John Benton

John Benton is an artist and storyteller who works with emerging media. His work has been shown in museums and festivals around the world; he has received awards and grants from the Tribeca Film Festival, NY Foundation for the Arts, NYMedia Lab and NYMedia Center.

He primarily works with emerging technology because he loves creating stories spatially… Primarily creating art in VR and programing story systems… Writing designing and coding at the same time offer creators new ways to find and articulate meaning.

He believes XR is important not for the technology itself (VR / AR / WhateVR) but because it engages our senses in more complex ways which lead to direct experience.  This also represents a change in media becoming responsive to the user. This is a seismic shift.

When stories react, subtly and sensorially, to us they become “alive” to us. But Benton is also scared to death of what technology is doing to humanity and thinks it’s important to be critically aware of this. He teaches Film & VR/AR a NYU, SVA and ICP.

John is mentoring Carol Silverman (Class of 2020)