Cauleen Smith's filmmaking, both experimental and classical narrative has provided her with a peculiar skill set which seems to be in happy alignment with the ever growing wave of art practices operating in the social sphere. In her lecture, Smith will describe how improvisational music practices, speculative fiction, African-American history, and processional forms are at the foundation of her conceptual interests, and how the products of such procedures can potentially take many forms such as performance, sculpture, 16mm film, photographs, books, or immersive spaces. 

Cauleen Smith is an interdisciplinary artist whose work reflects upon the everyday possibilities of the imagination. Operating in multiple materials and arenas, she roots her work firmly within the discourse of mid-twentieth-century experimental film. Smith holds a BA in Creative Arts from San Francisco State University and MFA, University of California, Los Angeles School of Theater Film and Television. Smith lives in Los Angeles, and is faculty at California Institute of the Arts in the Art Program.