John Hopkins
John Hopkins is a media artist, holistic systems thinker, and learning facilitator. He holds a creative practices PhD in media studies; an MFA from CU-Boulder (where he studied film under renown experimental film-maker, Stan Brakhage); and a BSc in geophysical engineering. His trans-disciplinary research and workshops explore issues surrounding sustainable creative systems, distributed and community-based DIY processes, and developing empowered approaches to technology. His international creative practice explores the role of energy in techno-social-bio systems and the effects of technology on energized human encounter through performance, image and sound work, and writing. He has taught across more than twenty countries. He is currently employed at the Colorado Geological Survey where he is organizing their massive dataspace and helping turn that data into information to share with their constituents.
A native of Anchorage, Alaska, Dr. Hopkins is an international educator in networking, creativity, art, and technology. He watches the sky whenever possible. He has a long history working in media arts -- photographic, sound, video, and writing -- and has survived a BSc, an MFA, and a PhD. He made one substantial detour into an education and career in Big Oil and geothermal energy as a geophysical engineer, but more creative opportunities called.
He was artist-in-residence at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland; at the Center for Land Use Interpretation in Wendover, Utah; with the Aotearoa Digital Arts collective in Whanganui, New Zealand; and at the Gilfélagið in Akureyri, Iceland among other instances.
Finland? Utah? New Zealand? Iceland? For the last twenty-five years he's been leading a peripatetic life that's oscillated seasonally between Northern Europe and the Western half of the US (with another detour 'down under' for his PhD) although he's also been spotted at many points in between, and sometimes he gets the seasons backwards. Along the way, he has worked, played with, learned with, (and made portraits of) hundreds of really cool and creative people in different contexts across thirty countries.
While watching the sky, he's witnessed around 17 minutes of totality chasing solar eclipses around the world with his father who was an avid amateur astronomer/photographer. Hopkins also plays with water wherever he finds it. He has tracked and met mountain lions in several places in Colorado. He photographs and records who he is with, where he is, and what he's doing.
The traces of his praxis may be found at