This lecture gives insight into personal perspective on online counterculture. During the past year, broadcasting software was used for DJ sets, art shows and elaborate concerts. This creative time was pushed to the limit by an exploration of sound, noise, animation and various other multimedia creative outlets. Niche online cultures and aesthetics have flourished this past year from hyperpop dance parties to full-blown noise fests, but with that, the goal of this talk is to answer the questions that arise in this digital wasteland: What things are left unheard in the online space in comparison to the physical space? What do you do when you have limited resources and materials? Has the pandemic shifted digital art to be a legitimate form of “high art,” or will there always be a bias toward digital art?

Gene Anthony Santiago-Holt is a multimedia artist from Philadelphia. He creates drawings, and papier-mâché masks that function as props and as alter egos for his improvised video performances. His heavily processed videos incorporate original audio and found imagery, including childhood photographs, pop culture references and religious iconography to reconcile his mixed heritage and troubled familial relationships.

Santiago-Holt has exhibited internationally at PiranesiLAB in Moscow, American University in Washington, D.C., The Glitter Box Theater in Pittsburgh and various other venues in the United States. He graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2015 with a bachelor of fine arts in sculpture and a concentration in printmaking. He is currently an MFA candidate in the Department of Art and Design at UD, where he also teaches undergraduate printmaking and design classes.