Francisco J. Ricardo

Francisco José Ricardo, Ph.D (born January 27, 1962) is a media philosopher, author, musician, theorist, and filmmaker. Ricardo is co-founder of the Digital Video Research Archive at Boston University, and is also the founding editor of the book series, International Texts in Critical Media Aesthetics published by Bloomsbury. This series focuses primarily on electronic, or digital art, and will publish its ninth book in 2015. In 2013, Ricardo published The Engagement Aesthetic: Experiencing New Media Art through Critique, in which he discusses different methods of reflecting on, interacting with, and critiquing new media art.

Francisco J. Ricardo was born in 1962 in Havana, Cuba. When he was seven, the family moved to Madrid, Spain, and two years later, to New York City. His father, an architect and professor at the University of Havana, had studied under Josef Albers. His mother had been a gymnast, and in the U.S. founded a "health Bauhaus" based on alternative nutrition and numerous forms of exercise, yoga, and meditation, eventually formulating her own brand of natural supplements and establishing a line of retail stores, L.A Farmacia Natural and hosting a daily radio program in New York, now located in California and Nevada. Ricardo studied at Harvard University, receiving a C.A.S [HGSE], and an Ed.M. Ricardo transferred during his doctoral work at Harvard to receive the first Ph.D. in Humanities Computing conferred in the U.S. at the pioneering University Professors Program of Boston University, where he worked as Research Associate for several years, later teaching art theory at the Rhode Island School of Design.

After teaching at RISD for several years, writing and presenting on artists and new media art, including electronic or digital art (see selected articles), Ricardo decided that he could better show this art, which often employs moving images, through the medium of film. He left teaching and formed the documentary film production company, Conceptualist Films. Ricardo's vision is to create a new form of documentary on extraordinary artists and musicians - fewer "talking heads" and biographical material; instead, he wants to engage the viewer with unusual imagery while discussing ideas and philosophies in an experimental and accessible way.

The subject of his first documentary (not yet released) is on the creative art process of multifaceted artist James Franco. Franco, once a student of Ricardo's at RISD, has a wide body of his own experimental art and film work which Ricardo explores in the film, according to the website for F FOR FRANCO. The film contains hours of conversations between Ricardo and Franco, in various places such as the LA Theater and The Chateau Marmont, as well as footage given by Franco to Ricardo of work rarely, if ever, seen before. The film recently had its world premiere at the Hollywood Film Festival, and was reviewed by The Hollywood Reporter, stating it was a "must for Franco completists."

In 2014, Ricardo released an album of electronic music titled, Adding and Subtracting. His second album of electronic music,Groove Morphisms is more complex, and was released in December 2015.

In early 2016, Francisco released A Singular Within, a collection of nine meditative, ambient songs reminiscent of the work of Brian Eno. It's a marked departure from his previous two albums. The digital version of A Singular Within contains two bonus tracks not found on the physical CD.

• Cyberculture and New Media (Ed.)
• Literary Art in Digital Performance: Case Studies in New Media Art and Criticism (Ed.)

• Ricardo, Francisco J., ed. (22 December 2008). "Cyberculture and New Media.". Rodopi – via Amazon. 
• Ricardo, Francisco J., ed. (26 November 2009). "Literary Art in Digital Performance: Case Studies in New Media Art and Criticism". Bloomsbury Academic – via Amazon.