Ryan Griffis is an artist currently teaching new media art at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He often works under the name of the Temporary Travel Office, which attempts to investigate the potential of tourism as a critical activity. Towards these ends, he produces guided and self-guided tours, as well as research documents and proposals for rethinking monuments, parks and other contested spaces. He has written reviews and conducted interviews for publications such as (the late) New Art Examiner, ArtUS, Rhizome.org, Furtherfield, Soundtoys, and curated shows for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Illinois's I-Space Gallery, and Turbulence.org. Ryan was born and raised in Florida.