Ryan Jenkins: Artist, Educator, Sr. Video Engineer, Technical Director
ASPEN AIR 2026 - Technical Director and Documentation Supervisor
Photos Below Via : Elyse Mertz / Maria Baranova
Technical Director — AIR Festival 2026
Aspen Art Museum | Aspen, Colorado | July 27–31, 2026
Technical Director for the Aspen Art Museum’s 2026 AIR Festival, Figures in a Landscape, a multidisciplinary festival of newly commissioned performance, film, music, and live art presented across theaters, museums, mountain environments, and remote outdoor sites throughout the Roaring Fork Valley.
I led the technical production and execution of the festival’s major performances and commissions, working directly with artists, curators, producers, designers, musicians, venue teams, and production vendors to translate ambitious site-specific works into live events.
2026 Performances & Commissions
Camille Henrot — Commedia dell’arte
World premiere theatrical work presented at the Wheeler Opera House. Henrot’s first theatrical production transformed the opera house into a New York City apartment building, combining performance, set design, costumes, choreography, lighting, original music, and video. The work was co-commissioned by Performa, Aspen Art Museum / Wheeler Opera House, and LYRA Art Foundation.
Ivan Cheng — 16
A new “live situation for camera,” performed at the Pitkin County Solid Waste Center. Cheng combined live performance, monologue, improvisation, song, movement, and real-time documentation, creating a constantly shifting relationship between performer, camera, audience, and environment.
Kali Malone — Concentric Circles of The Choirs of Angels
A U.S. premiere presented on the newly restored pipe organ at Aspen Chapel. Malone’s slowly evolving composition transformed the chapel into an immersive acoustic environment, combining the historic architecture and instrument with a contemporary approach to duration and harmonic perception.
Lucy Raven & Deantoni Parks — Murderers Bar
An outdoor film-performance presented in a high alpine meadow beneath Pyramid Peak. Raven’s film was projected vertically onto a monumental curved screen while an ensemble of musicians from the Aspen Music Festival and School performed a newly commissioned score by Deantoni Parks.
Lyle Ashton Harris with Darnell L. Moore & Raymond Pinto — On Oracle
A multimedia performance presented on the rooftop of the Aspen Art Museum. Harris combined video projection, oral history, live narration, movement, and multiple performers into a layered “performative montage” exploring memory, identity, cultural history, and artistic influence.
Los Thuthanaka
A sunrise performance on the summit of Aspen Mountain by siblings Chuquimamani-Condori and Joshua Chuquimia Crampton. The performance brought together electronics, electric guitar, traditional instrumentation, and Indigenous musical traditions within an extreme high-altitude outdoor environment.
Matthew Barney — ZONE DEFENSE: Old Snowmass Parallax
A large-scale outdoor sculpture extending Barney’s TACTICAL parallax project from AIR 2025. Installed at a ranch adjacent to the previous performance site, the work continued Barney’s exploration of endurance, violence, mythology, athletic space, and the American West.
Recent:
Electronics design and sculpture interfaces for Beatriz Cortez, Nomad 2, Boston Public Art Triennial
Technical Direction, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Volume III White Bay Power Station, Sydney Biennial
Technical Director, Grisha Coleman, The Movement Undercommons, Jacob’s Pillow/Doris Duke Foundation Pillow Lab
Technical Director / Documentation Supervisor, AIR Aspen, Aspen Art Museum
Post Production and Color Correction, Lucy Raven, Demolition of a Wall (Album 1), Whitney Biennial
Linkedin
CS50 @ Harvard University
As a technologist in production for CS50 at Harvard University, I work at the intersection of film production, post-production, and educational media. I design and support multi-camera production environments, post-production workflows, and technical systems that carry projects from set to screen. Bridging creative intent and technical execution, I collaborate with educators, filmmakers, and technologists to build scalable, expressive media experiences that bring learning to life for a global audience.
Ryan Jenkins was a Senior Video Engineer at EMPAC, the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center. A 2016 graduate of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Masters in Fine Arts program, his work focused on multimedia installation, sculpture, and filmmaking. Working on the cutting edge of video and performance technology since 2008, Ryan has had the opportunity to work with over 200 artists producing and developing their work. Due to his varied responsibilities, Ryan has a broad understanding of all facets of production and post production and is a valuable asset in any new media environment. Ryan also has spent the last 6 years as an adjunct professor teaching Digital Media and Art classes at Hudson Valley Community College.
From EMPAC's Website:
"EMPAC—The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is where the arts, sciences, and technology meet under one roof and breathe the same air. Four exceptional venues enable audiences, artists, and researchers to inquire, experiment, develop, and experience the ever-changing relationship between our senses, technology, and the worlds we create around us. EMPAC is an icon of the New Polytechnic, a new paradigm for cross-disciplinary research and education at Rensselaer."
Other Press:
L.A. Times :: L.A. Dance Chronicle :: The Stranger (Seattle)