We are opening the Art & Tech Days festival in 2024 with an inspiring discussion: X-Utopia Debate. We will welcome prominent figures from the fields of architecture, urbanism, and generative design: architect Jozef Olšavský, urban planner and professor Mitchell Joachim, and generative design specialist Benjamin James. The debate will be moderated by Michal Hladký.
After the discussion, we will commemorate and celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the New Media Studio from the Department of Fine Arts and Intermedia at the Faculty of Arts of the Technical University in Košice with a retrospective intermedial performance.
At the end of the evening, Slovak multi-instrumentalist and music producer Stroon will perform and provide the audience with a fascinating, immersive experience.
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Dutch media art artist
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screenwriter, director and sound master from Košice
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visual artist working with photograph, video art and installations
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media artist focused on interactivity, performance, audio and video, and real-time graphics
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Leon creates both physical and digital interactive experiences that disrupt the way people routinely interact with their environments, encouraging them to reflect on how their chosen behavior within the experience relates to their actions outside of it through play. In their work, they examine decision-making and mutual interaction, which is not based on social expectations and culture, but is the result of the influence of factors such as technology, creator’s intention, or mutual creation.
Most recently their work has focused on communicating the power that lies within the position of designing widely adopted technology like web interfaces or location-based games and has been exhibited at places like Ars Electronica, IMPAKT, and V2_ Lab.
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Róbert is a screenwriter, director, master of sound and dramaturgical concepts at Onomatopoje studio in Košice. He studied at AKU in Banská Bystrica and completed his studies at VŠMU in Bratislava as a documentary filmmaker under Vlado Balc. He finished his studies with the graduation film Jonatán. He is the father of two children and the DOCsk documentary film festival, and the author of the Slovak Documentary Film Almanac and the Instagram project #chodimpešo. Currently, he is helping to start inclusive film clubs for children and teenagers in the Úsmev cinema in Košice. He is a dedicated runner, rides a longboard and is a lover of Knausgård. He prefers a contemplative approach to life and his work.
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Jakub Pišek, a graduate of the New Media department in Košice, studied under the supervision of a German artist Anna Tretter. He was on internship at Ecole des Beaux arts in Bordeaux, France and at residence in Dortmund in RUHR European capital of culture 2011. After ping pong workshop he begun to write his own software for interactive installations. In his production, he uses technology both as a medium and as a goal of his interests. Instead of presenting old pieces repetitively, he rather demonstrates creation of a piece on-the-spot.
He lets the genius loci be visible, works with site specifics and flexibly reacts to the emerged situation. He is devoted to video, computer graphics, interactivity and music. Now he works as media artist in various fields, like interactivity, performance, audio and video and real time graphics. His background is interdisciplinary, holding degrees in visual and performing arts, software prototyping and computer sience. He is user of open source hardware and software and working in intentions of DIY. Jakub is the man behind famous performance Hallogenerator, Turbosampler and Barcode djs.
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Ben James is the CEO & Founder of 3D generative AI platform Atlas.
When Ben entered the architecture profession, he was shocked at the limited role new technology played in the design process, and discovered that the lack of automation meant that creative individuals spent too much time on tasks not suited to their expertise.
He founded Atlas in 2021 to augment and focus designers‘ creativity, with an emphasis on gaming and virtual world-building.
Ben graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC and worked as a financial and strategy consultant in NYC and London prior to getting his Architecture Master’s degree from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.
His work has been exhibited in notable museums and galleries such as the Architectural Association visiting school in China, the A+D Museum in LA, the Storefront for Art & Architecture in NYC, and the Architecture Biennale in Tallinn.