Joel Swanson portrait
Associate Professor • TYPO Studio • ART, DESIGN, TYPOGRAPHY • Herbst Program for Engineering, Ethics & Society
joel.swanson@colorado.edu
303-735-2933

ATLS 231D

Office Hours: By appointment

Joel Swanson, ATLAS associate听professor, teaches digital art, media theory听and the history of design for the Creative Technology and Design听(formerly TAM) program, where he served as director of the TAM program from 2007 to 2016. His tenure home is in the Herbst Program for Engineering, Ethics and Society,听and he has a courtesy appointment in the Intermedia Arts Writing and Performance PhD听Program.听Joel's听research and teaching interests includes听digital art, digital media theory, design and typography.

Joel's artwork is听motivated by literary theory and exists as a series of installations, both real and virtual, that explore the nature of language and its embodiment. His artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions such as the Broad Museum in Lansing, The Power Plant in Toronto听and the North Miami Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2014 Joel听had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. Most recently he showed work in Personal Structures, an official satellite show of the 57th Venice Biennale, and he is represented by David B. Smith Gallery in Denver. 听

Joel received his Master of Fine Arts from the University of California San Diego, where his focus was computing and the arts. He earned his听Bachelor of Fine Arts in digital art from CU Boulder.

Faculty Teaching Excellence Program

Projects

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Member of the TYPOLAB听听

In the news

Ralphie sculpture in the snow
Grace Leslie and Joel Swanson selected as Faculty Fellows

Dec. 20, 2023

The Research & Innovation Office has announced the 2024 RIO Faculty Fellows cohort, including assistant professor Grace Leslie and associate professor Joel Swanson along with 14 other faculty members from departments and research institutes across the campus.

Joel Swanson portrait
ATLAS Associate Professor Joel Swanson Among Arts & Humanities Grant Awardees

June 29, 2023

A new Research & Innovation Office (RIO) program provides nearly $100K in combined funding to 19 projects that span disciplines ranging from music and art history to journalism and theatre and dance across the CU-Boulder campus. ATLAS associate professor and TYPO Lab director, Joel Swanson, is among the recipients for his project entitled, "The United States of America, Reconfigured".

two works from swansons exhibition titled physical disantce: the amount of space between two things
A review by Jos茅 Antonio Arellano of Joel Swanson's "The Distance Between Words"

March 25, 2023

For well over a decade, Joel Swanson has explored how language and technology structure our lives. His work has appeared in the Denver-land area, not to mention the Venice Biennale.

joel swanson
Visual artist and longtime ATLAS faculty member, Joel Swanson, earns tenure

Aug. 18, 2022

Beginning this year, ATLAS faculty member Joel Swanson is promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure in the Herbst Program for Ethics, Engineering and Society. A member of the ATLAS faculty since 2005, Swanson played a key role in the development of the Technology, Arts and Media program,...

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