Model, Donald Tavel Arts And Technology Research Center, IUPUI - Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, IN
RE(VERB), a geo-spatial audio augmented reality zine
Live Artery @ New York Live Arts, NY
2021
Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria
MAXlive 2021: The Neuroverse / New York Live Arts, NY
Dante 700th London, Dante Society London, UK
New Images Festival, Paris, France—Official Selection
Posthuman, ELO (Electronic Literature Organization), Bergen, Norway
Brooklyn Book Fair, NY
Workshop on Obfuscation, Cornell / TU Delft
re:semblance, New Media Artspace, New York, NY
IMMEMORY: On COVID-19, virtual
Performance Program, ELO / Electronic Literature Organization, Bergen, Norway (co-curator)
2020
Ars Electronica / In Kepler’s Gardens, San Francisco / virtual
The Grid: Exposure Festival, San Francisco
SANITY, EdgeCut @ New York Live Arts (co-curator)
COMPLEXITY, EdgeCut @ New York Live Arts (co-curator)
Dancedemic @ Battery Dance Festival, NYC
The One And Only Amanda Palmer, Project Y Theatre (in residence at The Orchard Project), virtual
ABSURDITY, EdgeCut @ New Museum of Contemporary Art, NYC (co-curator)
HYBRIDITY, EdgeCut @ New Museum of Contemporary Art, NYC (co-curator)
2019
WordHack @ Babycastles
CultureHub, NYC
The One And Only Amanda Palmer, Voire Dire, Medicine Show Theatre, NYC
Fort Myers Beach International Film Festival—The Mall
Selected Talks
2023
Panel: Voidopolis—New Technology and the Photobook, PhotoFairs New York, presented by International Center of Photography, New York, NY
Talk: European Literature Night, Ukrainian Institute of America, New York, NY
Talk: Catch the Wave Salon, Miami Art Week, Miami, FL
Talk: Voidopolis and The Art of Disappearing, IUIPUI Indianapolis Arts and Humanities Institute, Donald Tavel Arts and Technology Institute, Indianapolis, IN
Talk: Voidopolis and The Art of Disappearing, University of Bergen, Bergen, NO
Talk: Voidopolis and The Art of Disappearing, University of Malta, Valletta, MT
Talk: Voidopolis and The Art of Disappearing, Indiana University Bloomington, Cook Center for Public Arts and Humanities, Bloomington, IN
Talk: Voidopolis and The Art of Disappearing, Electronic Literature Organization (ELO)
2022
Panel: Performing Tech 2.0, Georgia Tech Arts
2021
Talk: Experimental Game Cultures, Die Angewandte, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria
Talk: Augmented Reality and the Decaying Book, LASER Talks, Stanford University
Panel: Experimental Stories, MIX2021: Amplified Publishing, Bath Spa University, UK
Talk: Machine Marionettes, MozFest 2021
Talk: The Future of Live Performance, Nowhere Fest, with Heidi Boisvert
Talk: Fake Liveness, Harvestworks / OLAP (Online Live Arts Performance)
Workshop on Obfuscation, Cornell / TU Delft—Participant
2020
Panel: AI x LITERATURE: Poetry Is A Machine, The Grid: Exposure and Ars Electronica
Panel: What’s Next? Art-Science Ideas Emerging From the Lockdown, S+T+ARTS(EU) and Leonardo/ISAST
Talk: Digital Vitality - Vital Digitality: NowNet Arts Conference
Elektron Arts, Mentor @ Fruitful Misunderstandings Residency, Tallinn, Estonia
Measuring Computational Creativity, ISEA 2020, Montreal—Participant
2019
Lightning Talks, S+T+ARTS Residencies, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Panel: Value And Art In A Tokenized World, SXSW
Panel: AI’s Impact On Music & Creativity: Phantasia Or Dystopia?, Music Tech Germanhaus, SXSW
Panel: How does technology affect the legacy of art?, Tech and Culture, SXSW
Panel: Making Machines Creative, Creative Tech Week, NYC
Panel: The Future of Theater, TRU, NYC
2018
TED Talk: What is the value of art in an age of thinking machines?
Talk: Agency and Algorithms, Collaborative Spaces, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany
Moderator: Blockchain As A Medium Of Art, Cadmium Talks, The Assemblage, NYC
This Alien Nation, Joe’s Pub, NYC
In Conversation
“[BodyMouth]…creates the possibility for brand new genres of artistic expression.” Gizmodo: These Bizarre New Musical Instruments Are Unlike Anything You’ve Ever Seen…Or Heard.
Radio Interviews: NPR · WRKF · London ONE Radio (Italian/English)
Interviews: MIT Press: What is a book? · The Theatre Times · Dovetail Magazine · Ampersand Interview Series · CLOT Magazine
“With an overt connection to cutting-edge technology, performance, and art-making that begins to verge on the surreal, Kat Mustatea is one of the great artists of our time.” “Art and Tech Imaginings of Kat Mustatea” The Theatre Times
Voidopolis featured in a keynote on Dante by Prof. Arielle Saiber at the American Association for Italian Studies Conference 2021
Voidopolis on the list of "Virtual Art To Experience Right Now," Dovetail Magazine 2020
Voidopolis in OÖ Nachrichten
Podcast Interviews: Leonardo/ISAST podcast: Dante’s Inferno in augmented reality - Funny As Tech, Machines making art - IBM ThinkLeaders, Automated Creativity - The Limit Does Not Exist: Art In An Age Of Machine Intelligence
Dance Enthusiast Magazine: Feature about EdgeCut’s CAPTIVITY show
EdgeCut named “Best Futuristic Interactive Experience” in 2020 by This Week in New York: “I’ve tried just about every form of online entertainment while we’re all sheltering in place and arts venues are closed, and nothing else comes close to this one.”
Emergency Index: All About Caster
Emergency Index: Carlett’s Just Carlett
Emergency Index: Nevada