About

Hi,

My name is Mariette Papic. If you are wondering, the last name is actually Papić. That accent on the “c” helps you understand that my whole life has been a hybrid experience. Because of technology I think your life is hybrid, too.

I am an artist and strategist, working as a creative technologist to bring art into new spaces and into conversation with the challenges of our times.

I started my career on Park ave South at Deutsch Inc. and later was on Madison Ave, working on The New World Teen Study with Elissa Moses and Chip Walker. After experiencing 9/11, I eventually left world of marketing strategy, but continued in film and television production as well as an instructor leading technology courses.

I continued to grow in the New York City underground, managing a venue in lower Manhattan. I coordinated and hosted events with artists from Berlin, Hamburg, and Paris, as well as local artists. I served on the Board of Melanie Joseph’s, Foundry Theatre, and had my first solo exhibition at Grace Exhibition Space in Bushwick, Brooklyn as well as participating in group exhibitions at Ad Hoc and other galleries. My poetry was published by the Brooklyn Arts Council, and I headlined poetry nights at stages including The Bowery Poetry Club. Throughout these years I also taught technology courses, and traveled.

I re-emerged in non-profits, in safe motherhood with Family Care International, in supporting the work of advocates involved in global reproductive health initiatives in the Sahel, Brazil, and India, taking the role of webmaster. I continued this work with health initiatives, including with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.

I have served at the Director level in Communications in farmer-related educational programs, and for regenerative projects, producing essays, white papers, short films, social campaigns, and video content promoting healthy soils and carbon sequestration. I have bootstrapped green-sector and wellness entrepreneurs, leading to their growth and success in messaging.

Why Thunder and Stars?

When people gather together creatively there can be immense power and beauty. I have taken down my personal website more times than I want to remember. For some reason only representing myself has never felt exactly right. What does feel right is inviting you into this journey of collaboration.

Thunder is all about the sound of something familiar and awesome, the sound of our world. Stars are a reminder to look for the light inside, the same light found in the cosmos.

As this site grows to reflect the people I work with, and to highlight their work as well as our collaborations, I invite you to consider how you might like to work together.

circa 2012 – collage – thread – found objects, Brooklyn

Instagram
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The Knead – Substack

Bio

Babas Bench
Medium – Tech Essays

Anything Else?
My intersections.

If you would like to work together, or maybe you simply want to understand the art a bit better, then let me tell you my intersections. They’re better than my pronouns because those are stuck in the 90s.

My intersections are art and technology, food and technology, and yes, human consciousness and – you guessed it, technology.

More on these intersections?

I am obsessed with the transcendent and the changing face of what we treasure. I am passionate about the deep past and the speed of our future as it unfolds.

I believe that we all activate at the mediated intersections that we enjoy and this enjoyment is key to building resilience in culture.

Technology is as powerful as the tribal campfire, and it is as close as a best friend. Its proper use requires discussion and guardrails. Having traveled the world the last twenty years I have witnessed and made note of the changes, especially in image making and representation.

Technology is a fine servant and a terrible master.

With understanding we heal ourselves, our families, communities, and so on, not in spite of technology but because of our awareness of our internal power. This is the vision that can drive us towards unity, and it is at intersections where this begins.

At the meeting place between creativity and self-discipline that all the arts exist, whether that be scientific, agricultural or any other type of “art.”

Thunder and Stars is name that expresses this dedication to design systems that promote self-actualization and community engagement in a time of rapidly changing landscapes.

Community as a natural resource? Bio regionalism as marketplace? Traditional craft and DIY alongside innovation in materials and supply chains? Yes, to all of this. Hello, it’s nice to meet you.

clouds in sky — 2025. Nikon D 7500 DSLR. New Jersey.

Creative Technologist +

Mariette Papić is a writer, producer and creative technologist using photography, video and poetry to create immersive projects. Mariette studied at the International Center for Photography, New York Film Academy, with American photographer Mary Ellen Mark, and Irish writer Nuala O’Faolain. She is the author of various interviews, essays as well as poetry and art critiques centered at the intersection of technology, place and identity.

Mariette is a steward of the systems-design incubator, Design Science Studio, and the studio’s AI project, Gaia Research Lab (GRL). She was part of the award-winning team competing in the 2023 Games for Change XR Brain Jam receiving a laurel for Space Party Rescue, a prototype VR environment for the hearing-impaired.

Mariette’s creative non-fiction book with Tom Sharpe, From Behind the Chair, is currently available from Auguries and Alchemy. The first installment of her Jersey Girl photo essay is available from Eight Stone Press in Issue 7 of Beach Badge zine.