Get to know the students, researchers, artists, tutors and coordinators of this edition.
STUDENTS
BA student in Philosophy, University of Konstanz / Università Alma Mater Studiorum di Bologna, Italy
Oreste Leone Campagner (he/his) is an Italian actor. Science and humanities have always been two sides of the same coin, his passion for knowledge. He holds an MSc degree in Theoretical Chemistry from Ecole Normale Supérieure/UPMC Paris (FR), a Diploma in Acting from the ERT National Theatre School in Modena (IT) and he is an affectionate alumnus of the Ghislieri College in Pavia (IT). He is currently an exchange student at Universität Konstanz (DE), pursuing a BA in Philosophy at the University of Bologna (IT), where he is developing an interest in Aesthetics and Theoretical Philosophy. In particular, he has been increasingly curious about AI and its possible applications in the arts, namely theatre and performance. He is an avid reader, loves foreign languages, listening to and playing music, slow travels, woods, mountains, silence, and his cat, Gatto. He is on a constant quest for the next reincarnation. His favourite colour is Pantone 248C.
Masters of Fine Arts student, University of Western Australia, Perth
Jimi DePriest is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher with a background in Anthropology and socialist organizing. Their work involves conducting Marxist and Anti Imperialist analyses of military technologies by examining the historical trajectories and socioeconomic conditions that led to their development. Jimi's emerging artistic practice is informed by their research and employs tactical media methodologies to create DIY robotic forms and political films.
PhD student in Film and Digital Media, University of California, Santa Cruz
Marilia Kaisar is a video artist, scholar, and educator from Greece. She is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Film and Digital Media with a designated emphasis on Visual Culture. She holds an MA in Media Studies from Pratt Institute and a Diploma in Architectural Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is also a HASTAC Scholar for the academic years 2022-2024. Her experimental practice uses affect theory and a feminist perspective to explore intersections of media, technology, and desire, using the body as the nexus point. Bridging the boundaries between theory and practice, her work uses experience and creative practice to theorize how we intimately and sexually relate through technology. Her films have been exhibited in the Small File Media Festival, Bad Video Art Festival, and the Santa Cruz Museum of Art&History. Her work has also been published in MedieKultur: Journal of Media and Communication Research, Passage Journal, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Clog, and Mark Magazine.
Artist, currently enrolling in a PhD between Paris and Porto
In an approach inherited from conceptual art, Arthur Kuhn develops an artistic practice around the question of the knowledge : its construction, its relationship to the information that shapes it and that it conditions in return. Today he works in the field of digital art and noise art, while maintaining a writing practice. Envisaging his role as an artist as an epistemological posture - that is to say, as an opportunity to question the foundations and conditions of our knowledge - he approaches creation by setting up and crossing protocols, by hybridizing various methodologies and sources. This position, this permanent coming and going between assumed subjectivity in the choice of the used data, and claimed withdrawal behind a creative machine (whether a literal a computer program or a simple instruction for writing), is at the heart of his work.
ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts) 2023-24 Fellow
Andrea Liu is a visual art & performance critic (and artist) working between New York/Berlin/Paris, and currently a 2023-24 Fellow at ZHdK (Zurich Univerdity of the Arts). She received fellowship awards from Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Award Fellowship at Banff Centre, Center for Experimental Museology (V-A-C Foundation), Museum Fine Arts Houston. She gave talks/panels/lectures at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Productive Image Inteference: Sigmar Polke Festival), Centre for Postdigital Cultures (Coventry Univ, UK), Royal Central School of Drama & Speech (UK), Goldsmiths (Association for Art History), Yale University Whitney Humanities Center, CTM Festival (Transmediale Berlin), NYU Performance Studies (Affect Factory), Goethe-Univeristät (Sticky Films), Sorbonne VALE (Voix Anglophones Littérature et Esthétique), Univ. Paris 8-Saint Denis, Black Mountain College Museum, Canadian Society for Digital Humanities, Venice Center for Public & Digital Humanities, Geffen Museum (Los Angeles Contemporary Artist Books Conf.), Printed Matter (New York). She wrote for Afterimage, ArtMargins, e-flux (AUP), Social Text, New Museum Social Practice Glossary, Movement Research Journal, and has book chapter contributions to IN Works 931-14209 (Edition Fink, 2014), Deste 15th Anniversary 1999-2015 (Deste Foundation, 2017), An Anthology on Failure (Genderfail, 2018), The Ooze (Kunstverein München Companion Series, 2019), The Furies (Cassandra Press, 2018). She received her undergraduate education from Yale University and was curator of Counterhegemony: Art in a Social Context, a theoretical fellowship program for visual artists.
Associate Lecturer, UAL - University of the Arts London
Mariana Marangoni is a Brazilian interdisciplinary artist and researcher based in London. She critically explores media materiality and the aesthetics of decay through installations, web-based experiments, and visual poetry. Recent work focuses on the socio-ecological impact of Internet-related infrastructures and the possibilities of unconventional computing beyond the prevalent digital paradigms. She holds a MA in Interaction Design from the London College of Communication and is currently an Associate Lecturer for BA FA Computational Arts at Camberwell College of Arts and MA Interaction Design at LCC. Amongst others, she has performed and exhibited internationally at the Victoria and Albert Museum (UK), National Poetry Library (UK) and Gaîté Lyrique’s NØ LAB (FR).
PhD student, University of Colorado Boulder, United States
Darija Medić is an artist, educator and cultural worker, researching (de)coded relationality with personalized semi-autonomous technology. She develops work in the context of media poetics, distributed cognition, materiality of interaction and politics of interface design within the algorithmic culture of the attention economy. She graduated from the New Media Art department at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad in Serbia, Master Media Design and Communication master from the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Intermedia Art, Writing and Performance Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder in the USA where she creates collective participatory processes as an action based research method for broadening the ethical landscape of consent and ethics in user experience design to include more end user voices and perspectives. She is a member of the Association of Visual Artists of Vojvodina, visiting lecturer at the Faculty for Media and Communications in Belgrade and associate researcher with kuda.org.
PhD student in Digital Arts and Technology, i-DAT, University of Plymouth
George Simms is a researcher/hacker/designer/instigator/teacher developing how digital infrastructures can be done otherwise through trans*feminist approaches. They are currently a PhD candidate in Digital Arts and Technology at i-DAT University of Plymouth, holding a MA in Computational Arts from Goldsmiths and a BA in Fine Art Sculpture from Camberwell College of Art. His practice focuses on collectively redistributing the hierarchies of technologies and radically (from the root) re-imagining the abilities they can enable within us and our society. His current research is developing intelligent recommender systems (RS) through configure-able methods exploring how RS can be adaptable to different sets of values and needs. This work is being materialised through experimental digital tools, speculative research projects and workshops. George Simms is also a founding member of in-grid collective and Imaginary Practices Studio.
PhD student, Aalto University
Juan C. Duarte Regino is a Mexican artist-researcher and current Ph.D. candidate at Aalto University in Finland. His research revolves around the exploration of the symbiotic relationship between nature and technology through environmental sound. Duarte Regino creates unique artifacts that resonate with planetary energies and ancient cosmo-visions, shedding light on this intricate connection. In his innovative approach, he employs diversified technologies to develop methods for augmented listening. By doing so, Duarte Regino pushes the boundaries of artistic expression and enables a deeper understanding of our environment and its intricate interplay with technology. His artistic endeavors have gained recognition and have been showcased at prestigious events and venues such as the CTM Festival, Spiral Gallery, Pixelache Festival, Hai Art, IAMAS, RIXC, Media Art Histories, Ujazdowski CCA, ISEA, Goethe Institut Beijing, ETH Zurich, and Medialab Matadero. Through these presentations, Duarte Regino continues to captivate audiences and provoke thoughtful discussions about the intersection of art, nature, and technology.
PhD student, Tangible Music Lab, Linz
Marie Lynn Speckert [*Hanover, based in Berlin] is an interdisciplinary artist, focused on sculptures, bioart and sound. She works with synthetic and organic material, uses media installations and live performances to create atmospheric scenarios. She examines the human body in its structure and order, studies it as an organism, sculpture and space, which functions as a habitat. She creates biointerfaces to manipulate and hack organisms and to represent a speculative anatomy based on a system theories. She uses sound and installation as her medium and builds simulators for medicine and is involved in a research project in the Institute of Anatomy.
Currently PhD-student by Prof. Martin Kaltenbrunner (Tangible Music Lab, University of Arts Linz)/ Prof. Atau Tanaka (Goldsmiths University). She studied sculpture at HfBK Dresden and Burg Giebichenstein. Part as a medicine lab technical in human- and veterinary-medicine.
Parsons School of Design, New York
Ruby Thelot is a designer and researcher based in New York. He is the founder of the award-winning creative research and design studio 13101401 inc. His work focuses on the interactions between humans and artificial intelligence, the metaverse and the implications of being-on-line. He has given talks and shown works in Tallin, Berlin and Abuja, amongst other places. He is the author of “Stonemilker” (Nueoi Press, 2022). He holds a Masters in Design and Technology from the Parsons School of Design and a Bachelor in Business from McGill University.
PhD student, CEIS20 - Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Coimbra; Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Coimbra
Nuno Trocado is a composer, guitarist, and researcher. He's active in improvisors' groups, composes for diverse instrumental ensembles and electronics, and participates in interdisciplinary projects. He holds degrees in jazz guitar and composition and music theory (ESMAE, Porto, Portugal). He's currently a PhD student at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. Recent highlights include Cotovelo (2017) and its follow-up Umbral (2021), both music/theatre monologue crossovers; commissions by Coreto, Arte no Tempo, and Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos; a participation in the multimedia project Expurgar (2021), led by visual artist Dária Salgado; Naiad Splash (2022) for guitar, two saxophones, and multichannel electronics; Vestiges (2019) and Corrosion (2023), the recorded outputs of a trio with multi-reedist Tom Ward and bassist Sérgio Tavares.
PhD student, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour, Konstanz
Anja Wegner is a transdisciplinary researcher and marine science educator. She is currently working on her PhD in the Behavioural Evolution Research Group at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour. Her project is situated at the nexus of ecology, art, and architecture to explore ways to co-create with marine fish while engaging in a non-gestational kinship with the animals she studies. In addition to the behavioural observations and experiments with damselfish on architecture, the collaborations with different artists and art collectives help her contextualise the work, its process and findings in a larger framework reflecting on the current human and non-human animal relationships and the prospects for coexistence during the 6th mass extinction.
TUTORS
Department of Philosophy, University of Konstanz
Caterina Moruzzi is a Research Associate at the Department of Philosophy, University of Konstanz. Her interdisciplinary academic profile provides a link between philosophical dimensions of digital technologies and the creative field. In particular, she combines theoretical and conceptual analysis with experimental research and data analysis to investigate the impact that the growing use of AI for the generation and curation of content has on creatives and creative industries in general. She has been recently involved as Co-PI in acquiring an AHRC-DFG grant for the project “Embodied Agents in Contemporary Visual Art," in collaboration with Goldsmiths College, University of London, which will approach questions of embodiment, creativity, and aesthetic value in human-machine co-creation. Caterina obtained a Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Nottingham (2018) with a thesis on the ontology of musical works. Her interest for art and creativity comes from her background as a pianist. Alongside her studies in Philosophy, she graduated with a diploma in piano at the Conservatorio G.B. Martini, Bologna, Italy in 2014.
i2ADS / Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto
Miguel Carvalhais is an Associate Professor at the Design Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto. His research explores computational art, design and aesthetics, topics to which he dedicated two books: "Art and Computation" (2022) and “Artificial Aesthetics” (2016). His artistic practice spans computer music, sound art, and installations. He runs the Crónica label for experimental music and sound art.
co-chair, visual and studio arts, Sarah Lawrence College
Angela Ferraiolo is a systems artist working with open-endedness, self-organization, morphogenesis, and adaptive processes. She was recently in-residence at the Intelligent Engineering Lab, Soka University (Hachioji Tokyo). Professionally she has worked for RKO (New York), H20 Studios (Vancouver), Westwood Studios (Las Vegas), and Electronic Arts (Redwood City). Her artwork has been screened and installed internationally including Nabi Art Center (Seoul), SIGGRAPH (Los Angeles), ISEA (Vancouver, Hong Kong), EVA (London), xCoAx (Madrid, Milan), Art Machines 2 (Hong Kong), New York Film Festival (New York), Courtisane Film Festival (Ghent), Australian Experimental Film Festival (Melbourne), and the International Conference of Generative Art (Rome, Venice, Florence). New projects include experiments in adaptive systems and open-ended evolution. She is based in New York and is a co-chair in visual and studio arts at Sarah Lawrence College where she founded the program in new genres.
i2ADS / Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto
Luís Pinto Nunes (Porto, 1988) has a degree in Visual Arts – Painting, and post-graduation on Art Studies – Museology and Curatorial Studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto (FBAUP). Enroled the Independent Study Programme of Escola Maumaus. Coordinator of the Museum and Exhibitions Office at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto, developing museological and curatorial projects. Committee member and curator of xCoAx – Computation Communication Aesthetics and X, member of I2ADS, and in 2018-19 member of the acquisitions committee of art for Porto City Hall’s collection (Pláka).
i2ADS / Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto
André is an artist and designer. His thought and practice explores the thresholds and permeability between art, design and computational technologies. He has been developing and disseminating knowledge and skills inherent to the process of making and experiencing intermedia, interactive and multi-sensory artworks.
Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Belas-Artes, Centro de Investigação e de Estudos em Belas-Artes (CIEBA)
Luísa Ribas teaches Communication Design at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, focusing on the complementarity between print and digital media. Her research is devoted to the study of computational systems as aesthetic artefacts, addressing their design and experience. She holds a PhD in Art and Design, a Master in Multimedia Art and a degree in Communication Design from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto and is currently a member of CIEBA (Center for Research and Studies in Fine Arts) also collaborating with ID+ (Research Institute for Design, Media and Culture). She has contributed to several publications and events on design and digital arts, and, since 2017, is a member of the organizing Committee of xCoAx, a conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics and X.
Founder of School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe, Berlin
Rachel Uwa is an artist, educator, and founder of School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe, an independent school based in Berlin, Germany. Her background is in audio engineering and vfx compositing. Over the past 15+ years, she’s lived in and organized social justice and tech communities and events big and small. Rachel's biggest desire is to see people living the lives they dream of living rather than the ones they feel they should. If that dream life is more artistic, creative, socially-engaged, technology-embracing and connects humans to each other and to themselves, well, all the better.
Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Culture Straniere, Università degli Studi di Bergamo
Mario Verdicchio is from Milan, Italy. He holds a PhD in Knowledge Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Italy and he is currently researcher at the Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures of the University of Bergamo, Italy, where he researches on Artificial Intelligence, Computer Art, Digital Humanities, and Philosophy of Technology. He has co-founded the xCoAx conference series and is a member of the Berlin Ethics Lab at the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany. He has authored two books (“Informatica per la Comunicazione” - Computing for Communication - and “Che cos’è un Computer?” - What is a computer?) and several articles published on international journals. Occasionally, his experiments on art and computation make it to the world of art and design, as with his tapestry “The Tree of Decisions”, which was shown at the Milan Design Week in 2023.
School of Design & Informatics, Abertay University
Martin is a researcher and curator focusing on artistic and activist experiments with emerging technologies. His current work focuses on the impact of AI on our understanding of authorship and originality, and on efforts to push blockchain technologies beyond their fintech legacy. Martin's research is widely published in key anthologies (including Artists Re:Thinking the Blockchain and DATABrowser) and journals (such as Leonardo, Philosophy & Technology, and Culture Machine). He is the author of Tactical Entanglements (meson press 2021).