Editors

Editor:
Roberto Muffoletto, MFA, PhD

…is the founder and current director of VASA and Editor of the VASA Journal on Images and Culture. He earned his MFA in Visual Studies at the State University of New York, Buffalo and a Ph.D. in Educational Technology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.  Previously, he founded and directed  CEPA Gallery (Buffalo, NY), and as the publisher and editor of Camera Lucida (Baumgartner Publication) and past editor of Frame|Work (Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies).

Assistant Editor:
Rachel Zimmermann, MA

…is an art historian and independent researcher specializing in Contemporary art and critical theory. In 2015, she completed her MA in Art History at the University of California, Riverside with a thesis entitled, Addresses to/through/within a Public Sphere: The Politics and Performativity of Contemporary Photo-Works. As part of the editorial team of VJIC since 2014, she has overseen independent thematic projects, as well as contributed to the development of the journal and its overall membership.

Associate Editors:
Rui Cepeda, MA
rui.cepeda [a] vjic.org

Is a freelance art manager, critic and writer based in London. He has collaborated with newspapers and art magazines in Europe on a regular basis, with articles about the art market, the social impact of art and culture within the social sphere, its influence in the imposition of oppressive political systems, the creation of subjectivities and counter-geographies culture through performative acts and the visual arts. Cepeda holds an MA in Cultural Studies, from Goldsmiths College, London.

Martin Speer, Dipl. Journ.
martin.speer [a] vjic.org

Lectures with the Institute for Journalism & Faculty of Cultural Studies at Technical University (TU) of Dortmund, Germany, as well as in Media Management and Media Production at the University of Applied Sciences in Wolfsburg, Germany.

Yan Ma, PhD.
yanma@uri.edu

Professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Rhode Island (USA). Dr. Ma is one of the distinguished leading scholars in visual literacy, critical and cultural, interdisciplinary research in technology and media. Her research and teaching have focused on visual literacy and globalization; organization of information, information storage and retrieval; visual information science; critical and cultural studies of visual literacy and new media; Chinese/Global Information Services; Chinese American newspapers and periodicals in the United States. Dr. Ma’s latest research focuses on Chinese film studies leading to her pioneering course and research on “Chinese Hollywood”.

Knesia Belash, GDip. in Contemporary Art History
knesia.belash [a] vjic.org

Is an art critic and independent researcher, currently residing in London. She holds a graduate diploma with distinction in contemporary art history from Goldsmiths, University of London. Her current research interests include photography, performance, public and participatory art, memory studies and sociology of everyday life.

Mary Gold, Mag. Phil.
mary.gold [a] vjic.org

Studied European and Comparative Linguistics and Literature in Vienna. Gold graduated in 2010 in the fields of Dutch children’s literature, as well as postcolonial studies about the Belgian Congo. In 2013-14, Gold studied photography at the Friedl Kubelka Schule. Currently, she is enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna where she is studying video and video-installation. 

Miha Colner, MA
miha.colner [a] vjic.org

Is an art historian who works in different fields of contemporary art as an independent curator, writer and editor. Specializing in photography, video, and other forms of media art, he is engaging in a number of local and international projects focusing on research, analysis, and curatorial presentation of significant currents in recent art making. Since 2006, he has been working as a curator and program coordinator at Photon – Centre for Contemporary Photography (based in Ljubljana, Slovenia and Vienna, Austria), a non-profit organization focused on exploring and presenting contemporary photography and artists’ moving images. He was a contributor and editor at Radio Student Ljubljana (2005-2012), and since 2007 he has been a contributor to Dnevnik, a national daily newspaper. He currently lives and works in Ljubljana.

John Hopkins, MFA, PhD
john.hopkins [a] vjic.org

Is an active networker-builder with a background in engineering, hard science, and the arts, Hopkins practices a nomadic form of performative art and teaching that spans many countries and situations. He has taught workshops in more than 20 countries and 60 institutions across Europe, the Antipodes, and North America. Recent streaming performance nodes include Berlin, New York, Sydney, Helsinki, Riga, Amsterdam, Strasbourg, Santa Barbara, Winnipeg, San Francisco, and, of course, online. He studied film with renown experimental film-maker Stan Brakhage in the late 1980’s. He has been artist-in-residence at the Sibelius Academy’s Center for Music and Technology in Helsinki (FI) and at the Center for Land Use Interpretation (clui.org) in the Great Salt Lake desert (US). He recently received a trans-disciplinary PhD from La Trobe university in Melbourne, Australia, and is currently lecturing on digital art and information technology at the University of Colorado – Boulder, USA. He maintains an extensive network presence based at neoscenes.net.