Atkins lectures at University of Fine Arts Hamburg, in past at Goldsmiths College in London[1] and has been referred to as "one of the great artists of our time" by the Swiss curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist.

[1] Through a practice that involves layering apostrophic text[3] with high definition video, Ed Atkins makes work in which "The suck and the bloom of death and decay are channeled through technological tools at the height of contemporary image management".

[3] Atkins' video oeuvre is composed largely of stock footage[4] and CGI avatars that are animated using motion capture[5] and dramatic, commercial sound.

At the Serpentine Memory Marathon in 2012 he premiered DEPRESSION, a performance work that uses projection, digitally altered voice, and chroma key mask to simulate the cinematic techniques of his videos.

[11] In conjunction with the Serpentine Extinction Marathon of 2014, Atkins produced www.80072745, a domain that invites users to sign up for a one-sided decade long email correspondence.