Kenneth Collins works in the gray space between the "black box" of theater and the "white cube" of the art gallery, creating projects at the intersection of visual art, digital media, theater, cinema, and artificial intelligence. His practice encompasses sculpture, video art, installation, performance, and synthetic media works that challenge the traditional boundaries between disciplines.
As founder and artistic director of Temporary Distortion (2000-present), named one of the "Best New York Theater Companies" by TimeOut NY Magazine, Collins has created work shown in over 30 cities across Australia, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, and the United States. During this time, his company maintained its roots in New York City as an invested stakeholder in the downtown arts scene for 25 years.
His work as a visual artist has been exhibited at the Grand Palais Immersif (Paris), Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu (Poland), Benaki Museum (Greece), Bakhrushin Museum (Moscow), Aram Art Museum (South Korea), River City Bangkok, The Anchor of Arts & Antiques (Thailand), Yates Gallery (Chicago), and Ideal Glass Gallery (New York City).
Reflections on his work have been featured in numerous books including La vidéo en scène: L'acteur et ses technologies, Performance & Media: Taxonomies for a Changing Field, Utopii performative: Artisti Radicali ai Scenei Americane in Secolul 21, the popular US introduction to theatre textbook, Theatre, Brief, among others. Academic essays on his work have been published in Yale's Theater, NYU's The Drama Review, UCSD’s TheatreForum, Queen Mary’s Contemporary Theatre Review, American Theater, Chance Magazine, and other industry leading periodicals.
Kenneth Collins serves as Assistant Professor of Media Art in the Department of Film & Media Arts at the University of Utah, where in Fall 2023 he became the first professor nationally to develop and teach a dedicated course in AI Filmmaking at a major university.
