Presenters 2024


Ahnjili

"Fashion Police Drones"

Ahnjili is a machine learning engineer, Ph.D. candidate, artist, and science communicator currently working at an AI startup that specializes in developing deep learning models for facial augmentation. Ahnjili’s academic research centers around the development of biomarkers for monitoring mental and physical well-being using smartphones and wearables, with a particular focus on their application in clinical trials. Ahnjili's artistic research and science communication efforts are dedicated to raising awareness about A.I. and algorithmic violence, which encompasses the violence that may arise from or be justified by automated decision-making systems. Through her work, Ahnjili aims to educate the public and promote discussions about the ethical implications of these technologies in our society.

Eric Zeigler and Aaron Ellison

"DoubleTake"

Eric Zeigler is Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Toledo. His research and artistic practice interrogate the underpinnings of the history of the photographic process by purposefully exploiting problematic contemporary Western cultural categorizations and presumptions that are placed on photographic and lens-based imagery.

Aaron Ellison is a Boston-based photographer, sculptor, writer, and Senior Research Fellow Emeritus in Ecology at Harvard University. His research and artistic practice focus on the disintegration and reassembly of ecosystems following natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Working together, Eric + Aaron explores unknown worlds beyond our current understanding. Their joint work currently centers on non-anthropocentric/post humanist aesthetics and creative photo documentation of forests and deep time.

Donna R. Charging

"The Pretendian Will Weaponize NDNs Existence Against Them: Current Native American New Media Art Resisting the Master’s Tools"

Donna R. Charging is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara). Her mother is Eastern Shoshone. Donna grew up on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. In 2023, she was the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and selected to attend the artist residency program at Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild in upstate New York. She was a Sarah Stanley Gordon Edwards and Archibald Cason Edwards fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in 2022. Donna has a BFA in Studio Arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago and will complete her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Louisville in 2024.

Mingyong Cheng

"Exploring 'AI Memory' Through the Lens of Chinese Landscape and Artificial Intelligence Art"

Mingyong Cheng, originally from Beijing, China, is now a California-based new media artist, deeply entrenched in AI and generative art. Currently a Ph.D. student in Art Practice at the University of California, San Diego, she integrates visual arts with a keen specialization in Interdisciplinary Environmental Research, collaborating closely with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Mingyong's recent foray since 2021 into the realm of generative AI, for her, AI isn't merely an instrument but a partner in creativity, reshaping historical perspectives and envisioning the future. Equipped with an MFA from Duke University, Mingyong has adeptly navigated from documentary filmmaking to an expansive array of experimental arts, capturing the essence of our shared experiences through innovative mediums. Mingyong's work and research has been showcased internationally such as Siggraph Asia Art Gallery, NeurIPS Creative AI Track, The International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) and various global venues.

Xuexi Dang

"'AI Memory' Through the Lens of Chinese Landscape and Artificial Intelligence Art"

Xuexi Dang, originally from Beijing, China, is an emerging scholar in the field of Art History, currently a Ph.D. student in Art History, Criticism, and Theory at the University of California, San Diego. Xuexi received an MA in East Asian Studies from University of Pennsylvania in 2020. Her current research predominantly focuses on the dynamics of visual culture in modern China, with a keen interest in the narrative power of images through mediums such as cartoons and sketches, as well as the intricate ways these visual forms engage with audiences, particularly through their public exhibition. Her research also extends into contemporary science and art interactions, including the examination of the evolution and adaptation of ‘traditional forms’ within the contemporary art scene. Xuexi’s research projects have been featured in international conferences such as the Siggraph Asia Art Gallery and NeurIPS Creative AI Track.

Love Death Design

"'Gone to Water': Immersive Activism, Environmental Justice and the New Media Landscape"

Love Death Design is a creative studio urgently promoting art as a pathway to social change, co-founded by artists Catherine Ross and Marin Vesely. In 2021, the studio was awarded The Unity for Humanity Environment and Sustainability grant to create their premiere project, “Gone to Water”, a virtual reality documentary which will screen at Red Dirt Film Festival in 2024, CICA New Media Festival and others (TBA). The transdisciplinary team includes: Marin Vesely, a current Fulbright art & research scholar in Brazil; Catherine Ross, the current Art + Science Fellow with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and Nick Wilson, a climate scientist who recently published research in the journal “Geophysical Research Letters.”

Laila Abd Elrazaq

"Navigating Narratives Identity, Language, and the Digital Canvas in New Media Art (possibly a temporary title)"

Laila Abd Elrazaq (born in 1999) is a Visual Artist, graduated and completed her bachelor’s degree in fine arts with honours (2021), and her Master’s degree (MFA) at the University of Haifa (2023). Currently she’s enrolled in a Fine Arts Teaching Certificate program at Beit Berl College.
Her body of work focuses on Video-Art, Performance-Art, Sound-Art, and sometimes Digital-Art. The works are often centered around themes such as self-research, gender identity, and confronting traditional ideologies within the Arab community through video essays.
She has showcased her artworks in several exhibitions both nationally and internationally (Haifa, Jerusalem, Umm El-Fahem, Cyprus, New York and London). She participated and featured in an instructional video for Field Hospital X (by Aya Ben Ron) that was launched in the Venice Biennale and was presented in MUZA. She’s also a recipient of multiple scholarships and awards like the AICF Scholarship, Scholarship for excellence in final BA project named after the late Prof. Uri Katzenstien, and Young Artist prize named after the late Walid Abu Shakra.
Laila fosters a collaborative spirit and got to work on a couple of projects with her video and sound works along with other artists, she plans on continuing to do more collaborations in the future.

Liliana Gonzalez-Jarquin

During the pandemic, Liliana has been dedicated to her project, Micro-Nude, which has provided her with various avenues to understand those around her. This endeavor has allowed her to explore cyber feminism, photography, and social media in her own unique way. Currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in art history at Université du Québec à Montréal, Liliana values individuals who share insights into art and societal equity. As a repeat member of the jury at La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, a feminist art gallery in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, she sees this involvement as a means of staying informed about community interests. Liliana is committed to advancing her community through ongoing learning, sharing, and support, using the mediums of art and photography.

Belinda Haikes

"The Unbodied Landscape"

The Unbodied Landscape series comprises 16 photographs and eight graphite stencil drawings. It examines the relationship between the history of nuclear development in America and its enduring impact on both the landscape and the communities.
Captured using irradiated film during a recent expedition to the Trinity test site, these photographs document and map the journey along the I-70 and I-25 en route to the Trinity site at White Sands, New Mexico. The graphite drawings serve as poignant markers, illustrating the staggering number of individuals affected by the testing, the sheer quantity of tests conducted, and the significant damage the atomic age has created. The irradiated film uses chance and media disruption to create photographs with unexpected consequences. The media acts as a metaphor for engaging strategies common in New Media.

Sang Woo Samuel Kim

"Of the People, by the People, for the People: Sanja Iveković’s On the Barricades and the Return of the Figurative in Memorial Art"

Sang Woo Samuel Kim has been working in the localization and content production industries since 2016, gaining extensive field experience across multinational corporations and start-ups. Before embarking on a business career, he earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Michigan and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University in art history. His previous research examined artistic localization in sixteenth-century Spain. He also taught courses in Italian Renaissance art history.

Narae Kim

"Virtually Perfect"

Narae Kim is a multi award winning visual artist renowned for her work in both physical and virtual spaces. Narae has participated in numerous theater, film, and immersive experience projects internationally. Her original art, animation and projection mapping work has been shown at major events such as Cannes Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival, and Prague Quadrennial. She is currently Chief Creative Officer at Flowly, a mobile health platform utilizing a groundbreaking series of VR experiences designed to alleviate anxiety and pain. She formerly worked on multiple productions on Broadway and Off-Broadway. She is from Seoul and currently resides in Los Angeles where she earned her MFA degree from California Institute of the Arts.

Kiki Kouniari

"The artist's Odyssey"

Kiki Kouniari is an interdisciplinary artist working with video, sound and text. Her use of medium is akin to shifts: video transforms to anti-narrative, performance to video, sound to noise, text to language, language to miscommunication. Prevalent themes in her works are power, commodification, spectacle and lack of meaning, as well as how these translate to alienation and nihilism. Kiki Kouniari studied Graphic Design at Staffordshire University, UK, and Fine Arts at Athens School of fine Arts, Greece. She holds a Masters Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Leeds, UK. In 2023 she participated at the Venice Arsenale in Italy, and had her first solo exhibition at PE Gallery, in Taipei, Taiwan. She shown her work in group exhibitions in UK and Greece, at CICA Museum, Gimpo-si, Korea and at the Guardian Art Center, Beijing, China. In 2023 she was included at the April/May issue of Aesthetica Magazine’s Artists Directory (issue 112).

Dae Song Lee

"How forms Evolve?"

Dae Song Lee, a Royal British registered architect and an artist, currently serves as an associate professor at Yonsei University. Declaring himself a New Materialist, he has founded the Design System Lab, a cutting-edge research initiative focused on the experimental exploration of material systems and computational beings. Through his work at the lab, Lee is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of architectural and design theory, blending traditional materials with advanced computational processes to explore new possibilities in design and architecture.

Lee Oliver

"Gigapixel Imagery with AI and Fractals"

Lee Oliver employs a diverse range of mediums in their artistry, often merging tactile elements with digital innovations. While many artists choose to work within specific boundaries, Lee demonstrates a fluidity, seamlessly moving from using clay sourced from familial lands to harnessing the complexities of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Each creation carries a story; a narrative infused with themes of identity, personal history, and a deep connection to the land. Moreover, the integration of both organic and technologically advanced mediums serves as a testament to Lee's dedication to continuous exploration and evolution within the art world.

Lihong Liu

"A Journey Around My Room in COVID-19 – A Discussion of the Relationship Between Everyday Objects and the Idea of Home"

Dr Lihong Liu is an artist and researcher based in London. She was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of the Arts London in 2023, her research focuses on the ideas of déjà vu, the unheimlich, the experience of displacement, the issue of absence and presence, the idea of home, as well as the meaning of everyday objects. Her work spans various mediums, including drawings,
paintings, sculptures, and immersive installations. She has exhibited widely in the UK and China. In 2021, as an invited artist to give a lecture to postgraduate students at Camberwell College of Arts,  UAL. In 2022, she also co-curated her first joint exhibition "Secret Heim" in the UK. Meanwhile, as a researcher, Lihong presented her papers at The Cultural Literacy Everywhere Symposium on Dwelling, hosted online by University College Dublin, and Colouring In: The Past, a one-day symposium, hosted by the University of the Arts London in 2022. Also as an invited artist and researcher, she presented her paper at the 4th Barcelona Conference on Arts, Media & Culture, hosted in Barcelona, Spain in 2023.

HyungJun Park

"I am an Artefact: The body as a conceivable space."

HyungJun Park lives and works in Berlin and explores interdisciplinary artwork through collaboration with various research institutes. In 2012, he collaborated with the Institut für Diagnostische und Interventionelle Radiologie in Düsseldorf, Germany, and in 2013, he resided and worked at the Institute of Machinery Research in Korea. In 2015, he was selected for the scholarship residency called Arts-Science-Economy in Schöpingen, Germany. His work was exhibited and collected by Peter Weibel at the Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany (ZKM). He is a person who likes to be open, and his works are based on art and science. His interests include visual cognition, computer technology, the philosophical self, and the artistic body. He graduated from the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Art in Linz, Austria.

Deniz SAK

"FLUX: On The Road"

Deniz Sak is a Multidisciplinary Artist, Designer and Storyteller from Istanbul. Following her master’s degree in interior design from NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Milano, she moved to United States for her art studis in year 2016. She took part in several exhibtions as an artist and a designer, incluking MAXXI Rome, Triennale di Milano, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milano Design Week, Ionion Aquarium and Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture, both solo and in groups. She had been purposing her artistic practices over 10 years, in various mediums; including Video Art, Short Film, Photography, Mixed Media, Painting and Illustration, studying mainly two concepts: Attachment & Detachment and Change & Balance.

Dominika Sobolewska

"Empathic Design or technological concern for better tomorrow" 

Dominika Sobolewska: curator, interdisciplinary artist, designer, researcher. For more than 15 years she has been associated with the Wroclaw Academy of Art & Design (PL), where at the Faculty of Interior Architecture and Design she has been leading the Mindful Design Studio for Interactive Spaces and Objects. There she conducts teaching activities and interdisciplinary research aimed at new media culture, especially the role of art and design in the construction of the so-called techno-empathy. Her recent works are oriented towards provoking social and environmental care. Through the exploration of various types of media, and especially through participatory processes, the author encourages social reflection and the condition of todays’ reality.
For several years, she has also been curating the exhibition project “Empathic Design or Technological Concern for a Better Tomorrow”.

Mindful Design Studio for Interactive Spaces and Objects in the Academy of Art & Design in Wroclaw (PL) is an interdisciplinary platform that brings together various types of professionals, designers and researchers with the involvement of students. The composition of the team led by Dominika Sobolewska has changed over the years, and currently the studio includes the following members: Aleksandra Sitek , Michal Majewski, Mateusz Rukowicz

YoonMi Seo

[[ HELLO SELFIE VENUS!🤳나랑 셀카할래?]]

The Project《 SELFIE VENUS: 🌈DATA Flower》by YOONMI SEO(서윤미) is an Audio-visual New Media Installation art composed of Smart PHONEs, WiFi, SELFIE Mannequin, SELFIE Sticks, speaker, Led Lights, digital prints and mornitor.
Under the circumstances of daily TECH CULTURE having been Creating &Sharing your own DATA as 1-person media producer, YOONMI SEO presents the highly artificial 《SELFIE VENUS: 🤳🌈DATA Flower》with Smart PHONEs and SELFIE Sticks along with the natural Sea Bubble 🫧 Sound Effects including Phone Selfie APP Sounds to show such film-like Contemporary Phenomenon of one's own esthetical Beauty identity of subjective (rather private) standards using SELFIE App. The Real-Time Slogan 《U R MY DATA의 꽃 !》might serenely knock on the viewers' heart, somewhere beyond the mechanicality.......
" I WILL MAKE YOU PERFECT&GORGEOUS! " Shall we take SELFIES?🤳💜

 

Sam C. Shin

"The Sublime & the Profane: Buddhism & New Media Art"

Sam C. Shin is an audiovisual composer and creative coder whose work utilizes music and technology to explore the ways that technology impacts music creation and consumption. Beyond technology, his work draws from his background in East Asian Studies, which provides a unique lens to scrutinize issues of modernization and Westernization in Korea. His work has been presented at festivals and conferences such as the Kyiv Music Fest, SEAMUS National Conference, and the Musinfo Association Art & Science Days. Sam is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Digital Composition at the University of California, Riverside where he studies with Ian Dicke, Dana Kaufman, and Paulo Chagas. When not writing music, Sam can be found exploring southern California with his wife and taking pictures of his cat.

Parisa Shabani

“What happens to a dream deferred?”

Parisa Shabani is always fascinated by the human person and her story. She captures the traces of suppressed feelings and stories and expresses them in an abstract way. She is a New York-based multidisciplinary artist originally from Tehran.She earned her MA in Linguistics and has studied painting and sculpture at The Art Students League of New York. She has held several solo shows and group exhibitions in various galleries and museums in different cities including New York, Tehran, London, Florence, Tokyo and Prague. She has exhibited her work in Tokyo International Art Fair and London Art Biennale in 2021 and 2023. “To where farthest possible to run” displayed at the Iranian Artists’ Forum in Tehran, and “We are what we remember”, displayed at CICA Museum, South Korea, were her solo exhibitions in 2022.Her work has been auctioned at Yellowstone Art Museum in 2022 and the Gala New York among other venues. Her latest Solo Show “Days of The Red Skies” was exhibited at BWAC Gallery in Brooklyn, New York in 2023.

Schwarzsonne 黯耀

"Neo-Devonian: Archæology for the Future Generation"

My life is lingering and torn between illusions and truth, dreams and reality, brightness and darkness, greatness and humbleness, beauty and ugliness. In the name of art and poetry, I try to distort and transform all the encounterings granted onto the Wheel of Fortune: be it happy or sad, virtue or fault; I endeavour to extract and purify the quintessence of my experiences by the alchemy of images, mixing with hopes, prophecies, rhapsodies, lies and Wahrheit -- even discovering and finding the inner light and holy cores in the darkest, the lowest and the most spleen objects, breathing means of existence into them, then fighting against hunger, poverty, coldness, death and all the enemies of wonders in our life. In recent years, since the union of my soulmate, my wife and creative partner, Coral, “Amour (Love)” has been the most important keyword of my creation. Through love, I have infused my art concept and passion of my life into an integrated, inseparable unity of lifetime’s artwork. I regard that love and art are actually the same, identical vital factors in my artistic creation.

Haoyu Wang

"Deconstructing the Recycled Futures: An AI-Driven Approach to Interrogate Popular Architectural Imagination"

Haoyu Wang is an architect and artistic researcher based in Helsinki, Finland. He grew up in Zhengzhou, China, trained in architecture at the University of Miami and MIT, and worked in design professions across the US and Japan before joining Aalto University in Finland for his doctoral research on the capitalist narratives of popular architectural imagination. As an artistic component of his research, his emerging art practice Architectural Fiction combines 3D visualization, digital photography, Web-XR development, and personalized training of AI image generation models to develop alternative storytelling methods on contemporary questions of architecture and urbanism. His pioneering projects in 2023 include 'The Canceled Futures of Plovdiv' funded by the Municipality of Plovdiv in Bulgaria and 'Wake Up From 2020' supported by the Swedish Arts Council and Moskosel Creative Lab. In addition, Haoyu's earlier photography works and digital illustrations have been awarded exhibitions across the US, UK, Italy, South Korea, and online.

Xloi

"Subconscious Legacies: AI Surrealism, 100 years after Breton. "

Xloi (Chloe Karnezi) she/they, b.1996 is a Greek-British writer, researcher, and computational artist. She holds a Master’s degree in Computational Arts from Goldsmiths, University of London, prior to which she received her BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from The University of Exeter. She is a member of TRANSMODERNA, a hybrid collective merging electronic music with digital arts, co-founded by Steffen Berkhahn (aka Dixon), music producer and DJ, and Ana Ofak, creative director and writer/researcher. By infiltrating both museum and club environments, their work bridges the gap between two cultures often perceived as antithetical.