Mary Burge is an artist and MFA graduate of the Digital + Media program at the Rhode Island School of Design. Born in Mississippi, she grew up in a place where eccentricity and fundamentalism were appreciated in equal measure. In 2003 she received her B.A. in studio art from the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in photography and video, with minors in Spanish and Technology, Literacy and Culture. After graduating, she lived in Europe and New York City, working a multitude of jobs in the photo industry. Her first love was reportage photography, but now her practice has expanded to include performance, video, sound, installation, and digital media. Thematically her work explores the conflict between modern and postmodern storytelling, and analog and digital technology. For several years she has pursued an oral history project, recording on various media the stories of her older relatives in rural Mississippi. This is part of a greater lifelong goal to preserve and understand culture loss in non-mainstream American communities.