Category Blog

A throwback to last week’s keynote at the Weizenbaum Conference in Berlin, hosted by the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society. I had the pleasure of presenting our award-winning visual evidence software and protocol, Hashd0x, which is dedicated to combating misinformation through secure, blockchain-based verification. Alongside the talk, we premiered a new AI piece titled 1 & ∞ 🪑, exhibited at the conference venue – Silent Green Kulturquartier. The work was developed in collaboration with my long-time studio mate and AI artist Artem Konevskikh. This was the 5th Annual Conference, focused on the theme “AI, Big Data, Social Media, and People on the Move,” bringing together researchers and practitioners to reflect on the evolving dynamics and implications of digitalisation. A big shoutout to all the colleagues and collaborators who have been part of the Hashd0x development journey – your contributions continue to make this work possible.

This book holds a special place in my library. Published with the support of the European ARTificial Intelligence Lab, in partnership with Ars Electronica, it brings together contributions from 13 cultural and six scientific institutions across Europe. I’m honoured that my series Content Aware Studies is mentioned as one of the early examples of AI-driven, research-based artistic practice. Special thanks to the Onassis Stegi Foundation, Irini Mirena Papadimitriou, Ars Electronica, and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport (BMKÖS) for their support.

CAS XXII-I Deep Frieze (Triptych Fragment 1/3), 2021. Breccia marble, concrete, machine learning algorithms, unique synthetic dataset; dimensions: ~108x90cm. Produced with support from: Onassis Foundation & Garage Museum. The Content Aware Studies (started in 2017) is a series of artistic investigations that spans computational, sculptural, screen-based and textual works that together critically examine what artistic, technical and philosophical capacities Ai technologies hold, both as means for automatic historical investigation & synthetic knowledge production. Artificial neural network is directed to replenish lost fragments of classical sculptures. Analysing thousands of 3d scans, it generates models, which are then 3D printed, marble fabricated and used to fill the voids of the original sculptures.

It was an adventure, perhaps, a good one, to be on the jury for the first Asta Award for art, science & technology in Art & Ai category. To me personally, or rather politically, it was indeed not an easy decision to engage in a cultural initiative in my infamous motherland for the first time since the full-scale invasion (let’s admit this war is actually on for many years now). However, the community, which includes some of the most brilliant local (or previously-local) people that took part in the jury is a group of some extraordinary people within the art & science cultural project out there, who I genuinely want to stay connected to despite complete inability & geographical spread as a result of forced mobility. Athough perhaps this mobility harm is incomparable to that of many others as a result of this catastrophe. Anyway, I genuinely believe that in the times like this, we also need to try and preserve, something very valuable, – the community. A shout-out to @amicat & @dashaazbil whose work was my nomination of choice.

Some views from the exhibition “Navigating the Digital Realm” at the European Commission’s DG Connect building in Brussels. The show is curated by the wonderful team at GLUON (curator: Nicolas Wierinck), in collaboration with LUCA School of the Arts, Snowball, Ars Electronica, and Bozar – Centre for Fine Arts Brussels. Photos by © Fabien Sylvestre.

I was somewhat quiet about it. To be fully honest I find it challenging to speak and publish much these days as the pain of the bleeding world is taking its toll on me. I’m sure so it does to many. However for the sake of exercising letting out those tiny bits of life that happen to be on the brighter side — mine was definitely in Japan for the past few months. I was incredibly lucky to have been taking part in an academic visit at the Geidai University of the Arts in Tokyo, a city I have an escapist romance with lately. And a place, where I’m currently working on some new stuff largely inspired by the unique locality.

This is dedicated to my friend, with whom we currently share our escapist life in Tokyo. A town that with slightly varied degrees of capacity we both admire. Seasonal greetings to you guys. Take care of those you love.

Fondazione Prada recently published a remarkable catalogue dedicated to the exhibition Recycling Beauty — an unprecedented study on the reuse of Greek and Roman antiquities in post-antique contexts. The catalogue features my work CAS_05 Julia Mamea in the essay “Digital Artifacts: Processing Antiquities in Contemporary Art” written by Patrick R. Crowley. The exhibition is curated by Salvatore Settis and Anna Anguissola, with Denise La Monica, and designed by Rem Koolhaas/OMA in collaboration with 2×4 Inc. Photos © OMA, Fondazione Prada.

Excited about the ongoing research and data capture work we’re currently undertaking with the vast fossil collection at the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien. It’s a real privilege to engage with such an extraordinary archive of natural history. I believe some truly fascinating developments are on the way – more to share soon. For now, here are a few glimpses of us 3D scanning a thousand-year-old specimen, working alongside Artem Konevskikh.

Who would have thought — a show in one of the EU headquarters nowadays. And this is despite the fact that my European residence permit has recently expired while I wait (still…) for long-awaited permanent residency — which for the time being renders my travels across the EU somewhat semi-legal. Meanwhile, what used to be homeland is taken over by fascist regimes. In light of that, I’d wish that “being European” was more about sharing a certain set of values, rather than just fulfilling the criteria of a bureaucratic backend. I hope we’re heading there. I’m happy to be showing Content Aware Studies as part of the S+T+ARTS exhibition at DG Connect. Massive thanks to my studio-mate Artem Konevskikh for his help with the setup, and to Nicolas Wierinck for putting this group show together — filled with some truly brilliant work.