Chelsea Thompto
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cthompto.bsky.social
Chelsea Thompto
@cthompto.bsky.social
320 followers 420 following 85 posts
Artist and Assistant Professor of Creative Technologies @ Virginia Tech

Art+Trans Studies+Technology

Transwoman(she/her) making/thinking about the politics of visibility, trans embodiment, & sustainably.

Opinions are my own.

https://chelsea.technology/
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cthompto.bsky.social
The virtual exhibition on critical AI “Debox” opens today at Public Access Memories as part of The Wrong Biennale! Very excited to be included amount so many other great artists (list to be commented).

#netart #publicaccessmemories #thewrong #criticalai
Promotional image for an art exhibition with a black and green background. The top right of the image contains the text “The Wrong Biennale” and the show url “publicaccessmemories.com”. The artists are listed in white above the show title “Debox” under the title is the text “Opening Sunday Nov. 9”.
November 9, 2025 at 5:28 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
International mail service to the US might be fucked, but somehow my new “A.I. Sucks” print from @sonnyross.bsky.social landed on my doorstep this morning! Great way to start the weekend :) . If you don’t know their work you should check them out and support real human artists!

#antiai #fuckai
Two posters, a sticker, and two pieces of paper on a wood table. The main poster is an illustration that reads “I don’t use A.I. I’m not a fucking loser”, the second poster is mostly hidden and has a white background and green line art of a plant, the sticker is medieval inspired and says “shut up”, and the two pieces of paper are white with a personal note in black.
September 13, 2025 at 4:45 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
A screenshot of the game “Shadowgate Classic” for gameboy color. With action options across the bottom of the screen, a map on the right, and a large illustration of the grim reaper in the center.
August 23, 2025 at 3:04 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
The world sucks but today I got to hang out with two of my fellow art/design colleagues and test out our new Risograph machine. I decided to print a screen capture from a recent net art work.

#riso #risograph #printmaking #netart #newmediaart #contemporaryart
The word darkness overlayed on a vague room like form rendered in blue ink on pink paper.
July 28, 2025 at 8:39 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
Big thump on my studio window, saw this little one 😍
Image of a groundhog standing outside a window in green foliage.
July 16, 2025 at 5:57 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
A work in progress screen capture from my ongoing net art project “A Walk in The Dark”. I have a new newsletter out this week featuring some of my work from the last 6 months and a little of what’s coming up (including more info about this video). You can sign up here:

forms.gle/G3nRGj6eL1hN...
July 2, 2025 at 10:31 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
Just finished “The Sapling Cage” by @margaret.bsky.social & everyone should read it! As a transwoman who has been out as trans for 15 years, I can honestly say this has some of the most beautiful & incisive writing about transness I have ever encountered. All alongside of a compelling fantasy story!
A photo of the cover of the book “The Sapling Cage” by Margaret Killjoy.
May 14, 2025 at 3:06 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
In the studio today:

Mocking up an autonomous solar powered projection system for displaying new media art. Battery, inverter, etc represented as simple shapes for now.

This will be built in the coming months hopefully using reclaimed wood.

#newmediaart #solarpower #solarpowerart #sustainability
A screenshot from a 3D modeling software showing an in progress version of a solar powered projection cart. The structure of the cart is made out of wood and the other components are represented by simple shapes.
April 14, 2025 at 6:21 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
I took my “Creative Technologies during Climate Crisis” class to our local solid waste facility for a tour today. We learned about waste streams, mills, landfills, & a lot more. Highly recommend visiting your local waste management folks to learn more about the afterlife of the things we throw away!
The interior of a solid waste facility warehouse featuring a large sorting machine with stairs and a conveyor belt.
April 8, 2025 at 6:35 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
I am in Bloomington Indiana as a visiting artist at Indiana University this week. A part of the visit is running a workshop. I ran a workshop on systems in studio art making and made a little website for it here:

cthompto.github.io/systems-stud...

Love making a new little website.
Screenshot of the home page of https://cthompto.github.io/systems-studio/ . Black background with white and light color text.
April 3, 2025 at 7:24 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
It’s transgender day of visibility but visibility as a means to security and safety is a lie. Solidarity must be built from a foundation that surpasses the visual/understandable.

#tdov #tdov2025 #transartist
Black and white fog texture using very small ASCII characters
March 31, 2025 at 4:18 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
From the march on the Virginia Tech campus today opposing our Broad of Visitors decision to dissolve our Office of Inclusive Strategy and Excellence.
A protest sign that says “Naming the consequences of oppression is not the same as being discriminatory”.
March 25, 2025 at 7:55 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
Today I got to take my art class titled “Creative Technologies During Climate Crisis” onto a rooftop to get a tour of a small solar array. The wonderful folks at facilities & in the sustainability office gave us the tour & a lot of great info about the challenges of making campuses more sustainable.
An image from a flat roof top with a low solar array on it. In the background are other buildings, including a power plant with a large smokestack turned steam stack.
March 20, 2025 at 6:17 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
In Vancouver today for the opening of this group show I am in and for a day long event on “trans opacity”. Very grateful to be around so many other thought trans folks and to be out of the U.S.A. for a little while.

#contemporaryart #transstudies #newmediaart
White text on a tinted window on a large building that says “Indiscernible Thresholds, escaped veillances”
February 27, 2025 at 6:09 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
A little snapshot of my notes for my talk this afternoon at #caa113 . Very excited to be in conversation with @dylanvolk.bsky.social , @blackchthonic.bsky.social , @kringelberg.bsky.social , and Sky Maggiore about trans visibility. I will be taking about my recent fog works.
Handwritten notes for a slide lecture, written in messy black pen on white grid paper.
February 13, 2025 at 8:07 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
In the midst of all the terribleness, I have the opportunity to talk about horror as a mode of trans resistance today at a #queerhorror conference. Talking about my work and the work of Greer Lankton and Susan Stryker.
February 8, 2025 at 5:59 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
I made these in case anyone was looking for some new office art.

#academicsky
#donotcomplyinadvance
A black and white image of a human vertebral column with red text stating "your cowardice will not save you" on top with the first "d","e", and "i" letters filled in black. A black and white image of a human vertebral column with grey text stating "your cowardice will not save you" on top with the first "d","e", and "i" letters filled in black. A black and white image of a human vertebral column with white text stating "your cowardice will not save you" on top with the first "d","e", and "i" letters filled in black.
February 3, 2025 at 5:31 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
This travel page of the state department website now says “LGB” instead of “LGBT”

I have long said we need to better attend to the specific political needs and realities of trans people. Make no mistake, this is meant to drive a wedge between us and weaken our coalition.

Text from my TSQ 9.4 piece
Excerpt from “Trans (In)Visibility in Art” in TSQ 9.4 Screenshot of the current travel.gov webpage on “LGB” travelers.
February 1, 2025 at 2:40 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
Despite all of the terribleness, I am thankful to be teaching a class on creative technologies during climate crisis right now. Today we are covering the ecological and aesthetic potentials of dithering.

#creativetech #climatechange #dithering #sustainablewebdev
A set of four dithered images of the Latin Quarter in Galway Ireland. The top left is full color, the top right is black and white, the bottom left is green purple and blue, and the bottom right is dark and light purple if red, yellow, and blue accents.
January 30, 2025 at 4:06 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
My body is a playground (after Barbara Kruger), 2025
A black and white image of a woman, the image is split vertically and the right side is inverted. Red blocks with white text over the image read “my body is a playground” in the style of Barbara Kruger.
January 25, 2025 at 10:33 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
Here is the second diagram pulled out for easier viewing.
A Venn diagram showing all the aspects of being an artist with a circle covering all aspects labeled climate change.
January 11, 2025 at 4:54 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
This semester, I am teaching a graduate class called “Creative Technologies during Climate Crisis”. This week’s events obviously highlight the need for #climateaction in all areas of our lives and work.

This is a slide from a low carbon computing presentation I gave in December at #loco2024 .
Two venn diagrams showing the labor of being an artist. They are identical except that the ine one on the right contains a large green circle covering all the other circles indicating that climate change affects all aspects of being an artist.
January 11, 2025 at 4:51 PM
cthompto.bsky.social
Finally updated my website: chelsea.technology with my work from the late summer and fall. The front page piece “Self Portrait (as fog)” also just came home from a show at / (Slash) Art Gallery in SF.

(This is also my first post on Bluesky, if you have suggestions on who I should follow hit me up!)
Two bronze sculptures on a white background. Sculptures are in the shape of fog and have a dull luster.
January 9, 2025 at 2:36 AM