Please join us in congratulating Professor Ken Rinaldo on his upcoming retirement this month. The Department of Art is especially grateful for Professor Rinaldo’s extensive contributions to our department and wishes him continued success in this next phase of his career.

Professor Rinaldo’s contributions also extend well beyond the Department and College through multiple collaborations he forged with College of Engineering faculty, amongst others. As co-PI on three successful BETHA Grants, Professor Rinaldo brought world-class visiting artists, Stelarc, Vito Acconci and Erwin Wurm, to name a few.

Points of pride for Professor Rinaldo during his 22 years at OSU include, having one of his students receive an academy award for 3D animation work, many undergraduates receiving full-paid graduate positions to universities, and having Art & Technology in the Department of Art ranked as #2 in 3D animation for all public universities for many years running.

He also built two computer labs, authored Interactive Electronics for Artists and Inventors, and produced many bio and robotic art installations. Through an impressive amount of external grants and funding, he was able to establish rapid prototyping and fabrication labs, a 2D print lab, and robotics and game labs.

Professor Rinaldo has received a United Nations Green Leaf Award, and award of distinction from Ars Electronica Austria, as well as art commissions from Nuit Blanche Toronto, the Klasma Museum Finland, Vancouver Olympics, and first prize for VIDA 3.0 in Madrid, Spain. As a member of the Senior Academic Board for Antennae Magazine, he has interviewed and written about many talented artists. He has been invited to travel to over 23 countries to share his art and science research.

The Opera For Dying Insects 2020, a work that uses artificial intelligence to track Isopods (pill bugs) to auto compose a tragic opera about the insect apocalypse, will be exhibited this year in Lisbon, Portugal, Muggia, Italy, and Montreal, Canada.

“It has been especially rewarding to work with my wife, soul mate, and collaborator, Professor Amy Youngs, in fostering an experimental Art & Technology approach in creating, not what art is, but rather, what it can become in our technologically mediated times.” – Ken Rinaldo