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Arts Division
Film and Digital Media Department
Assistant Professor
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African American / Black Studies
Music Composition
Sound
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New Media
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By Appointment
Film and Digital Media
Dr. Chari Smith is an NY Emmy-nominated composer and interdisciplinary artist working across sound, performance, and media art. As a performer, their work investigates societal “fault lines", points of tension and release that impact the human condition. As a media artist, their critical engagement with archives and embodiment operates through, with, and against technology, informed by Black cultural practices, scholarship, and technological methodologies. As a composer, they are known for dense, evolving electronic compositions, experimental classical ensemble pieces, a powerful and delicate singing voice, and multichannel sound installations.
Recent works include Speculative Landscapes, an archival project using embodied mapping to document sites tied to the Gullah-Geechee in South Carolina; Breaking Time, a large ensemble piece premiered in 2025 with the Seattle Modern Orchestra; and MUTATE, a large-scale installation and performance that created an archive in a 20,000-square-foot Seattle Steamplant to house Black cultural artifacts. Building on MUTATE, their current research focuses on building a performable archive in three-dimensional digital space.
Dr. Glogovac-Smith holds a BA in Public Health from the University of Nevada, Reno; an MFA in Composition and Electronic Music from Mills College; and a Ph.D. in Digital Art and Experimental Media from the University of Washington. They are currently Assistant Professor of Black Media Practices at UC Santa Cruz.
FILM 171S: Special Topics in Film and Digital Media Production
FILM 228: Moving Image Archives and the Frontiers of Information
FILM 80S: Special Topics in Film and Digital Media-Film Sound
FILM 20P: Introduction to Production Technique
Film 136C: Visual Culture and Technology: History of New Media
Film 200C: Theory and Praxis of Film and Digital Media
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