Stanzi Vaubel, PhD
Film, Media & Performing Arts Faculty
Working as a catalyst in an inherently collaborative practice, Stanzi Vaubel, PhD, congregates an ensemble of artists around a shared value for the open work. One of the most intriguing aspects of Vaubel’s approach is the entanglement of social, theoretical, and artistic goals. In her projects, the boundaries between performer and auditor, music and dance, movement and poetry, stage and site, art and philosophy – and more generally, life and the creative process itself—merge together. As a result, each event is a complex and rich, yet accessible and growth-inducing experience for everyone involved.
In Vaubel's practice, she invites outside forces to influence the creative process. For example, she works with unusual sites such as grain silos, fossil parks, and warehouse spaces where weather conditions become an integral part of the work. On these sites, Vaubel orchestrates the conditions for interaction between individuals of unlike kind from choreographers, radio producers, architects, designers, engineers, scientists, composers, musicians, media, and visual artists. Her projects result in creative labs, large-scale live events, and festivals.
Unpredictability in process and results is inherent to her methods. Vaubel uses the framework of “indeterminacy” to shape the artistic process. The concept of indeterminacy has been explored in various art and music movements, beginning with John Cage and extending to Fluxus, performance art, and relational aesthetics. Vaubel’s approach draws on these precedents, bringing something new to this conversation balancing the uncertainty of engaging disparate groups of participation with no set agenda, with the stability of allowing time for extended interaction through which a shared language emerges.
Stanzi Vaubel, PhD, is a scholar and practitioner with a background in film, radio, and sound production, including experimental and documentary forms. She received her B.A. in Communications from Northwestern University (creative writing and film) and an MFA in Media Study from the University at Buffalo where she also completed her PhD. In addition to her now established reputation as a media artist, she is also an accomplished classical cellist.
As the founder and artistic director of the Indeterminacy Festival, Vaubel's list of awards include a Fulbright Award, a College of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Fellowship, a Morris and Mark Diamond Fellowship, a Fellowship from the Telluride Film Festival, and a Director’s Choice Award from the Black Maria Film Festival. Her festivals have been staged around North America and Europe with support from New York, Iowa, Nebraska, and Michigan arts councils, Techne Institute, the University of Malta, McGill University, the University at Buffalo, and Alfred University. She has an extensive track record of presenting her own work professionally at venues across the U.S. and Canada and has produced radio programs for The Whitney Museum, New York Public Radio, the BBC, and a series entitled "The Gift" for Chicago Public Radio. She is currently on faculty at the New York Arts Program.
PhD University at Buffalo
MFA University at Buffalo
BA Northwestern University
stanzi@nyartsprogram.org