Alexander attended Rowan University from 1988–1991 and received her Bachelor in Communications: Radio/television/Film. She was also actively involved in the Cinema Workshop club and Rowan Radio 89.7 WGLS-FM. She then attended the California Institute of the Arts from 1993–1996, and received her Master of Fine Arts in Film/Video and New Media.
She is Associate Professor at the Department of Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego. Amy Alexander is active across the digital arts, playing a leading role in shaping the domains of software art and live coding. She has also performed in non-art venues including nightclubs and street performances.
She then developed the plagiarist.org website, which was known for its humorous projects related to Internet culture.
Her more recent work has been in video installation and visual performance, most notably SVEN, Discotrope: The Secret Nightlife of Solar Cells with Annina Ruest and CyberSpaceLand. She has also written texts on historical and contemporary audiovisual performance, including a chapter in the See This Sound compendium.
Alexander developed a background in programming, music, and visual media at her alma maters. She taught at the California Institute of the Arts and the University of Southern California.
She also worked in television, animation, information technology and new media.
Her teaching focuses on contemporary expanded cinema, visual performance, abstract cinema history, and process-based digital media art
