Ariana Martinez

Photo of Ariana Martinez
I am an artist and multimedia producer who values creativity, experimentation, and play. I work to create stories and build collaborative spaces that explore the widest range of possibilities.
Member since 2018

Location

  • Chicago, IL

Portfolio

Contact Ariana

  • Editing
  • Engineering
  • Producing
  • Scripting
  • Writing
  • Other
  • Teaching

About Ariana

I am a multimedia artist and radio maker interested in audio documentary, long-form narrative podcasts, and multimedia or cross-platform projects where audio and visual elements can live side by side.  I have produced radio feature stories for BBC 4's Short Cuts and BBC Radio 3's The Essay. I have sound-designed and engineered long-form narrative series for commercial clients, such as Immaterial (The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Magnificent Noise) and Say You're Sorry (Bucket of Eels and Audible Originals).I have worked with producers at Pineapple Street Studios on shows such as Netflix's Prism: Tales of Your City, The Clearing, Julie, and Headlong: Surviving Y2K. With a soft spot for terrestrial radio and community-run projects, I've also contributed to experimental broadcast radio programs like WFMU's Radio Row.  
 
In addition to my audio work, I regularly use my skills as a visual artist to assist those in the radio community. From illustration, graphics, and branding (see the Field Recordings podcast branding and the special edition cassette tape for Constellations: FEEL THE SKY) to video and animation (see SFMoMA's Raw Material: Six Degrees and Clean Water Wanted with Benny Becker for the Ohio Valley Resource), I am excited by the ways visual media can drive audiences toward audio work and enable additional forms of access. 
 
I am also a dedicated media educator and have taught for the City University of New York, The Salt Institute for Documentary Study at the Maine College of Art, UnionDocs, AIR's Soundpath, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and AS220 Industries. Teaching and mentoring are some of the most joyful and valuable work I do, and I'm always open to new opportunities to connect with students, career changers, and emerging radio makers. 
 
I approach all of my work with a desire for experimentation and artfulness, and from the belief that audiences can be challenged by what they hear in audio content and still remain deeply engaged. I place a high value on work and workplaces that amplify voices that are systematically excluded from this field, and am especially interested in how to make our workplaces and our creative outputs more physically and cognitively accessible. I am eager to work with and learn from others involved in initiatives that improve workplace conditions and foster creative community.

Ariana's Portfolio

Independently produced audio features
A selection of independently produced audio stories featuring original writing, editing, and sound design. Aired on BBC Radio 4's Short Cuts, BBC Radio 3's The essay, and other platforms.
Audio Client Work
Audio projects executed for clients such as Magnificent Noise, Pineapple Street Studios, Audible Originals, and others
Illustration & Motion Graphics for Audio Collaborators
Illustration, social media and branding assets, and animated video trailers to promote radio and podcast projects
Perfect Love for BBC Radio 3's The Essay: Between the Essays
What rests inside you, warm and singing? Guided by their grandfather's enduring love, artist Taehee Whang hopes to reconnect with him after his death. Taehee navigates time, distance, ancestry, and tradition to reach their grandfather's burial mound on their own terms in this feature by Ariana Martinez. A virtual journey from Brooklyn, New York to a burial site just outside of Seoul, South Korea reveals what's possible when we can still feel the love and strength given to us by someone long ago. This story was inspired by "Walking to My Grandfather's Mound," a video artwork and printed zine created by Taehee Whang. Produced with support from Falling Tree Productions.
Podcast Social Media / Animation: SF MoMA's Raw Material: Six Degrees with Sayre Quevedo
Podcast trailer for Raw Material: "Six Degrees", a narrative audio series produced by Sayre Quevedo for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Hand-painted elements animated in Procreate and Luma Fusion on the iPad Pro. Audio produced by Sayre Quevedo, music by Leo Grossman, audio mixed and mastered by Mauricio Escamilla. Portraits drawn by Mauricio Esquivel.
Immaterial from The Metropolitan Museum of Art & Magnificent Noise
Stories of the materials used in making art are often as thought-provoking and illuminating as the objects themselves. From The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Immaterial examines the materials of art and what they can reveal about history and humanity. Each episode looks at a single material: paper, clay, jade, shells, and others, exploring the qualities and meanings that are often overlooked.
Say You're Sorry
Say You’re Sorry is a timely, insightful podcast series about public apologies, exploring why they’re harder to give (and receive) than you might expect. By going deep on nine different apologies — for everything from YouTube drama to sexual harassment to Cold War experiments — the show offers a new way to think about what it means to say you’re sorry.

Experience

Skills

  • Mixing
  • Story Editing
  • Sound Design
  • Social Media
  • Scrubbing and Audio Editing
  • Scoring
  • Research
  • Producing
  • Mentoring
  • Audio Engineering

Equipment

  • Reaper
  • ProTools
  • Adobe Creative Suite
  • Zoom H5N

Previous Work

  • Sound Designer and Engineer at Magnificent Noise and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (July 2022)
  • Sound Designer and Engineer at Bucket of Eels and Audible Originals (August 2021)
  • Producer at Not Sorry Productions (February 2021)
  • Sound Designer and Engineer at Brain on Nature (November 2019)
  • Story Editor, Sound Designer, Engineer at Queer Public (June 2019)