LAWKI—Life As We Know It
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Zuzanna Zgierska
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Zuzanna Zgierska (she/her) is an artist-researcher and filmmaker working at the intersection of ArtScience, Transmedia Storytelling, and Digital Culture. Her artistic practice is driven by the need for critical narratives in the age of “ex-” (extraction, exclusion, and extinction). She untangles the planetary tongues through fieldwork, geo-hacking, and cross-cultural exchanges. From Earth Simulation Lab to the North Pole, Zuzanna creates landscape imaginaries by connecting scientific research with indigenous wisdom, challenging the existing knowledge paradigms.
She teaches Theory in Practice and Research and Discourse at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, and Interscalar Research Methods at the Design Academy Eindhoven (MA Critical Inquiry Lab). Zuzanna is currently a Digital Culture Fellow 2023–24 (Netherlands Film Festival, Utrecht) and a member of “Politics of Knowledge” Research Group 2022–24 (Lectorate Art Theory & Practice, Royal Academy of Art, The Hague). Besides her appointments at art academies, Zuzanna gave presentations worldwide at community centers, galleries, artist initiatives, film festivals, research institutes, science seminars, and radio shows.
Zuzanna received a Talent Award 2024 (Creative Industries Fund NL), a Golden Calf in Digital Culture 2022 (Netherlands Film Festival), and a Landscape Research Award 2021 (Landscape Research Group UK). Her cinema-expanded and installation works have been shown at international festivals and galleries, including Sonic Acts Biennial (Amsterdam), Netherlands Film Festival (Utrecht), Digital Art Festival (Taipei), Noorderlicht International Photo Festival (Groningen), W139 (Amsterdam), MU Hybrid Art House (Eindhoven), and Stroom (The Hague). She has a studio at Quartair Contemporary Art Initiatives in The Hague, the Netherlands.
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design (2020), Graduation Award (Main Prize)
Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, NL
Activities: Curatorial Team; Reading Group; Design Research; Hack Club
Foundation Diploma in Graphic Design, Minor Audiovisual Design (2015), Distinction
Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam, NL
Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Industrial Design (2014), Distinction
Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, Cracow, PL
Activities: Experimental Design; Design Methodology; Multimedia Imaging Laboratory
Academic Experience
Tutor Research Group, Research & Discourse (BA), Feb 24 – Present
Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, NL
Tutor Moving Matter: Interscalar Research Methods, The Critical Inquiry Lab (MA), Dec 23 – Present
Design Academy Eindhoven, Eindhoven, NL
Research Candidate Politics of Knowledge, Lectorate Art Theory and Practice, Oct 22 – Oct 24
Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, NL
Board Member Theory Platform, Sep 22 – Present
Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, NL
Tutor Theory in Practice, Foundation Year, Sep 21 – Present
Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, NL
Other Experience (Selection)
Digital Culture Fellow, Sep 23 – Sep 24
Netherlands Film Festival (NFF), Utrecht, NL
Artistic Team Member, May 21 – Present
Quartair Contemporary Art Initiatives, The Hague, NL
Artistic Team Member, Sep 20 – Present
ARK Collective, Amsterdam, NL
Artist, Researcher, Filmmaker, Feb 20 – Present
Studio Zuzanna Zgierska, The Hague, NL & Worldwide
Recent interdisciplinary and intercultural collaborations (selection):
Artist Louis Braddock Clarke, The Hague, NL & Worldwide, Sep 18 – Present
Film Producers Manuela Girón & Luis Andrés Schwartz, Guatemala City, GT, May 23 – Present
Qaanaap Ratiunga (Qaanaaq Radio), Qaanaaq, GL, Jul 22
StarPlan (Centre for Star and Planet Formation), Copenhagen, DK, Nov 21 – Sep 22
Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, DK, Nov 21 – Sep 22
Paleomagnetic Laboratory, Utrecht University, Utrecht, NL, Oct 21 – Sep 22
Earth Simulation Lab, Utrecht University, Utrecht, NL, Oct 21 – Sep 22
The Nest Collective, Nairobi, KE, Apr 21 – Sep 21
David Casey/Surface Area Media, Detroit, USA, Mar 21 – Sep 22
Video Power, Maastricht, NL, Oct 20 – Present
Advanced Soft Matter, Delft University of Technology, Delft, NL, May 20 – Sep 20
Artist Guy Ben-Ary, Leiden, NL & The Hague, NL, Sep 18
Artist Assistant, Jun 18 – Nov 18
iii (instrument inventors initiative), The Hague, NL
Photography Editor, Jan 17 – Dec 17
Katrin Korfmann, Amsterdam, NL
Editor, Nov 12 – Oct 14
Austeria Publishing, Cracow, PL, Budapest, HU, Syracuse, IT
Grants & Awards
2023 Creative Industries Fund (Stimuleringsfonds), Talent Development Grant, Proj. “Moving Matter,” Rotterdam, NL
2022 Netherlands Film Festival, Golden Calf in Digital Culture, Proj. “LAWKI,” Utrecht, NL
2022 Creative Industries Fund (Stimuleringsfonds), Digital Culture Grant, Proj. “Out of Focus,” Rotterdam, NL
2021 Netherlands Film Fund & Mondriaan Fund, De Korte Verbeelding Award, Proj. “Out of Focus,” Amsterdam, NL
2021 Video Power, Talent Award, Proj. “Out of Focus,” Maastricht, NL
2021 Niemeijer Fund Grant, Proj. “Out of Focus,” Dordrecht, NL
2021 Mondriaan Fund, Kunst Opdracht Grant, Proj. “LAWKI—NOW,” Amsterdam, NL
2021 Landscape Research Group, Research Grant, Proj. “Out of Focus,” Poole, UK
2021 Creative Industries Fund (Stimuleringsfonds), Digital Culture Grant, Proj. “LAWKI—NOW,” Rotterdam, NL
2020 Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, Graduation Award (Graphic Design Main Prize), Proj. “ex.citable inter.faces,” The Hague, NL
2015 The Van Beek-Donner Foundation, Study Grant, Rotterdam, NL
2015 Marjanne Knüppe-Hüsken Fund, Art & Design Talented Student Award, Arnhem, NL
2014 Soroptimist International, Study Grant, Cambridge, UK
Residencies & Fellowships
2024 Upcoming: Self-initiated Residency, Guatemalan Highlands, GT
2024 Arcadia Leeuwarden-Fryslân, Proj. “Exploring Collaborative Boundaries in Hybrid Knowledge Creation,” Leeuwarden/Frisia, NL
2024 Wongema, Proj. “Politics of Knowledge,” Hornhuizen, NL
2023 Netherlands Film Festival 2023, Digital Culture Fellowship, Proj. “Exploring Collaborative Boundaries in Hybrid Knowledge Creation,” Utrecht, NL
2022 Self-initiated Residency, Northern Greenland, GL
2021 Self-initiated Residency, Northern Greenland, GL
Art Commissions
2023 Arcadia, Commission, Proj. “Arcadia Leeuwarden-Fryslân 2028,” Leeuwarden/Frisia, NL
2022 Stroom Den Haag, Commission, Proj. “Meteorite 82149,” The Hague, NL
2022 Digital Art Festival Taipei, Commission, Proj. “LAWKI—Passages,” Taipei, TW
2022 Sonic Acts, Commission, Proj. “Hard Drives from Space,” Amsterdam, NL
2021 MU Hybrid Art House, Commission, Proj. “LAWKI—ALIVE,” Eindhoven, NL
2021 Noorderlicht Photography Foundation, Commission, Proj. “LAWKI—NOW,” Groningen, NL
M-821492023
“M-82149” questions who gets to own a meteorite, challenging the position of a museum as the authority over outer-space objects. Meteorite 82149 travelled from far ends of the galaxy, crashed in Texas, and eventually found its way to Museon, a museum for science and culture in The Hague. The moonstone is currently held in the museum’s basement, which is not publicly accessible. Had Museon displayed the piece, it would have been cut open to show the cross section with Widmanstätten pattern. In this installation, the meteorite sample has been digitally sliced. Virtual cuts allow for endless multiplication, where finite material is subjected to infinite speculation.
“The meek shall inherit the earth. But not the mineral rights,” said J. Paul Getty, the American-born British industrialist who established the Getty Oil Company in 1942. A few decades later, the grandson of the oil tycoon, Mark Getty, co-founded Getty Images—the largest visual stock collection. Subverting the idea that mineral extraction and image extraction share the same economic liquidity, the work “M-82149” becomes a proposition for re-distribution of mineral resources through endless imaging. A selection of 121 pieces is auctioned to the public. This site-specific work spreads out of Stroom’s basement, previously used as space for metal storage.
Collaboration:
Louis Braddock Clarke
Curator:
Lua Vollaard
Co-production:
_
3D printing and artificial ageing
Yvo van Os
Hard Drives from Space2022
Thousands of years ago, a meteor shower hit the grounds of the present-day Inugguit Nunaat (Northern Greenland). During Danish colonization and 19th-century North Pole expeditions, these meteorite pieces found their way to museums in New York and Copenhagen. Alongside mineral trophies, a group of indigenous Inugguit people were relocated and displayed as a living “anthropological zoo.”
In “Hard Drives from Space,” shaping mineral magnetism becomes a key strategy to lift the weight of colonialism and restitute indigenous narratives. The installation takes the form of a research station composed of speculative stones. Through a series of decolonizing rituals with hunters, shamans, and artisans in Inugguit Nunaat and art-scientific experiments at the Paleomagnetic Laboratory in Utrecht, samples of the meteorite are remagnetized. In the process of rewriting magnetic histories, new narratives emerge—one sun after another.
Commissioned by
Sonic Acts
Exhibitions
2022 “one sun after another,” Sonic Acts Biennial 2022, W139, Amsterdam (NL)
Collaboration
Louis Braddock Clarke
Curator
Margarita Osipian
Documentation
Pieter Kers, George Knegtel
Press
Het Parool, Metropolis M, AQNB, Clotmag, The Wire — printed magazine
Support
Sonic Acts
Mondriaan Fund
Netherlands Film Fund
Creative Industries Fund (Stimuleringsfonds)
Video Power
Landscape Research Group
Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
Niemeijer Fund, Fonds Kwadraat
LAWKI—PASSAGES2022
LAWKI—Storyspace2022
LAWKI—ALIVE2021
Worldwide, we watch a billion hours of online video. A. Day. Games, music, news, make-up, ASMR, vlogs, documentaries, tutorials, interviews, reviews, challenges, and, of course, cat videos! Each minute, 500 hours of video material are being uploaded to YouTube alone. With LAWKI—Alive, another edition of Life As We Know It, the artists condense this unimaginable amount of digital footage to an intuitive dynamic livestream driven by AI and the visitors’ movements. Smartly indexed search results continuously generate new associative visual stories in ten different languages. The result is an overpowering stream of images showing what keeps people busy from Boston to Bangalore. World and screen are no longer separate, we are in an immersive installation, but we are everywhere and nowhere at once as well. An excellent opportunity to get to know life (all over).
Immersive installation with AI, Solo show
Exhibited at MU Hybrid Art House, Eindhoven, 2021
www.lawki.online
Collaboration
Artistic team
Louis Braddock Clarke, Roosje Klap, Senka Milutinović, Zuzanna Zgierska
Coding
Arran Lyon, Valentin Vogelmann
Sound: Teoniki Rożynek.
Internship:
Justine Corrijn
Performances
Miila Kaarina, Yamuna Forzani & The Kiki House of Angels, The Critical Inquiry Lab (DAE)
Curators
Angelique Spaninks, Paulien Dresscher
Commissioner
MU Hybrid Art House.
Documentation
Hanneke Wetzer
Press
Digicult, DDW, ED, GLOW, Dutch Design Daily.
Support
Creative Industries Fund NL, Mondriaan Fund.
LAWKI—NOW2021
In LAWKI—NOW, a network of unsupervised algorithms curates from a large number of online videos. Through this compositional gesture, a new story of today is broadcasted, in which reality merges with the techno-imaginative. A specialized algorithm scrapes from streams of unlimited data to create its own ontology — based on visual stories that circulate, trend, and propagate across the web. In a multi-dimensional ‘random walk’ across this constructed world, global and local events are woven into a common narrative. As a stream of consciousness, the sequencing of search phrases indexically charts down our reality. Working with the architecture of the historic Der AA-Kerk in Groningen, the soundscape of LAWKI—NOW makes use of the 16th-century multi-particular polyphonic technique Cori spezzati (‘split choirs’). The space itself becomes an instrument through the layers of acoustic delays, creating a spatial stereo effect. The audio-visual narrative is divided into sequential chapters, which create non-linear points of entry and different outputs each time. The spatial installation invites the audience to move between, interact, and play with the screens to recalibrate how media environments are organized. In this walk of wonder, the viewer is not merely a consumer of the cacophonic spectacle but an active co-creator of both process and outcome.
Immersive installation with AI, commissioned as pièce de résistance of the Noorderlicht Fotofestival 2021. Der Aa-kerk, Groningen, Jul 2021.
Artistic team:
Louis Braddock Clarke, Roosje Klap, Zuzanna Zgierska
Coding:
Arran Lyon, Valentin Vogelmann
Sound:
Teoniki Rożynek
Internship:
Senka Milutinović
Consultations:
Federico Campagna
Performances:
GICA Choir
Documentation:
Peter Tijhuis
Curator:
Paulien Dresscher, Angelique Spaninks
Commissioner:
Noorderlicht | Huis van de Fotografie
Press:
NRC, Dagblad van het Noorden, De Telegraaf
Support:
Creative Industries Fund NL, Mondriaan Fund
LAWKI—Life As We Know It
This is Life As We Know It, our constantly changing surveillance culture under pressure, with our deep fakes, our dark thoughts, our drone views, our politics, our activism, and our lives in the virtual real. We are changing the world and the world is changing us. What stories do we need to tell? How do we connect the dots, reach out and share visions? Can we share your world, and ours? Experimental video, shown at the Netherlands Film Festival 2020 Professionals Program. Artistic team: Louis Braddock Clarke, Roosje Klap, Zuzanna Zgierska. Curator: Paulien Dresscher.
ex.citable inter.faces2020
Calendar
Oct 2023 |
“Rock Rewriting, Rock Restitution” Panel Discussion (Organiser & Host) Joint Research Day, Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, NL |
Panel Discussion (Organiser & Host) |
Joint Research Day, Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, NL |
Sep 2023 |
“Exploring Collaborative Boundaries in Hybrid Knowledge Creation” Talk Netherlands Film Festival 2023, Professionals Programme, Stadsschouwburg Utrecht, NL |
Talk |
Netherlands Film Festival 2023, Professionals Programme, Stadsschouwburg Utrecht, NL |
Feb 24 |
“Down the Crimson Cliffs, Past the Fjord of the Dead, Over the Signal Mountain” Lecture-Performance Artistic Research Research Group (ARRG), University of Amsterdam, NL |
Lecture-Performance |
Artistic Research Research Group (ARRG), University of Amsterdam, NL |
Jun 23 |
Lecture-Performance Landscape Research Group, Research Fund Showcase, Poole, UK, online |
Lecture-Performance |
Landscape Research Group, Research Fund Showcase, Poole, UK, online |
Mar 23 |
Lecture-Performance Transitions Festival 2023, Lumière Cinema, Maastricht, NL |
Lecture-Performance |
Transitions Festival 2023, Lumière Cinema, Maastricht, NL |
Mar 22 |
Lecture-Performance (Commissioned) Night Air: Melting Cores, OT301, Amsterdam, NL |
Lecture-Performance (Commissioned) |
Night Air: Melting Cores, OT301, Amsterdam, NL |
Colophon
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