#BeyondDigital Speculation Unit

elisELIS (no pronouns/she) was born in Kyiv, graduated from University for the Creative Arts in Rochester, UK. She led an active visual art practice (using a varied range of media: collage, photography, video) in Ukraine and outside of it, slowly developing an interest for the performing arts. She was a founder of the “Kyiv Collage Practice” group and visual anthropological zine, метаCOLLAж. Her works are in private collections in America, Britain, Germany, Spain and Ukraine, and have been exhibited on various digital platforms, and in galleries around the world. In 2023 elisELIS’s poem was used to compose opera by Cixian Lu and performed in Minnesota USA, where the composition won 2nd place.
The artist’s Soviet origins together with Japanese aesthetic philosophy (wabi sabi, ma) in mind and metamodern views constantly prompt her to challenge the current understanding of oneself, emotional and physical boundaries, and the surrounding world with its laws.
Today, elisELIS is an interdisciplinary contemporary art practitioner, psycho muse and visual philosopher.

Shahrzad Nazarpour (she/her) is a performance artist, dancer, actress, choreographer and director from Iran Shahrzad graduated from Tehran University of Performing Arts in Theater with a Bachelor's degree. She is currently studying Transmedia Arts at the University of Applied Arts in the class of Prof. Jakob Lena Knebl in Vienna. Already in Iran she was engaged in socially critical art in solo and group projects, which is why she experienced political problems and repression as a feminist artist critical of the regime.
In her artistic practice she tries to combine her passion for feminism, inclusion and posthumanism with her knowledge of dance, theater and digital art. In doing so, she addresses issues such as sexuality, sexualized violence, body politics and disciplining, boundary drawing, migration, racism and other forms of discrimination.

Tam Thi Pham (she/her) is a Vietnamese multimedia composer, improviser and performer based in Hamburg, Germany.
Through combining technology and tradition, poetics and politics, the sonic and the visual, she is trying to build a way of expression in which music and performance are two indivisible parts.
Her works are a journey of exploring individuality in an attempt to connect with the surrounding social environment and have been featured in various festivals in Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia, Germany, France and Serbia.


tamthipham.com

Sarah Wenzinger (she/her) is a Berlin-based artist, activist researcher, dramaturge, and educator who studied theater directing at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts. Her work centers around creating digital and analog spaces that encourage reflection and rethinking of complex contemporary concerns. She works both alone and in collectives and has developed projects for institutions such as Haus der Kulturen der Welt, the Berlin Biennial X, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the NRW Forum Düsseldorf, and the Bauhaus Archiv e.V. In 2019, she was invited as an artist in residence at the Goethe Institute Kigali in Rwanda. She takes a subject-centered approach in her work using various formats such as site-specific installations, performances, walks, text, video, ceramics, interaction, and radical action assignments. Her exploration of social structures of power, perspective, and community is informed by a socially engaged praxis and a queer feminist lens.


sarahwenzinger.org

Sarah Fartuun Heinze (no pronoun) is a Black(-gender-)Queer*Feminist;(lohn-)arbeitet als Freie Künstler*In & Autor*In & Kulturelle Bildner*In:multiverse (neurodiverse) traversing Beyond Binary Stars Auch &/ zum Beispiel mit Theater, Games, Musik & Empowerment und : versteht sich Auch & Vorallem als Ästhetische Forscher*In.


yet Ob künstlerisch Forschend, als Theatermacher*In, ob Schlendernd, als Perfomer*In, träumend, als MusikTheaterGamedesigner*In, Musiker*In, als Teil der Initiative Creative Gaming oder der Neuen Deutschen Medienmacher*Innen, ob Afrofuturistic, als Autor*In, weltenwandelnd, als Dramaturg*In oder Radical Soft-&Kind, als Kulturelle Bildner*In: Digitale und analoge Spiele haben Sarah Fartuun Heinze im Grund schon immer bewegt - und tun es noch.


sarah-fartuun-heinze.de

Jeremy Bailey (er/ihm) ist selbsternannter »Famous New Media Artist«, Podcaster, Venture Socialist und Design Leader. Bailey glaubt, dass kreativ missbrauchte Technologie uns alle dazu befähigt, berühmt zu werden. Als Digitalkünstler ist Bailey auf der ganzen Welt aufgetreten und hat fast überall ausgestellt – von Badezimmern in Buffalo bis zu Museen in Moskau. Seit 2016 nimmt Bailey Goodpoint auf, eine unvollkommene Podcast-Zusammenarbeit mit dem Künstler Rafael Rozendaal, in sie über Kunst, Design, Technologie und Wirtschaft reflektieren. Bailey hat Teams bei einigen von Kanadas Top-Startups oder sogenannten "Unicorns" aufgebaut und mit »Lean Artist« den weltweit ersten Startup-Accelerator gegründet, der sich ausschließlich an Künstler*innen richtet, um echte Startups zu konzipieren, die gleichzeitig als subversive, kritische Kunstwerke fungieren.


jeremybailey.net

Naoto Hieda is a media artist from Japan living in Germany with a background in engineering (B.Eng. at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan and M.Eng. at McGill University, Canada). Naoto is currently studying at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany and works internationally for theater productions and in the visual arts. In his artistic work, he questions the productive qualities of coding and speculates on new forms, post-coding through neurodiversity and live coding.


naotohieda.com