Wes Modes

Wes Modes is an artist, researcher, and Assistant Professor of Games and Animation in the School of Art at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP). Their work sits at the intersection of media arts, game design, interactive storytelling, and physical computing, with a focus on participatory and place-based practices.

Modes is best known for A Secret History of American River People, an ongoing social practice and research project that travels U.S. rivers by handmade shantyboat to gather oral histories from river communities. Since 2014, the project has logged thousands of river miles, conducted more than 175 interviews, and evolved into immersive exhibitions combining photography, video, artifacts, and dialogic public programs.

Their broader practice includes interactive installations and networked media works that explore impermanence, environmental change, and the lived experience of people at the margins. Modes’ work has been exhibited at institutions such as the Portland Museum in Louisville, White Box Gallery in New York, the Waterfront Museum in Brooklyn, and the Hudson River Maritime Museum, and has been featured by outlets including BBC World Service, Atlas Obscura, and the International Sculpture Center.

In the classroom, Modes teaches at the intersection of art, technology, and game design, emphasizing democratic learning, critical media literacy, and collaborative making. Their pedagogy centers storytelling, experimentation, and inclusive studio culture, inviting students to treat games and interactive media as tools for inquiry, empathy, and social imagination.

MFA: University of California Santa Cruz, 2015 (Digital Art and New Media)

BA: University of California Santa Cruz, 1992 (Computer Science - Machine Learning concentration)

Wes Modes’ research and creative practice focus on participatory media, social practice, and experimental storytelling across games, interactive installations, and networked systems. They are especially interested in place-based projects that work with communities to surface contested histories, environmental change, and everyday life along rivers and other edge spaces. Ongoing work includes oral-history–driven field research (A Secret History of American River People), procedural and generative audio systems (DriftConditions and related projects), and interactive archives and maps that invite public contribution. Across these projects, Modes is invested in democratic methods, critical play, and building frameworks that let non-experts use emerging media tools to tell complex, personal, and politically situated stories.

03-2015 -06-2025 Lecturer, Art Department, Taught new media, digital art, and game-focused courses that combine storytelling, participatory practice, and technology. Helped students use code, games, and interactive media as core artistic materials., University of California, Santa Cruz

09-2021 -06-2025 Lecturer – Computational Media, Taught game design and interactive media with an emphasis on narrative, critical play, and experimental practice, contributing to curriculum at the intersection of games, art, and technology., University of California, Santa Cruz

09-2016 -06-2022 Lecturer - Computing and Design, Taught new media and digital art courses that combined code, storytelling, and interactive media. Helped students develop conceptual and technical skills in web-based work, installation, and game-adjacent projects at the intersection of art and technology., California State Monterey Bay, Marina, California

Peer Reviewed Publications

Modes, W (2012. ) Revisiting the Technical Achievements of Listening Post Ten Years On .NMEDIAC: The Journal of New Media & Culture, , 9 (1 ) ,

Zellmer, S. B.; Miller, A.; Ruys Smith, T.; McMillin, T. S.; Modes, W. (2015. ) Knowing the Mississippi .Open Rivers: Rethinking the Mississippi, , (1 ) ,https://openrivers.lib.umn.edu/article/knowing-the-mississippi-4/

Academic - DAAP – University of Cincinnati
Aronoff Center for Design & Art
Cincinnati  Ohio, 45221
Phone: 831-704-6690
modeswa@ucmail.uc.edu