Anna Nazo

Anna’s current focus is on AI-neurotech narrative ecologies informed by non-Western onto-epistemologies, quantum storytelling, drone sensuous intelligence, emerging forms of techno-spirituality and queer rave culture as forms of resistance.

Anna’s practical work includes a live phygital audiovisual performance that relies on aviation technology via drones (swarm intelligence), neurotechnology (EEG headsets), spoken word AI poetry, and compound CGI (brainwave imaging, 360-degree imagery, AI-systems). It investigates questions of intelligence diversity, distributed forms of sensuousness, digital queer ecologies, and ethics of technology. The work looks at ways of understanding intelligence and liveness in relation to nonconscious cognition, quantum reality and sympoietic complexities.

Fellow, The Web3 for the Arts and Culture (WAC) Fellowship, delivered by We Are Museums and supported by Tezos Foundation in collaboration with Blockchain Art Directory 2.0, 2023

Finalist, Terra Carta Design Lab, a competition to develop solutions to the climate crisis, conceived by King Charles III and Sir Jony Ive as part of Sustainable Markets Initiative, 2022

Shortlisted, Performistanbul Artistic Development Programme in collaboration with Live Art Development Agency (LADA) supported by British Council Turkey as part of #WomenPowerInCulture Grant Scheme for organisations, 2020

Shortlisted, Art, Science and Technology Residency, Delfina Foundation, 2019

Shortlisted (Performance Art Category), 13th Arte Laguna Prize, 2019

Finalist, Untapped Emerging Artists Competition, Artist Project Toronto, 2015

Finalist (Artist of the Year), 3D Printshow Global Awards, 2014

Shortlisted, Lumen Prize, 2014

Academic Committee Award (the UK Pavilion Liquid Boundaries), Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture in Hong Kong & Shenzhen, 2013

SWERVE

2021-present

SWERVE is a web3 AI art research initiative that investigates radically different ethical-aesthetic narrative ecologies in collaboration with Indigenous communities, enabling critical cross-cultural ways of knowledge production through innovative storytelling in more than human worlds.

SWERVE was initiated in 2021 as a finalist project for the Terra Carta Design Lab, a challenge to develop solutions to the climate crisis conceived by King Charles III and Sir Jony Ive as part of the Sustainable Markets Initiative.

Collaborators: Sam Chester, Natalia Esteve

Outputs

Exhibitions

Beyond Conference 2023, The Immersive Futures Lab and RCA's School of Communication showcase 'New Narrative Ecologies' (SWERVE), London, UK, 21-22 November 2023.

Dubai Design Week 2023, Royal College of Art Showcase (SWERVE), Dubai, UAE, 7-12 November 2023.

Ars Electronica Festival 2023, Campus Exhibition Digital Undercommons, Postcity, Linz, Austria, 6-10 September 2023.

AI Dreams for My Drone Sister 2.0. Solo Exhibition (ft. SWERVE) and NFTs drop, part of the Web3 for the Arts and Culture (WAC) Fellowship, supported by the Tezos Foundation, New Art City gallery and fxhash, May 2023.

Expo (part of Terra Carta Design Lab), Net Zero Festival, London, UK. 28-29 September 2022.

Terra Carta Design Lab Exhibition. Group Exhibition, Dyson Gallery, Royal College of Art, London, UK. 28 April-12 May 2022.

Featured publications

Nazo, A. (2023) ‘AI Dreams for My Drone Sister 2.0’ (ft. SWERVE). In Les musées progressent sur le Web3, by Jade Pillaudin. Nouvelles Technologies/ Les Essentiels Du Jour, Le Quotidien de l'Art (Print, in French). QDA No 2619, 31 May 2023, p. 7. Available at:

SWERVE (2022) In ‘Terra Carta Design Lab announces finalists,’ by Rosa Bertoli. Wallpaper, 6 October 2022.

SWERVE (2022) In'Coral reef cemeteries to blockchain carbon counting: Prince of Wales’ Terra Carta Design Lab unveils climate project finalists' by Edie Newsroom. Tech & Innovation, edie, 21st January 2022.

Publications

Book chapters

Nazo, A. (2023) ‘At the Deepest Depth of Uncertainty There Are Always Blue Rays of Hope.’ In: edited by A. Bayley, J. Chan, eds., Diffracting New Materialisms: Emerging Methods in Artistic Research and Higher Education, Palgrave Macmillan: London, pp 41-54). DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18607-3_3 Print ISBN 978-3-031-18606-6 Online ISBN 978-3-031-18607-3

Nazo, A. (2021) ‘Artificial Grief: Distribution of the Sensuous.’ In: J. Golding, M. Reinhart, M. Paganell, eds.i Data Loam (Sometimes Hard, Usually Soft): The Future of Knowledge Systems, De Gruyter: Berlin, pp 65-79. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110697841 ISBN: 978-3-11-068007-2

Interviews (selected)

Nazo, A. (2021) Interviewed by: British Journal of Photography X New Art City for Edition 365, Online/ London & Los Angeles. 22nd November 2021.

Nazo, A. (2020) Interviewed by: Arreola, P. and Burns, E. for Cluster Crafts 2020: New Materialities Online Programme, London Design Festival. At: https://www.cluster-london.com/cluster-crafts-new-materialities-talks-anna-nazzo

Nazo, A. (2020) Interviewed by: Shemza, A. for FLUX Live: AV, Art in FLUX, Online/ London. 18th August 2020.

Nazo, A. (2020) ‘Pandemiden Kaçış: Performistanbul - Stay LIVE at Home!’ Interviewed by: Pekdoğan, D. M. for Artful Living, Istanbul. At: https://www.artfulliving.com.tr/sanat/pandemiden-kacis-performistanbul-stay-live-at-homei-i-21936

Nazo, A. (2015) ‘Art: Bionic Carnal Transitions by Anna Nazo.’ Interviewed by: Divin, N. for Eclectic Magazine, 3, pp. 126-127. Paris. At: https://issuu.com/eclecticsociety/docs/eclecticissuethree_ss15

Performances (selected)

Swerve. Performance, WRO Biennale, Watermans Arts Centre & WRO Art Center, Brentford, UK/ Wroclaw, Poland. 16th September 2021. 0.30’. https://wro2021.wrocenter.pl/en/names/anna-nazo/

Politics of Poetics and the Digital in an Age of Isolation. Performance-lecture for Civic Art Lab 2020: Whole Systems, organised by GreenspaceNYC. Supported by the NYC Office of Cultural Affairs. Online/ New York, USA. 23rd October 2020, 0.45’.

Undulation. Performance for So remember the liquid ground, a public program in a partnership between the RCA Curating Contemporary Art Programme and Gasworks, Online/ London, UK. 15th June 2020. 0.20’.

Flame. Performance for Stay LIVE At Home programme, organised by Performistanbul, Live-streamed on Zoom and Instagram @annanazo, Istanbul, Turkey/ London, UK. 3rd May 2020. 0.20’.

Devia. Performance for ArtFutura 2019 Festival, Iklectik Art Lab, London, UK. 1st December 2019, 0:15’.

Dawn. Performance for Civic Art Lab Closing the Loop + Inhabiting the Loop exhibition, hosted by GreenspaceNYC. Supported by the NYC Office of Cultural Affairs. Chinatown Soup Gallery, NY, USA. 10th October 2019, 0.45’.

Granular Silt. Performance for CARPA6: The 6th Colloquium on Artistic Research in Performing Arts 2019, hosted by the Performing Arts Research Centre Tutke at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Kiasma Theatre, The Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland. 29th August 2019, 0.45’.

Green, Undulation, Viscosity of Sense (Showcase of Fractal Lymph). Video Performance for UN/GREEN: Naturally Artificial Intelligences, the 4th Open Fields International Conference on Art, Science, Technologies and Humanities. Organised by the RIXC Center for New Media Culture in collaboration with Liepaja University's Art Research Lab, RIXC Art Science Festival, The National Museum of Art of Latvia, Riga, Latvia. 4th-6th July 2019.

Supracellular. Performance for There’s no going back!, a conference on activating strategies for ethical relational change within Fine Art curricula, Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, Rotterdam, Netherlands. 24th May 2019, 0.15’. Invited Artist.

Fractal Lymph. Performance for Data Loam: Sometimes Hard, Usually Soft [the future of knowledge systems], a group exhibition, Angewandte Innovation Laboratory, Vienna, Austria. 26th February - 8th March 2019. Live event, 25th February 2019, 0.15’.

Riffled. Performance for SymbioticA 2018 Conference: Quite Frankly - It's a Monster Conference, Unhallowed Arts, University Club of Western Australia, Perth, Australia. 18th October 2018, 0.15’.

metastable. vastness. Performance for KOSMICA Parliament, Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, Austria. 9th September 2018, 0.15’.

Jellyfish, Abyss for Catabasis Vol.2. Performance in collaboration with Deep Maze for the NSF Crxss Platfxrm Festival of Street Culture. Copeland Gallery, London, UK. 18th August, 2018, 0.15’.

Blue. Performance for The Victoria & Albert Museum’s V&A Digital Futures. Live event, EVA London 2018 Conference, British Computer Society, London, UK. 12th July 2018, 0.15’.

Tears, hair, and rustle. Performance-lecture for Bodies of water, a group exhibition, Exposed Arts Projects, London, UK. 5th April 2018, 1.00’.

An enquiry into embodiment of cognition, pt 3. Performance for Volatile Truth, a group exhibition. Rainbow Unicorn, Berlin, Germany. 10th November 2017, 0.15’.

An enquiry into embodiment of cognition. Performance for camera (Filmed in Brooklyn, New York, USA, June 2016) for The Victoria & Albert Museum’s V&A Digital Futures. Live event, Electronic Visualisation & the Arts (EVA) 2016 Conference, British Computer Society, London, UK. 11th July 2016, 0.10’.

Live. Replica. (Duchamp, Marcel. Why not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy? Readymade. 1921.) Sound performance for 2053: A Living Museum. Live event, An Imagined Museum: works from the Centre Pompidou, Tate and MMK collections, special exhibition, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK. 20th February 2016, 0.15’.

Exhibitions (selected)

(2023) Beyond Conference 2023, The Immersive Futures Lab and RCA's School of Communication showcase 'New Narrative Ecologies' (SWERVE). London, UK.

(2023) Dubai Design Week, Royal College of Art Showcase (SWERVE). Dubai, UAE.

(2023) Ars Electronica Festival, Campus Exhibition Digital Undercommons, Postcity. Linz, Austria.

(2023) AI Dreams for My Drone Sister 2.0. Solo Exhibition (ft. SWERVE) and NFTs drop, part of the Web3 for the Arts and Culture (WAC) Fellowship, supported by the Tezos Foundation. New Art City gallery and fxhash, online.

(2022) Expo (Terra Carta Design Lab research project), Net Zero Festival, London, UK.

(2022) Terra Carta Design Lab Exhibition. Group Exhibition, Dyson Gallery, Royal College of Art, London, UK.

(2022) AI Dreams for My Drone Sister. Solo Exhibition (ft. Megan Irusta Cornet), New Art City Festival, online.

(2021) Edition 365. Group virtual & NFT exhibition, curated by 1854 and British Journal of Photography, in collaboration with New Art City and OpenSea, Online. https://newart.city/show/edition-365

(2021) The Preserving Machine. Group exhibition, FORMAT21 International Photography Festival, Online/ Derby, UK.

(2021) The Preserving Machine. Group Exhibition, curated by DAR (Digital Artist Residency) Platform, Implied Gallery, Online/ London, UK.

(2020) Showcase (Flame 2.0). AI Art Online Gallery, curated by Luba Elliott. NIPS Creativity Workshop, The Thirty-fourth Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), Online.

(2019) Data Loam: Sometimes Hard, Usually Soft [the future of knowledge systems]. Group exhibition, Angewandte Innovation Laboratory, Vienna, Austria.

(2018) Showcase (metastable. vastness). AI Art Online Gallery, curated by Luba Elliott. NIPS Creativity Workshop, The Thirty-second Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), Montreal, Canada.

(2017) Volatile Truth. Group Exhibition, Rainbow Unicorn, Berlin, Germany.

(2016) The MozEx. Group exhibition curated by Tate Exchange and The Victoria & Albert Museum, The Mozilla Festival, Ravensbourne, London, UK.

(2016) The Victoria & Albert Museum’s V&A Digital Futures. Showcase, Electronic Visualisation & the Arts (EVA) 2016 Conference, British Computer Society, London, UK.

(2015) The 6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. Group exhibition, Moscow, Russia.

(2015) The Origin of Species. Group exhibition, The Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia.

(2015) Untapped Emerging Artists. Group exhibition, The Artist Project Toronto, Toronto, Canada.

(2015) The Garden of Sounds. Solo exhibition, Haute Couture Fashion week, Bellanopolis Studios, Paris, France.

(2014) London Design Festival. Group exhibition, Central Saint Martins, London, UK.

(2014) Digital showcase, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK.

Public Engagement (selected)

Invited Speaker. Embodied Virtualities: VR, Art, Empathy, and Experience. Panel Discussion with Haami Nyangibo, Rachel Falconer and Claire Ward. Nyangibo Gallery & Roundhouse Works, London, UK. 24th August 2023

Invited Speaker. Snap Lens Lab, Short course by RCA X Snapchat. Online/London, UK, July 2023.

Invited Speaker. Innovation Meets Imagination: AI's Impact on Image-Making and Storytelling. Symposium speakers: Anna Nazo, Damien Roach, Amy Rose, Wesley Goatley. Part of the LCC Shows 2023: Show Two, London College of Communication, London, UK, 15th June 2023

Invited Academic Lead, a signature course on AI: Diffracted Sensibilities. Artificial Gaze (Across University Teaching, Zoom Online, BA & MA Level), HEAD Geneve (Geneva University of Art and Design), Geneva, Switzerland. 20-24 February 2023.

Programmes: BA Visual Arts; BA Cinema; BA Interior architecture; BA Graphic Design; BA Illustration; BA Fashion Design; BA Jewelry, accessories and watch Design; MA Media Design; MA Space and Communication.

Invited Speaker (MA Level), Electric Gold Lecture Series, MA/MFA Computational Arts, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK, 22nd November 2022. Invited Artist.

Invited Speaker (SWERVE). Civic Art Lab: Spaces, Online/ New York, USA. 5th November 2022.

Curator and Academic Lead. Diffracted Sensibilities, Artificial Gaze. RCA Students Group Exhibition, New Art City Festival, March 2022. Online Guided Artist Tour moderated by Anna Nazo, 31 March 2022 https://info.newart.city/new-art-city-festival

Invited Speaker (MA Level), Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, New York, USA. 18th October 2019. https://tisch.nyu.edu/itp/events/fall-2019/artist-talk--anna-nazo

Invited Speaker (MA Level), MFA Design for Social Innovation (DSI), School of Visual Arts, New York, USA. 16th October 2019.

Conferences (selected)

“The Wireless Tentacles, the Eeriness of the Eye, and the Blue.” Performance-paper, SymbioticA 2018 Conference: Quite Frankly - It's a Monster Conference, Unhallowed Arts, University Club of Western Australia, Perth, Australia, 17th-19th October 2018. Peer Reviewed.

“Posthumanism: The human body transition”. Electronic Visualisation & the Arts (EVA) London 2016 Conference, London, UK. 12-14 July 2016. Peer Reviewed, pp 253-256. DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2016.48. ISSN 1477-9358

“Posthumanism: The Human Body Transition. Contemporary Art Practice: Performance”. Creative Technologies Symposium, Creative Tech Week NYC, Columbia University, New York, USA. 6 May 2016. Peer Reviewed.

“Can reconstruction of the human body reveal a new transition phase for the human species into a yet to be known living form? Posthumanism and data art: future biomorphic transformations and sculptural reconstruction of the human body”. The 14th IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR 2015), Fukuoka, Japan. 29 September-3 October 2015. Paper and poster, 1 October 2015. Peer Reviewed, pp 30-33. DOI: 10.1109/ISMAR-MASHD.2015.16. ISBN 978-1-4673-9628-8

“Posthumanism: Future biomorphic transformations and sculptural reconstruction of the human body”. Contemporary Arts ReSearch (CARU) Conference, Oxford Fringe Festival 2015, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK. 7 June 2015. Peer Reviewed.

(2017–19) Programme Committee, Electronic Visualisation & the Arts (EVA) London Conference, British Computer Society