Francisco Alarcon

Francisco Alarcon is an artist and engineer working on the intersection of visual arts and technology. Alarcon’s research focus is on the material history of computer-generated graphics and how the interface informs the construction of cultural techniques. He is intrigued by the importance of the technical specificity of postphotographic image production in the contemporary visual culture—a topic that is often misunderstood. Alarcon’s approach to digital imaging is multifaceted, on a historical level, and also conceptually, and his research intends to demystify technical processes and philosophical perspectives on media operations.

Past and present projects look at computer simulations and visualizations of water, and how the scientific knowledge influences the vision, we develop of the physical world. For this purpose, Alarcon takes a close look at the representation of water in Film, Video Games, along with scientific and engineering simulations.

Francisco holds an MDes in Art, Design and the Public Domain from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, M.Arch. from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), and an M.Eng. in Civil Engineering. At Harvard University, he is pursuing a Ph.D. in Film and Visual Studies.