Glenda Drew
Professor of Design
Affiliated Faculty Community and Regional Development Graduate Group
Specialization: Digital media
Research
Glenda Drew is a critical maker whose research is based at the intersections of visual culture and social change, with a particular emphasis on the working class. The content of her work is rooted in creating messaging with greater social implications, fostering innovation and encouraging behavior change. Her subjects include country musicians, waitresses, feminists and precarious workers. Her practice is multifaceted in form and includes film/video, motion graphics, photography, graphics, interactivity and audience participation. She is inspired by the creative possibilities technologies generate and she works with a combination of tools considered “hi-tech” and “lo-tech.” She approaches her work with an organic sense of play, exploration and curiosity tempered by the design discipline with the goal of making meaningful work.
Drew was an active member of Paper Tiger Television in San Francisco for several years, a defining experience that continues to anchor and shape her work, from the DIY aesthetic and approach aimed at unpacking media technologies, to creating accessible media that asks critical questions about media. She is a co-PI on the UC Placemaking Initiative.
Drew exhibits her work nationally and internationally. Recent exhibitions include Unprecedented Times: Protest, Pandemic and Essential Workers at Silicon Valley De-Bug (San Jose), Memories of a New Future at the Barn Gallery (Woodland), Cliteracy at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art (Davis), PL!NK at the Crocker Museum of Art (Sacramento), pixeldust at ISEA 2017 (Colombia, South America). Her work has been featured in Leonardo, Bitch! A Feminist Response to Pop Culture magazine and The Washington Post.
Publications and Work
Drew exhibits her work nationally and internationally. Current and recent projects include
- A Working Lens
- Memories of a New Future
- Placemaking
- Pixeldust
- Cliteracy
- PL!NK
- cEnergi
- Instinct / Extinct: The Great Pacific Flyway
- Open Country
- Stories of Solidarity
More of Drew’s work can be seen here: http://www.glendadrew.site