Thorington began composing in 1974; her first works were aired on National Public Radio on such programs as Options, Voices in the Wind, and All Things Considered.

Thorington began creating Internet art in the mid-1990s, co-producing several multimedia, hypertext narratives and networked performances that culminated in an installation of the seminal work, Adrift,[2] at The New Museum in 2001.

She compiled the index for Growth and Culture: A Photographic Study of Balinese Childhood by Margaret Mead, and worked as a copy editor at G. P. Putnam's Sons.

The Longest Story: A Work in Progress for Adding Machine Tape (1975) was published in Sixth Assembling/A Collection of Otherwise Unpublishable Manuscripts, compiled by Henry Korn, Richard Kostelanetz and Mike Metz.

[11] Thorington co-authored with Jacki Apple the limited edition artist's book, The Tower in 2015; published in Contemporary Music Review;[12][13] and was commissioned by Tate Modern, London (2008) to write Radio, Art, Life: New Contexts.

[14] Her essays have been published in several books, including First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game[15][16] and Unsitely Aesthetics - Uncertain Practices In Contemporary Art.

Having no musical experience, she learned how to use an EML 101 Synthesizer and began creating her own compositions, including Trying to Think (1974) which influenced such artists as Laurie Anderson and Jacki Apple.

[28][29] Thorington created the score for Jones' Echo (1979);[30] Sisyphus (1980);[31] and Open Places, a "group work" at the Battery Park Landfill, New York City.

Thorington performed her compositions live at numerous venues in New York City, including Dance Theatre Workshop, Experimental Intermedia Foundation (EIF), and Roulette.

In July 1981, Thorington founded New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.[42] and, with Associate Director Regine Beyer, began soliciting funds from government and private foundations.

The commissioned works were collectively broadcast as New American Radio[43] (1987–1998), which went on to commission more than 300 works by national and international artists, including Terry Allen, Jacki Apple, Regine Beyer, Roberto Paci Dalò, Diamanda Galás, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Shelley Hirsch, Negativland, Pauline Oliveros, Suzan-Lori Parks, Jon Rose and Gregory Whitehead.

Net Art: Thorington created several works for the Internet, among them Solitaire (with Marianne R. Petit and John Neilson), an interactive narrative experiment that invited users to co-author the piece; North Country, Parts 1 and 2,[49] a hypertext, nonlinear narrative that can be experienced with or without audio accompaniment; and the multi-location, networked performance, Adrift, a cinematic journey across a harbor that included real-time webcam footage, text, 3D graphics, and soundscape.

With collaborators Jesse Gilbert and Marek Walczak, Adrift was presented at Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria (1997); the tenth anniversary celebration of Kunstradio, Vienna; and the New Museum of Contemporary Art,[50] New York City in 2002, as well as multiple times online.