“I keep a pocket full of theorems, sprinkling them on various situations, and seeing which ones fill in the cracks like walnut dust. I’ve accumulated them across so many (p)ages, but pairing them with the names this world has given them, that’s a futile task.” — Ulm

Ulm, an artist-psychopomp, works in interactive narrative, mixed media, algorithms, circuits and layered reality to usher participants through the virtual veil. Ulm’s pieces offer chimerical worlds which combine the tangible, digital, and symbolic, inviting participants to co-author unique storytelling experiences through ludic exploration. Simultaneously, Ulm investigates the syzygy of intimate avatars to promote immersion, flirt with the uncanny valley, tease embodiment, and question the notion of both self and otherness.

Their most recent art centers on interactive, fictive, live-action levels and the role of avatars (digital and analogue) in breaching the veil.

 As a computer science major (film minor) at Smith College, Ulm began developing their first electronic experiences, and upon completing their graduate studies in new media programming at Parsons, the New School, helped launch one of the first undergraduate degrees in game development — one which has consistently been recognized in the top five globally.

They then received an MFA from Lesley University focusing on what Ulm terms the “interactive sublime” and the “game construct” and is currently a professor of Interactive Media (game dev), Director of the undergraduate program, and projects coordinator for The Game Studio at Clark University, in the Becker School of Design & Technology. Ulm currently maintains multiple studio spaces (private, maker-community, university, cloud).

Such a lovely theorem, much like Reidemeister’s Theorem, and ever so tricky.

terrasa.ulm@gmail.com   tulm@clarku.edu