Meet Erika Tsuchiya, Innovative Media Studios Coordinator

Welcome Erika Tsuchiya, our new Innovative Media Studios Coordinator.  Erika brings a wealth of experience and expertise to her role.  Learn more about Erika by reading her bio below, and check out the YouTube link to view some of her work (Gorillaz – Feel Good Inc., Live at the MTV EMAs).

Erika is a media producer and artist, with an extensive background in media arts in the context of higher education. At Rowan University in New Jersey, she developed and taught courses in film and TV production, new media, post-production, motion graphics, and immersive media. While at Rown, Erika initiated several cross-departmental art and technology projects with Academic Technology, Rowan Art Gallery, and the Digital Scholarship Center in the Campbell Library. Erika’s projects included a grant-awarded interactive projection mapping project in collaboration with Urban Geography, with the aim of highlighting the gender gap in public art across campus. Her Immersive Media Production course also received a grant award, and students produced an original show for the Edelman Planetarium in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, which won first place in the Emerging Technology category at the 2020 National Broadcast Education Association Awards, as well as being official selection at several international full-dome film festivals.

Erika also held an academic support role as Digital Media Lab Manager at St. Joseph’s University (Pennsylvania), and as Digital Media Manager for Musion, a high-end holographic projection company located in London, UK.  While at Musion, Erika managed artist projects and provided technical support for corporate, educational and entertainment industry clients such as the BBC, Samsung, Sony, and Saatchi. 

As a producer and artist, Erika has led community media-based projects including mentoring a formerly incarcerated film maker on a short documentary piece for MING Media focusing on the rise of gun violence in Philadelphia during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also served as Lead Teaching Artist for Eastern State Penitentiary’s Hidden Lives Illuminated, which was a Pew Center for Arts and Heritage supported large-scale public projection event showcasing 20 short animation films made by incarcerated men and women. Erika designed and taught weekly three hour workshops in basic art techniques, script-writing, storyboarding, voice-over recording, and animation at SCI Chester for men and Riverside Correctional for women. Most recently, Erika led the P.O. Box 34 project in partnership with Annenberg School for Communication at University of Pennsylvania, hiring undergraduate students to mentor incarcerated writers during the severe pandemic lockdowns and throughout the Black Lives Matter protests. 

Her musical collaborations include Aux 88 on Puzzlebox Records in Detroit, MI, and currently as part of ALKA on VeryRecords, USA. You can view more of Erika’s projects on her website.

Erika has a BA in Social Anthropology from SOAS, University of London, and an MA in Photography from London Metropolitan University.