Craig R. Ellenwood (artist name — SQUAAWKE) is a composer, multimedia artist, and creative technologist from the US. This November, he is joining the “SensoryScapes” programme at Studio 88.
Craig R. Ellenwood has a broad range of interests in Experimental music, immersive video, spatial sound, photography, projection, generative systems, and provenance-based human-AI collaboration.
Craig builds music-generations, multimodal and cryptographic provenance systems and does research on memory and human-AI collaboration as a Founder of Haawke Neural Technology. With more than three decades of experience, his artistic journey is closely connected to the development of experimental electronic music and alternative performance culture. In 1992, he founded the music element at Burning Man, establishing an early connection with a creative community that continues to influence his work. Since then, his practice has evolved across different environments and cultural contexts, from live performances and music events to journeys through Southeast Asia. His work explores the relationship between sound, image, place and memory, treating music not simply as an auditory experience but as a medium for creating visual narratives and shared experiences.
Craig’s current project extends this interdisciplinary approach through a combination of original music, artist-directed visual compositions and experimental audiovisual concepts. His songs, including Still in the Ground, Still Here, Die to Live and Kept the Watch, explore themes of memory, persistence, human experience and the relationship between personal stories and wider social realities. His visual language moves between documentary photography, digital compositions, surreal imagery and AI-assisted artwork, with technology serving as an additional creative tool rather than an end in itself. Recent experiences in Laos and Vietnam, including a DJ performance aboard a boat on the Mekong River and informal musical encounters in Hanoi, reflect his interest in bringing music into unexpected spaces and connecting with local environments.
Artist Statement
My current work joins my personal history to machine learning and generative systems. I write Python and JavaScript, build WebGL/Three.js environments, train and operate music-generation systems, and design pipelines that combine language, sound, image and cryptographic provenance. I am interested less in AI as automation than in what happens when a human artist uses it as an unstable collaborator – one that can extend memory, interpretation and composition without replacing judgment.
Across music, moving image and installation, I return to the same question: how can technology deepen attention rather than flatten experience?
The Answer Before the Question — an immersive performance
During his residency, Craig would like to work on a four-wall immersive audiovisual performance that brings ancient Buddhist contemplative wisdom into dialogue with contemporary artificial intelligence, exploring themes of consciousness, perception, time, change and the nature of knowledge. The work will combine four synchronized, edge-blended video projections mapped across three or four walls with original electronic music, environmental field recordings and spatially positioned spoken passages. The visual composition incorporates documentary imagery and textures of Chiang Mai, abstract moving images, text, rhythm and evolving digital imagery, creating an environment that surrounds the audience rather than presenting a conventional stage-based performance. Recorded reflections from participating Buddhist monks, presented in their own words and languages, are juxtaposed with AI-generated responses from Claude, creating an evolving exchange between two distinct forms of knowledge and experience.
Through live image systems, spatial sound design, projection mapping and experimental audiovisual composition, with his performance Craig hopes to construct a shared third space in which the relationships between spiritual tradition, machine intelligence, the artist and the audience become the central artistic material. The work would invite visitors to reflect on the encounters between different perspectives.
Studio 88 is accepting applications on an on-going basis. Check out our residency program and apply now.
