Artists

Egypt

Diaa Ahmedien
#6: Future

02.06.21 30.06.21

Diaa Ahmedien is an international artist-based Cairo. He is a lecturer in the sciences of New-Media Arts and Technology and an associate editor in Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, a Nature journal group, part of Springer Nature. Diaa is an educator, researcher and creator of setup systems for interactive artworks. His accurate specialization lies in the area of the sciences of New-Media arts, Digital Humanities, visual communications, and medical humanities, all of which emphasize the crucial role of the intersections among the arts, sciences and technology in shaping knowledge-based societies. In his practices, Diaa concentrates on the role of empirical interdisciplinary practice-based research in the artistic creation processes as a means of interactive communication-based creation, rather than being a mere means of individual creation.

ARTIST STATEMENT

It is well known that if you clearly understand an idea, you are able to explain it simply to the public. However, under today’s digital transformation, I am convinced that if I clearly understand an idea, I must be able to explain it to a computer. Talking to smart machines as an integral part of human capabilities is an inevitable path when I think of today’s self-making technologies.

My work, therefore, investigates convergent technologies as a meeting point of concurrent, overlapping computational and biological systems in uncovering and augmenting the intersections of man-made life and nature-made life. My research and creation processes involve a balance of qualitative and quantitative approaches. Through my cutting-edge experimental artistic projects, I seek to foster the interdisciplinary knowledge derived from the artistic practice-based research and reinforce its dual functions of being a means of integrating the public into complicated scientific inquiries and as an approach to enrich the visual interface of the contemporary science.

ABOUT #FUTURE

During this program at ´ace, I expanded my practice to reflect on the ways in which I had used the browser as an active medium that can host and re-present the artistic creation process within a virtual context. The artistic gesture in this kind of practices is in the coding process itself, the programming is the script of the artwork and what we see as a result is the visual manifestation of the code. For instance, in my first exercise, I presented a model of six generative paintings created through open-ended processes.

Daniela Ruiz Moreno (curator-in-residency) said that “this experiment has been created in order to work not only within the possibilities of that technology, but also to expand it or go against its process”. I highly agree with that as it is (or it will be) worthy for an artist to build an autonomous system that offers infinite interactive loops for artists and their viewers to share their activities and inform each other towards more democratic, reflective, and transparent creative practices.

In the final joint project, I have investigated the concept of digital waste management by creating a generative environment to calculate the amount of energy consumed to save and sustain every bit of data waste used in that environment. Consuming such an amount results in increasing carbon emissions, thermal pollution, and water consumption by the cooling systems. This sheds light on the cons of digital transformation. But this is not to be against the future’s digital transformation, it is to think of how to overcome tomorrow’s digital pollution.

BIO
Diaa Ahmedien
1986 | Cairo, Egypt
Lives and works in Cairo, Egypt

EDUCATION
2017 | Ph.D. Sciences of New-Media Arts,  University of Bern & University of Applied Sciences, Bern, Switzerland

EXHIBITIONS 
2019 | Biological Mirror, Technarte, Bilbao, Spain
2019 | Bio-Pixels, New York hall of science, New York, USA
2018 | Infinite Potentials, A joint international traveling exhibition by SciArt Center and the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge, UK
2017 | Holo-doc, Bern University of Applied Sciences, Bern, Switzerland
2016 | Holographic Memories, Praise Academy of Sciences and Engineering, Paris, France

RESIDENCIES
2013 | Summer residency for visual communicators, University of the Arts Bremen, Germany
2018 | Bridge Residency, SciArt Center, New York, USA

AWARDS
2019- 2018 | Medal of Sentinel of Science and research-Web of Science
2017 | Elsevier Outstanding Reviewer Award
2016 | The Ellen J. Beer Foundation’s Grant for artistic research
2014 | The British Council Grants For Promising Artists
2013 | The German Academic Exchange (DAAD) Grant for visual artists

OTHERS
Scholarly publications:
2020 | New-media arts-based public engagement projects could reshape the future of the generative biology
2019 | Bio-pixels: A stem cell-based interactive–generative interface designed to redefine technologies of self-making in new media arts.
2019 | Manipulating Stem Cells in the New-Media Labs: Develop A Protocol Template Toward an Innovative Understanding of Cancer.
2018 | Towards a Unique Artistic Constitution of Light: An Aesthetic Investigation of Laser Sciences.
2017 | Three and one chair: an analytic investigation into the Holo-Art.

Proyecto´ace
Artist-in-Residence International Program

View map

International Airport

Ministro Pistarini- Ezeiza (EZE)
Buenos Aires
45' to 60' trip

Domestic Airport

Aeroparque Jorge Newbery
Buenos Aires

Buses

38, 39, 41, 42, 59, 63, 65, 67, 68, 151, 152, 161, 184, 194 and 168 (stop in the front door)

Subway/Metro

D Line (Green)
Olleros Station (4 blocks, 4')

Train

Mitre Line (either to Leon Suarez or Mitre)
Colegiales Station (1 block, 1')

The Latin America's Paris

Buenos Aires is Argentine Republic's capital city. With 15,000,000 inhabitants, it is one of the largest cities in Latin America and one of the 10 most populous urban centers in the world. Its cosmopolitan and urban character vibrates to the rhythm of a great cultural offer that includes monuments, churches, museums, art galleries, opera, music and theaters; squares, parks and gardens with old groves; characteristic neighborhoods; large shopping centers and fairs. Here we also find a very good lodging facilities, with accommodation ranging from hostels to five-star hotels of the main international chains. Buenos Aires also show off about its variety of restaurants with all the cuisines of the world, as well as to have cafes and flower kiosks on every corner.

A neighborhood founded on the Jesuit farms in the 17th century

We are located in Colegiales neighborhood where the tree-lined streets, some of which still have their original cobblestones, invite you to walk. Although the apartment buildings advance, low houses still predominate. It is a district of the city where about 20 TV production companies, design studios, artist workshops and the Rock&Pop radio have been located. The neighborhood also has six squares, one of which pays homage to Mafalda, the Flea Market, shops, restaurants and cafes like its neighboring Barrios de Palermo and Belgrano, with which it limits.

Proyecto´ace
Artist-in-Residence International Program

2024 Open Call #2
Residencies 2024

Deadline
April 30th, 2024

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