Advisory Network

Cesar Baio was a visiting researcher at i-DAT (2017-2018) and an associate professor at Universidade Federal do Ceará, in Brazil. With a background in electronics and in media studies, his interest as an artist and as a researcher is on the relationship between art, technology and society. He developed his PhDʼs research at Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC/SP) with a graduate internship at the Vilém Flusser Archive at Universität der Künste, Berlin.

His PhD thesis analyses experimental artworks, most of them produced with technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, interactive video, cybernetic systems and locative media, assuming a perspective of the art and media theories. This research aimed to comprehend how some of these artworks reshape the models of representations and, by doing so, they materialize forms of understanding the world that are different from the ones consolidated in traditional media. Seeking to demonstrate the heterogeneity of the sensibilities implied in these different modes of existence and functioning of the image, he analyses these artworks starting from the concepts of technical apparatus (Vilém Flusser) and co-presence (Hans-Thies Lehmann) to suggest the raising of a performative regime of the image.

The series of videos, photos, interactive installations and urban interventions produced by him place questions in some political, ethic and cognitive aspects of the insertion of technology into the cultural practices and power structures. Most of his projects are based on procedures such as reverse engineering, occupation of information networks and subversion of the industrial devices, aiming to reveal tensions in the human-machine relationship, encourage creative collective participation in digital platforms or speculate on alternative forms to represent the world and to produce reality.
He is a professor and co-founder of the Graduate Program in Arts at Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC), where he coordinates the “actLAB – Laboratório de Pesquisa em Arte, Ciência e Tecnologia” (Laboratory of Research in Arts, Science and Technology). During the last years, he has been a collaborator researcher at “CISC – Centro Interdisciplinar de Semiótica da Cultura e da Mídia” (Interdisciplinary Center of Culture and Media Semiotics) (PUC/SP) and also at “Grupo de Pesquisa Fotografia, Imagem e Pensamento” (Research Group in Photography, Image and Thought) (UFRJ).

He is the author of the book “Máquinas de imagem: arte, tecnologia e pós-virtualidade” (Machines of image: art, technology and post-virtuality), and he has also written papers which were published in academic journals and collections. He has participated in congresses, seminars and exhibitions in Brazil and abroad. His activities have been commissioned by Brazilian federal agencies and he has received prizes for research and art production.

Luis Miguel Girao founder of Artshare, is a transdisciplinary artist and researcher in the application of technology as a tool for artistic expression. He is a member of the Planetary Collegium and of the Centre for Sociology and Music Studies of Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the New University of Lisbon, Portugal. In 2007, he was awarded the Bolsa Ernesto de Sousa prize, Lisbon-NYC. He collaborated with several artists and scientists and his work has been presented worldwide. He was coordinator of ICT ART CONNECT 2013 and of ICTARTCONECT.study for the European Commission.

Laura Beloff (Finland / DK) is an internationally acclaimed artist and researcher who functions in-between academic leadership & research with a core in the arts and in artistic methods. She has been actively producing art works and exhibiting worldwide in museums, galleries and art events since the 1990’s. The exhibitions in the recent years include Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Austria, Brazil, Russia, Italy…

Her research interests that are located in the cross section of art – technology – science, include practice-based investigations into a
combination of technology, biology, IT, biotechnology, and philosophical questions concerning technological manipulation of living matter. The
research engages with the fields of: art & science, biotechnologies, biosemiotics, and information technology in connection to art, humans,
non-humans, and society. Additionally to research papers, articles and book-chapters, the outcome of the research is in a form of process-based
and participatory installations, programmed conceptual structures and networked wearable objects. The research typically involves
collaboration with various experts in their specific fields, institutions, artists and universities.

She has been a recipient of various grants, art residencies and awards throughout the years. In 2014-16 she was a part of the Hybrid Matters project funded by Nordic Cultural Fund. Beloff is a frequently invited lecturer in universities, various conferences and events, and she has engaged in numerous
international activities including: participation in international research and art projects, in organizing committees of international conferences and art events, editing an international publication, evaluator and opponent of PhD dissertations, research visits and positions abroad, invited keynote speaker abroad, an expert evaluator for research funding for European Commission, and for Austrian and Norwegian art & science funding bodies. 2002-06 she was Professor for media arts at the Art Academy in Oslo, Norway. 2007-11 she was awarded a five-year artist grant by the Finnish state. 2009-2010, 2011 she has been a visiting Professor at The University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Since 2012 (-today) she is Associate Professor and the Head of PhD School at IT University in Copenhagen – where she is part of the REAL-research group.