Rudolf Frieling studied Humanities at the Free University of Berlin and received a Ph.D. from the University of Hildesheim.
Since 2006, Frieling is Curator of Media Arts at the SFMOMA. Previously, he was curator of the International VideoFest Berlin (today transmediale) from 1988-1994; curator and researcher at the Center for Art and Media (ZKM), Germany from 1994-2006: the Head of the Video Collection of the ZKM until 2001, and until 2005, Head of the research and online portal Media Art Net at ZKM.
From 2004-2006, he headed the restoration and exhibition project 40yearsvideoart.de, funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, which published the book 40 years Videoart.de (with Boris Groys, Wulf Herzogenrath, and Dieter Daniels, 2006).