Alba D'Urbano

In her videos as well as her interactive video and computer installations, media artist Alba D’Urbano (*1955, Tivoli, Italy) explores how the perception of reality is changing under the influence of digital, manipulable images in the mass media. She initially focused on the relationship between writing, signs, space, and new media. Later, she examined the media construction of body images in the age of digital media – such as the metamorphosis of the medium of portraiture and self-perception, the representation of the female body, and the skin as an interface. In doing so, she always encourages reflection on media and plays with expectations and behavioral norms in encounters with digital (self-)images.

Alba D’Urbano studied philosophy at La Sapienza University in Rome from 1974 to 1978 and was part of the Italian avant-garde that experimented with new communication technologies. She produced radio programs for the alternative station Radio Gulliver in Tivoli. From 1978 to 1983, she studied painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome. During this time, she collaborated with composer Alessandro Cipriani, among others, and created performances, Super 8 films, and artistic actions in public spaces. 

From 1984 to 1989, she studied visual communication at the Berlin University of the Arts. She then received a scholarship to study at the Institute for New Media in Frankfurt am Main, which was headed by Peter Weibel. She met her future husband Nicolas Reichelt, with whom she realized intermedia projects. After her first teaching assignments, for example at the Institute for New Media in 1993, she was appointed to the Chair of Computer Graphics at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig in 1995. There she headed the Intermedia class from 1998. Since 2000, she has collaborated regularly with Tina Bara.

Since 2011, the ZKM archive has held thirteen videotapes with early works from the 1980s, which have been digitized. The computer-based installation »Touch Me« (1995) is also part of the ZKM | Collection.