Madison Garay is a Master’s student in Art History at UNM, with an emphasis in Art of the Americas, and a research fellow at the Center for Southwest Research. Her research at UNM focuses on transient spaces (interstates, highways), placemaking through material culture, and formulation of regional identities on historic Route 66 through the American Southwest. Generally, she is concerned with the internet space as a new facet in the visualization of geographic identity in the United States, and how it can platform communal archival projects. Madison holds a B.A. in History of Art and Visual Culture from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is interested in expanding her Route 66 photographic research with interdisciplinary creative practices, such as poetry, zine-making, and video collage. 

Growing up among the green rolling hills of the San Francisco Bay Area (Fig. 1) largely influenced Garay's research interests: the nexus of technology and ecology, a tension traversing the historic overlap between [mechanical:synthetic] and [organic:natural] in the diverse geographies of the western United States. Her research investigates the shifting visual paradigms in seeing, confronting, and manipulating the American landscape in the 21st century. 

Outside of the university, Garay engages in casual internet anthropology and artistic practice, articulating deep digital memory through video collages and excavating web artifacts on Twitter, Tumblr, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Most importantly, she is a bonafide roadfan.