Born in Atlanta and raised in Stone Mountain, GA, Kristan Woolford is a commission based mixed media digital artist whose work seeks to synthesize the original pillars of Hip Hop culture with Social Justice themes. His background in documentary filmmaking inspires video collages of Afrofuturist and Afrosurrealist narratives. Woolford has screened short films at venues such as Plaza Theatre, experimental films @725 Ponce — the biggest screen in the South, mixed media laser art films at the Plaza in Downtown Atlanta, and has screened a feature length documentary broadcasted on cable television. He has served as Director, Producer, and Editor for a weekly internationally broadcasted television program and served as the Director of New Media at Atlanta’s public access television station People TV. More recently, Woolford’s work has expanded beyond exclusively filmmaking as he continues to push the boundaries of how digital mediums like video collages and projection mapping can encourage a deeper understanding of Black experiences in America. His video collage work has been featured in exhibitions such as Drive Thru ATL, Midtown Alliance’s Heart of The Arts, and The Emory Science Gallery Atlanta’s exhibit: “A Hip Hop Legacy’ to celebrate 50 years of Hip Hop.” Woolford’s video collage work relies on remixing and layering digital elements to document and collapse moments from the past and present using projection technology. As an aesthetic of his work, projection is meant to suggest a casting of alternate realities, and a call to see our current and future social climate through a nuanced lens focused on our country’s dark past to provoke healing and accountability. Woolford is a Film Post Production Professor of Practice at Georgia State University, Visiting Lecturer of Film at Georgia Tech, and a Teaching Artist with several non-profits, serving as Chief Professorial Officer of eurketSTEAMlabs, where he works to train Atlanta’s future generation of creators. He also serves on several boards including the Office of Cultural Affairs Mayor’s Panel: Municipal Support for the Arts and the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee. Woolford is a Atlanta Contemporary Nexus Fund Grantee recipient, a featured artist in Design + Muse signature program, and in the Midtown Alliance Heart of The Arts as the inaugural Studio Artist in Residence at the Design Musuem of Atlanta hosted by an architecture firm. Woolford is an alumni of The Creatives Project Studio residency program, Atlanta’s Hatch Intensive Program: For Artists, Hampton University, and Georgia Tech.