Charles Eppley, PhD

Image: Underwater black and white photograph of numerous white people swimming in a pool. Their bodies float limply in the water, and are intersected by two horizontal hoses and small plastic whistles that are strung across the pool's interior. The image depicts an underwater sound installation by sonic artist Max Neuhaus called Water Whistle (ca. 1970-1972).

INTRODUCTION

Hello! I'm a contemporary art and digital media culture specialist. I research and write on digital art, intermedia practices, and computational aesthetics, and currently writing a book on sound artist Max Neuhaus (1939-2019) and the politics of listening. Specifically, I study how sound and listening contribute to a multi-sensory framework for understanding "art and technology," and connect historical technologies of power to those of today. Currently, I'm a Lecturer of Interdisciplinary Arts & Performance (IAP) at Arizona State University (ASU).

My work foregrounds interdisciplinary analysis, pairing art history with disability and gender studies, as well as musicology, media studies and the history of technology. In this effort, my work complements conventional artistic formal analysis with scientific knowledge and cultural critique.

One of my core interests is to examine how the field of "art and technology," and its many attendant techno-material cultures, sustains and creates political ideology. From the "politics of listening" to an emergent political economy of "blockchain aesthetics," my work examines how art and media both engender new modes of expression and cultivate systems of power.

Portrait photo of a light-skinned (white) person in an industrial urban setting of Cleveland, OH. They are wearing a black baseball hat, have round clear plastic glasses, and a blue bandana with white birdwing-like pattern over their face.

Resume at a Glance

Assistant Teaching Professor | Arizona State University (2022-present)
Faculty Lead, Disability Studies B.A. | Arizona State University (2024-present)
Primary Investigator, "Disability Arts" Grant | Arizona State University (2025-present). Supported by the Ford Foundation.
Co-Founder | The Cybernetics Library (2017-present)
Visiting Assistant Professor | University of California, Riverside (2022)
Research Strategist | MIT Media Lab (2020-2021)
Visiting Assistant Professor | Oberlin College (2019-2021)
Research Fellow | Nokia Bell Labs (2019-2020)
Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow | Max Planck Institute (2018-2019)
Editor & Curator | Avant.org (2014-2021)

Recent & Upcoming

Conference Presentation: "Field Recording as Queer/Trans Feminist Music." Panel: "Synthgenders," Feminist Theory & Music Conference 18, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH. (June 2026).
Conference Presentation: "Pedagogy as Access Artistry: Two Perspectives on Curriculum Accessibility & Teaching Disability Arts," 3rd Annual Disability Studies Conference, University of Arizona. Tucson, AZ. (April 2026). Co-presented with Amanda Cachia.
Conference Panel (Co-Chair): "Disability-First: Museums & Exhibition Design for Disabled Audiences." College Art Association 2026. Chicago, IL. Co-Chaired with Amanda Cachia. (February 2026)
Invited Discussant: "Hospital Aesthetics" book talk with Amanda Cachia. Grant Street Studios, Arizona State University. (October 2025)
Conference Presentation: Panel: "Incomplete, Incalculable, Incomputable: Media Histories of Futurity." Cultural Studies Association 2025. CalArts. Valencia, CA. (May 2025)
Performance (Sound Description): "Air Change Per Hour" by Anna RG. Issue Project Room. Brooklyn, NY. (April 2025)
Conference Presentation: "Beating: Sound Installation as Queer Methodology." Panel: "Queer Listening and Sonic Arts." College Art Association 2025. NYC. (February 2025)
Symposium Presentation: "Mitigating the Risks of AI in the Classroom: Access Artistry & Inclusive Practices of Description," 3rd Annual Disability & Accessibility Symposium, Theme: "70 years after Brown v. Board of Education: At the nexus of Blackness, Disability and Education," Yale University. (April 10, 2024)
Invited Talk: "Once More with Feeling: The Lion's Gallery of the Senses & Accessibility as Curatorial Model," Sound/Text Seminar Series, Mahindra Center for the Humanities, Harvard University (March 26, 2024).
Invited Talk: "Curating Disability," Fall 2023 Curatorial Practice Lecture Series, Sarah Lawrence College (November 27, 2023)
Symposium Presentation: "Accessible Listening: Inclusive Uses of Sound in the Classroom." Accessibility Awareness Day Conference. Arizona State University. Tempe, AZ. (October 19, 2023)
Conference Presentation: "Critical Approaches to Queer Sound & Listening in Contemporary Art." Panel: "Queer Auralities." Research presentation at the Society for Cinema & Media Studies (SCMS) conference. Denver, CO. (April 12-15, 2023)
Invited Talk: "Blockchain Aesthetics." Two-day seminar/workshop co-led with Dr. Tina Rivers Ryan (Buffalo AKG) for the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at New York University. New York, NY. (May 2023)
Conference Presentation: Remote Access disability arts program sponsored by The Feminist Art Project (TFAP) at Rutgers University. Creative research and access artistry project. Panel: "Art, Gender, and Disability: Aesthetics of Access." 2023 College Art Association conference. New York, NY. (February 24, 2023)