Karl Baumann is a digital artist, filmmaker, and scholar. His current work explores immersive, playable, and mobile media to navigate the complex layers of urban spaces. Karl’s methodology is based on addressing complex social issues through immersive media projects that invite user participation and feedback for exploring the future of civic engagement, social networks, participatory pedagogy, and the relationship between public and private space.
After completing an MFA in Digital Arts and New Media (DANM) at UC Santa Cruz, Karl taught media literacy with the Boys and Girls Club and was active in Occupy Oakland. In addition to his locative and playable media projects, Karl has produced multiple award-winning documentaries and experimental videos, within the US and internationally. He is an Annenberg Fellow in the Media Arts Practice (MAP) PhD program at the University of Southern California. Karl is currently working with the Mobile and Environmental Media Lab (MEML), the Media, Activism, and Participatory Politics (MAPP) project, the World Building Media Lab (WBML), and the Annenberg Innovation Lab (AIL).