John Sturgeon is a digital media artist-poet, practicing in video, photography, installation and performance as well as acoustic and interactive forms. Since 1970, Sturgeon has consistently utilized emerging forms of electronic media to articulate a quest for spiritual and social awareness. His work inherently questions the role of electronic media in the process of self-creation/discovery as well as community formation, while creating a unique space for the contemplation of these issues. His installations, performances and collaborations often feature socio-political and/or environmental content.

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For more than five decades, Sturgeon has exhibited, screened and lectured about his work both nationally and internationally: including the Whitney Biennial, solo commissions at The Museum of Modern Art, NY and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, with a retrospective at ICA-Boston, among others. Notably his videos have been featured on PBS’s New Television Series, as well as cablecast nationally. His work is well represented in the collections of major museums worldwide.

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Sturgeon has maintained a history of awards and fellowships including a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, several National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist Fellowships and Media Arts awards, as well as two Fulbright Scholar appointments, most recently as US-UK Fulbright Scholar 2012-13, University of the Arts London. Lately his work has been included in major, era-wide retrospectives: "California Video" J. Paul Getty Museum Los Angeles, “Under the Big Black Sun” Museum of Contemporary Art-Los Angeles and "Radical Software, Media Ecology and Video Art" at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany.

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As an educator, Professor Sturgeon was instrumental in designing and administrating innovative university programs for electronic & cinematic arts: including Carnegie Mellon University as Associate Head of the School of Art and co-founding the MFA program in Integrated Electronic Arts at Rensselaer. Lastly, he served as Professor of Cinematic Arts at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, including Department of Visual Arts chair. He is now Emeritus Professor of Cinematic Arts at the University of Maryland, B.C.