Scott Townsend is on faculty at NC State University. In 2002 he began working with site specific/online audiences in project spaces where broad globalization issues were having particular effects on communities, employing aspects of what would eventually be called “social media,” along with real-time visualization of data. Projects and exhibitions are often part of a greater program of local and regional engagement that also includes workshops, lectures, and other activities connected to the project space. He has exhibited or created projects in over 80 national and international group and solo exhibitions in the Czech Republic, Greece, Egypt, Cuba, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Japan, Iran, Italy, Serbia, Venezuela, Cuba, and the United States. His articles have appeared in Zed, Statements, Brujula, Art Papers, Visual Communication, Design and Culture, and Design Issues. He has also presented on this work in international venues as featured presenter alongside John Maeda, Suguru Ishizaki, and Krystof Lenk, and was a Mitchel Lecture presenter at the School of the Art Institute Chicago in 2014. Short CV here

As a student, Allan Sekulla's influence on me led me to project-based work using installation and digital media to visualize social practice and engage audiences for change. For example, in an earlier project, I presented stories of immigration with real-time visualization of participant answers between two groups in a gentrifying neighborhood. Later, in Imaginary Country, I invited comparisons between the history and experiences of the Berlin Wall and the US Border Wall using three connected installation sites in Berlin, Mexico, and the US. Context and participation are crucial in my work. By 2012, working with online and f2f participation became increasingly problematic, prompting me to work more directly in communities and for longer periods. I also started collaborating with people in the social sciences, working within a framework of qualitative research and participatory action research.

In 2013, I began examining issues of hegemony and control of smaller countries in eastern and southern Europe. The EU uses branding strategies to compete with traditional nationalistic symbols. Social Capital is an ongoing project that introduces themes such as history, future, immigration, etc.using animations. Begun in 2013-2014 to build dialogue and research in Eastern European communities. It investigates how people feel about their own history and practices, it touches on larger issues of progressive ideas in competition with a new sense of parochialism. Since 2013, the region has become more unstable. I also began a new effort in China in 2019-2020.