Ian Carstens is a writer, filmmaker and curator from the Mississippi River Valley. He uses documentary, experimental, and relational modes to create interiorly personal pieces as well as multidimensional collaborative projects. He explores the interplay of viewer and viewed, non-human aliveness, temporality, multiplicity, as well as critiques of the archive, lens-based media and cultural institutions.
His films have screened at festivals and on public television across the US. He is an Associate Editor of Ruckus Art Journal, and has published writing with Burnaway, Sugarcane, and various local publications. Carstens is the lead curator/filmmaker for Glass Breakfast, which serves as an alternative space for the appreciation and conversation of art.
Past clients include the Des Moines Film Society, J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program, Indiana University Libraries, the Collaborative Archive & Data Research Environment (CADRE), the Makerspace, BetweenTheLines Theatre, Luther College, and others. Carstens' work is funded in part by a 2022 Emerging Artist grant from the Bloomington Arts Commission and an Artist Catalyst grant from the Iowa Arts Council..
Carstens has worked in the American Midwest, South and West. He currently lives and works in central Iowa.
His films have screened at festivals and on public television across the US. He is an Associate Editor of Ruckus Art Journal, and has published writing with Burnaway, Sugarcane, and various local publications. Carstens is the lead curator/filmmaker for Glass Breakfast, which serves as an alternative space for the appreciation and conversation of art.
Past clients include the Des Moines Film Society, J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program, Indiana University Libraries, the Collaborative Archive & Data Research Environment (CADRE), the Makerspace, BetweenTheLines Theatre, Luther College, and others. Carstens' work is funded in part by a 2022 Emerging Artist grant from the Bloomington Arts Commission and an Artist Catalyst grant from the Iowa Arts Council..
Carstens has worked in the American Midwest, South and West. He currently lives and works in central Iowa.