Get to know the students, researchers, artists, tutors and coordinators of this edition.
STUDENTS
Creative Computing Institute, University of the Arts London, UK
Adam Cole delves into the complexities of intimacy and identity in the age of AI, crafting immersive works that explore desire in the shadow of artificial representation. He integrates advanced AI-technologies, film, and installation to challenge the normative fantasies embedded in AI networks, seeking more diverse, poetic, and sensual alternatives. Cole’s work has been exhibited worldwide at prominent galleries, film festivals, and media arts conferences, including Tate Britain, SXSW Film Festival, Sonar+D Barcelona, Le Lieu Unique, and SIGGRAPH Arts. He is currently based at the Creative Computing Institute, University of the Arts London, as a lecturer and doctoral candidate.
Centre for Creative Technologies University of Galway, Ireland
Alaz Okudan is a PhD research scholar with a background in photography, media, and visual studies and a visual experimenter interested in hidden, neglected, and marginal stories from the history of visual technologies. Currently, his interests revolve around the concepts of primitive media and poor images, focusing on alternative forms of creative expression. He enjoys looking at infra-ordinary aspects of life that lie beneath the threshold of everyday attention through the lens of visual media. His ongoing PhD investigation at the University of Galway’s Centre for Creative Technologies focuses on the cultural and artistic implications of perceived accidents and failures in visual generative AI practice. He is concerned with ecological and social impact of commercial technologies. He experiments both in analogue and digital forms of image-making, seeking ways for hybrid modes of expression. He lives in Galway, Ireland and roams the streets of the city.
Independent researcher, Baku, Azerbaijan
Maral is a researcher specializing in human-machine interaction, focusing on anthropomorphism in artificial systems, multilingualism, and user privacy. She holds a degree from Leiden University, where her research examined how social robot designs influence trust and self-disclosure. Her work spans affective computing, AI-driven communication, and linguistic perception. She has presented at international conferences, including ACM womENcourage 2019. Currently, she is developing Fractured Perception, an investigation into AI-driven speech distortion, post-truth narratives, and the impact of anthropomorphic AI on multilingual environments. Her interdisciplinary research explores how language, cognition, and communication shape human-AI interaction in digital spaces.
Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Sei (Sage) Jung is an interdisciplinary researcher and a creative practitioner based in the United States and Korea, currently pursuing a PhD in Interdisciplinary Design and Media at Northeastern University. Her research investigates the societal implications of computational processes through practice-based methods. She has a background in art theories, and experience in independent curatorial practices, cultural institutions, and graphic design. As a practitioner, she explores the concept of reinterpretation by surfacing hidden structures, shifting hierarchies, and re-contextualizing artifacts. Thematically, her artworks engage in critical discussions about technology and society. She aims to examine the multidirectional interactions between biological species and technology through artistic expressions ranging from digital to tangible media. Her work is driven by a love and curiosity for technology and lifeforms. For her doctoral studies, she is currently focusing on biomimetic robots with non-human animal forms. Her other research interests include privacy, security, and ethics in technology.
Oxford University, Oxford, England
Shirley Leung is a multimedia artist and researcher whose practice lives in the intersection of AI and human creativity. She’s interested in understanding how AI can enhance creativity while examining the societal and ethical implications of AI and its impact on creative labor, design practices, and visual culture. Her artistic practice explores these themes through mixed-media installations and performance. Shirley has exhibited her work in galleries internationally and was previously an adjunct professor teaching at the Parsons School of Design. She is currently working at Google, designing AI tooling while pursuing her part-time PhD at the University of Oxford. Shirley earned her B.A. from Brown University and an M.F.A from The Parsons School of Design.
University of Porto (UP), Porto, Portugal
Born in the city of Porto, has a bachelor´s and master's degree in Multimedia. The main research areas are founded in Transformative Experience Design, virtual reality, somaesthetics, emotional design and virtual phenomenology. Teaches at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (FBAUP) and at the Escola Superior de Media Artes e Design (ESMAD), teaching and proposing different approaches based on virtual and augmented reality, HCI-based somaesthetics and interaction design. Applies to the School of X as a PhD candidate in the Doctoral Program in Digital Media at the University of Porto.
TUTORS
Institute for Design Informatics, University of Edinburgh, UK
Caterina Moruzzi is a Chancellor's fellow in Design Informatics, University of Edinburgh. Her research spans the fields of human and artificial creativity, philosophy of art, and the philosophy of Artificial Intelligence. As BRAID Research Fellow, she leads a collaboration with Adobe to promote the responsible integration of Artificial Intelligence tools into creative practices. As Co-Investigator in the CoSTAR and DeCADE projects, funded by UK Research and Innovation, she investigates the disruptive effects that emerging technological innovations have on the creative sector. At the forefront of the research on modes of shared creativity between humans, data, and technology, Caterina is Lead of the research cluster "Creativity, AI, and the Human” at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, and Senior Fellow of the Future Unilab, at the Una Europa Alliance.
i2ADS / Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto
Miguel Carvalhais is Professor of Design at 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
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.
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).