Torsten Zenas Burns is a visual artist and media arts educator living in Helsinki, Finland. Burns received a BFA in video from the New York State College of Art & Design at Alfred University, and an MFA in New Genres: video & performance art from the San Francisco Art Institute.
Burns has created video, photographs, sculptural installations, and electronic publishing projects exploring re-imagined educational practices, speculative bodies, experimental space programs, post-humans improvisations, zombie / afterlife relationships, humanimal stories, appropriated 1970's childrens television, cryptid mythologies, family media archives, and ecological fictions. long-term projects include collaborations with Monika Czyzyk, Darrin Martin, and Anthony Discenza (Halflifers).
Burns' selected video & net-art works is distributed by Vtape, Video Data Bank, and Electronic Arts Intermix.
Burns has participated in several residency programs including Headlands Center for the Arts, The Experimental Television Center, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, L.M.C.C. World Views Studio Program, Smackmellon Studio Program, Eyebeam, Harvestworks, The Outpost, Signal culture, and f.eks AIR. Burns has had video work screened at the Museum of Modern Art's Video Viewpoints and Premieres series, The Whitney Museum of American art, The Pacific Film Archive, SF Camera Works, Dumbo Arts Center, Video_Dumbo, Aurora Picture Show, Migrating Forms, Krowswork Gallery, The Chicago Underground Film Festival, The European Media Arts Festival, Impakt festival, The Melbourne International Film festival, Yanhuang Art Museum, The Oberhausen Short Film Festival, The Busan International Video festival, MUU Gallery, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, The Tack Room Project Space, and The Stuttgarter Filmwinter: Festival for Expanded Media. In 2023 Burns was awarded a visual arts grant from Taike / Arts Promotion Centre Finland.
Burns is a board member for Vartiosaari Artists ry co-running the artist house studios and residency program on Vartiosaari island, Helsinki, Finland.