kanarinka, a.k.a. Catherine D’Ignazio, is an artist and educator. Her artwork is participatory and distributed – a single project might take place online, in the street and in a gallery, and involve multiple audiences participating in different ways for different reasons. Her practice is collaborative even when she says it’s not. Her artwork has been exhibited at the ICA Boston, Eyebeam, MASSMoCA, and the Western Front among other locations.
She is Co-Director of the experimental curatorial group iKatun and a founding member of the Institute for Infinitely Small Things. After spending eight years in educational technology as a java programmer & technical project manager, she now teaches at RISD’s Digital Media Graduate Program. She has also taught at MIT, Emerson College and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
kanarinka is the recipient of various awards, including a Rotary Foundation Scholarship for independent study in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a 2003 Turbulence.org networked art competition award and grants from the Cambridge Arts Council, the LEF Foundation, and RISD. She has been on juries and editorial boards for institutions such as Real Art Ways, the Berwick Research Institute, Art Interactive, Cartographica journal, CAA’s Public Art Forum and ShiftSpace.
kanarinka has lectured widely about her collaborative creative practice at venues ranging from conferences (College Art Association, American Association of Geographers) to universities (Harvard University, UNC Chapel Hill) to art spaces (the Tate Modern, The Change you Want to See Gallery, Brooklyn). She has also written articles about geography, (micro)politics and art for publication in various geography journals.
The former Director of Exhibitions and Programs at Art Interactive in Cambridge, MA, kanarinka maintains an experimental curatorial practice through her work with iKatun in organizing the occasional exhibition, festival or screening, and, more recently, the Platform2 event series. kanarinka has a BA in International Relations from Tufts University (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and an MFA in Studio Art from Maine College of Art. She has lived and worked in Paris, Buenos Aires, and Michigan, and currently resides in Boston, MA.