About

Samara Smith makes participatory documentary work that asks how stories can be told differently — not as fixed narratives, but as shared, situated experiences. Working at the intersection of social practice, public space, and emerging technology, she creates projects that bring audiences into the work as participants, dissolving the boundary between storyteller, subject, and audience. Her work unfolds in parks, plazas, and city streets, engaging public space as a site of encounter, memory, and negotiation.

Her current project, Virtual Aquapolis, is an immersive VR documentary that explores 500 years of ecological transformation in New York Harbor by inviting audiences to inhabit the perspective of water. Developed with support from two National Endowment for the Humanities Digital Projects for the Public grants, the project draws on interdisciplinary research and collaborations with cultural, scientific, and community partners to examine the harbor as a dynamic system shaped by human values and histories.

Her broader body of work spans site-responsive public interventions and participatory installations, incorporating a range of media and tools. Earlier projects include Central Park: Democratic Playground, a GPS-triggered soundwalk narrated by former Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe.

Her work, supported through commissions, grants, and artist residencies, has been experienced at the Hammer Museum, New York Transit Museum, Queens Museum, Elsewhere Museum, Open Source Gallery, and at festivals including Open Engagement, Conflux, and International Under the Subway Video Art Night.

Before shifting toward emerging media practices, she worked for over a decade in documentary film and television, including New York: A Documentary Film by Ric Burns.

She teaches at SUNY Old Westbury, where her courses emphasize collaborative, applied media practices and media’s role in shaping society. She co-founded the Media Innovation Center and received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Service in 2022.