Christopher Ernst is a film and video artist currently based in Western New York. Over the past three years, Christopher has been teaching filmmaking and digital cinema at the Department of Media Study, SUNY at Buffalo. As an artist and filmmaker, Christopher is equally as invested in the self-reflexivity of structural film as he is in the hypermediacy of multichannel video installation. He has produced diverse works—including Thread (2008), Genealogy Project (2006), and Atlas (2005)—on both film and video for the cinema, for the gallery, and for various indescribable happenings. Many of Christopher’s past projects are hybridized works of time-based media that stretch across genres of structural film, video art, and experimental narrative, exploring the cinematic object both as a facet of contemporary art and as an aspect of visual culture. His current film project, Boxing the Compass, investigates how spatial environments represented in cinematic media relate to our understanding and navigation of everyday territories in an increasingly screen-based and hypermediated communication culture.

Christopher has an active and growing record of artistic and professional achievements. Recent international screenings and exhibitions include the Antenna Festival in Paris, the Auditum Sound and Relation Festival in Sofia, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center in Buffalo, Cinema Lumiere – Institut Francais in London, the Southwest Film Center in Albuquerque, and the Blue Room in Rome. He has recently been the recipient of the Carnegie Art Center Video Re-Grant, the University at Buffalo College of Arts & Sciences Dean’s Fellowship, and the Mark Diamond Research Grant. In addition to his solo projects, Christopher is invested in a collaborative and cross-disciplinary art-practice that often involves working with artists who specialize in other mediums. Recent collaborative projects include Et in Arcadia Ego (2007) – a video and live music performance developed with composer Otto Muller, and Terminus (2007) – a modular film, video, and audio installation created with the Buffalo Super Friends collective. Christopher is also a founding member of the London film and video art collective Octopus, an international cell-based ensemble of moving image artists whose goal is to challenge the boundaries between gallery art and cinema. Christopher received his BA in Film & Music from Hampshire College and his MFA from from the Department of Media Study, SUNY at Buffalo.

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