Mani Mehrvarz is a media artist and filmmaker. He holds a Ph.D. in Media Study (practice+theory) from the State University of New York at Buffalo. His doctoral research was focused on the materiality of media in artistic practice in the contexts of both radical media archaeology and object-oriented philosophy. Mehrvarz has taught basic, intermediate and advanced courses in documentary, video art, and media theory at UB’s Department of Media Study (2015 – 2020). Currently, he teaches Theories and Cultural Impact of Media and Technology at New York University at the Integrated Digital Media program in the department of Technology, Culture & Society.
In 2016, Mehrvarz founded Buffalo Documentary Project which combines oral history and documentary filmmaking to explore the communities, art, culture and lived experiences of the city of Buffalo and WNY beyond mainstream narratives. He is the co-founding editor of MAST (The Journal of Media Art Study and Theory), an open-access blind peer-reviewed journal dedicated to interdisciplinary research in media art and practice-based studies.
Mehrvarz’s art practice with the moving-image goes beyond the conventional linear storytelling and explores various forms of databased cinema, interactive documentary, and video mapping. His videos/films have been exhibited and screened worldwide since 2006, and have received awards and honors in juried festivals including the 17th Japan Media Art Festival, Norway’s PERL Media Festival, Poland’s Short Waves Festival, Cologne International Videoart Festival, FIVA Video Art Festival in Buenos Aires, Chile’s 12th Bienal de Artes Mediales, India’s Kochi Muziris Biennial, and Buffalo International Film Festival, Charlotte Film Festival, Toronto Black Film Festival, among others.