Varvara Guljajeva, Ph.D.

Specialization

Art and technology

Education

• PhD in Art, Estonian Academy of Arts, 2018
• MSc in Digital Media, University of Luebeck, 2008
• BS in Information Technology, Tallinn University of Technology, 2006

Biography

Varvara (born in Tartu, Estonia), previously held professor position at various universities, such as the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (GZ), Estonian Academy of Arts, and Elisava School of Design and Engineering in Barcelona. Varvara holds a PhD in Art from the Estonian Academy of Arts. Her thesis “From Interaction to Post-Participation: The Disappearing Role of the Active Participant” was selected as the highest-ranking abstract by Leonardo Labs in 2020. Varvara was invited as a visiting researcher to XRL, Hong Kong City University, IAMAS (Ogaki, Japan), LJMU (Liverpool, UK), Interface Cultures in the Linz University of Art, and Design, Blekinge Institute of Technology (Karlshamn, Sweden).

As an artist, she works together with Mar Canet forming an artist duo Varvara & Mar. Often the duo’s work is inspired by the information age. In their practice, they confront social changes and the impact of the technological era. The duo has been exhibiting in international shows since 2009. Their works were shown at MAD in New York, FACT in Liverpool, Santa Monica in Barcelona, Barbican in London, Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens, Ars Electronica museum in Linz, ZKM in Karlsruhe, and more.

Research Interests

Creative AI, AI art, art and technology, media art, robotic art, interactive art, digital humanities, critical interfaces, practice-based research

Publications

• Varvara Guljajeva and Mar Canet Sola. 2024. Portrait Fever. Fundacio Municipal Joan Abello. ISBN: 978‑84‑09‑62819‑3.
• Varvara Guljajeva and Canet Sola, Mar. 2024. We are the Clouds: Strategies for Combining Interaction and Participation in Urban Media Art. Proceedings of the 29th International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) 2024, June 21‑29, 2023, Brisbane, Australia. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2406.13883
• Mar Canet Sola and Varvara Guljajeva. 2024. Visions of Destruction: Exploring a Potential of Generative AI in Interactive Art. In Proceedings of the 17th International Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction (VINCI ’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 36, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1145/3678698.3687185
• Varvara Guljajeva, Mar Canet Sola, Lauri Kilusk, Martin Melioranski, Kaiko Kivi. 2024. Loading Ceramics: Visualising Possibilities of Robotics in Ceramics. 2024 IEEE VIS Arts Program (VISAP), St. Pete Beach, FL, USA, 2024, pp. 53‑68, doi: 10.1109/VISAP64569.2024.00009.
• Jiayang Huang, Yue Huang, David Yip, and Varvara Guljajeva. 2024. Ephemera: Language as a Virus ‑ AI‑driven Interactive and Immersive Art Installation. Proc. ACM Comput. Graph. Interact. Tech. 7, 4, Article 62 (July 2024), 8 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3664219
• Zoe Qi‑Jing Li, Yufan Li, and Varvara Guljajeva. 2024. A Synergistic Connection: I Tell the Moon My Secret and the Moon Tells Me Yours. In Proceedings of the 16th Conference on Creativity & Cognition (C&C ’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 583–586. https://doi.org/10.1145/3635636.3660501
• Varvara Guljajeva; Canet Sola, Mar and Clarke, Isaac. 2024. Artist‑Guided Neural Networks: automated creativity or tools for extending minds?. In: Eckart Voigts, Robin Markus Auer, Dietmar Elflein, Sebastian Kunas, Jan Röhnert, Christoph Seelinger (Ed.). Artificial Intelligence – Intelligent Art? Human‑Machine Interaction and Creative Practice. Transcript, 59‑78. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839469224
• Yue Huang and Varvara Guljajeva. 2024. Understanding AI Through Failure and Training Processes. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Digital and Interactive Arts (ARTECH ’23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 20, 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1145/3632776.3632821
• Mar Canet Sola and Varvara Guljajeva. 2024. Visions Of Destruction: Exploring Human Impact on Nature by Navigating the Latent Space of a Diffusion Model through the Gaze. International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ’24), February 11‑14, 2023, Cork, Ireland. https://doi.org/10.1145/3623509.3635319
• Zoe Qi‑Jing Li and Varvara Guljajeva. 2024. Unwilling Author: Exploring Anthropomorphic Rebellion of the Diary Writing Machine. International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ’24), February 11‑14, 2023, Cork, Ireland. https://doi.org/10.1145/3623509.3635329
• Varvara Guljajeva; Canet Sola, Mar and Clarke, Isaac. 2023. Artistic Strategies to Guide Neural Networks.Proceedings of the 28th International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), May 16–21, 2023, Paris, France. 461−470. https://doi.org/10.69564/ISEA2023‑62‑full‑Guljajeva‑et‑al‑Artistic‑Strategies
• Mar Canet Sola and Varvara Guljajeva. 2023. Visions of Destruction. In SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 Art Gallery (SA ’23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 23, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1145/3610537.3622947
• Li, Yufan; Huang, Yue; Zhang, Kang; Guljajeva, Varvara. ”Bitter Data: An Exploration into Data Edibilization of Negative Emotion.” In 2023 IEEE VIS Arts Program (VISAP), pp. 44‑59. IEEE, 2023. doi: 10.1109/VISAP60414.2023.00010.
• Varvara Guljajeva, Mar Canet Sola and Iurii Kuzmin (2023) Telematic performance enforced by the pandemic: NeuroKnitting Beethoven, International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, 19:3, 477‑495, DOI: 10.1080/14794713.2023.2270790
• Varvara Guljajeva and Canet Sola, Mar. 2023. Interactive NeuroKnitting: Knitting with Your Brain.Proceedings of the VINCI 2023, 22‑24 September, 2023, Guangzhou, China. Article No.:49, Pages 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1145/3615522.3615573
• Varvara Guljajeva, Canet Sola, Mar and Clarke, Isaac. 2023. Explaining CLIP through Co‑Creative Drawings and Interaction. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Computational Creativity (ICCC). June 19 – June 23, 2023, at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2306.07429
• Varvara Guljajeva and Mar Canet Sola. “AI‑Aided Ceramic Sculptures: Bridging Deep Learning with Materiality.” In Artificial Intelligence in Music, Sound, Art and Design, 357–71. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978‑3‑031‑29956‑8_23
• Varvara Guljajeva and Mar Canet Sola. 2023. Psychedelic Forms ‑ Ceramics and Physical Form in Conversation with Deep Learning. In Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ’23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 64, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1145/3569009.3576191
• Varvara Guljajeva and Canet Sola, Mar. 2023. NFT Shop and Sense making of the NFT Art Market. Is NFT a blessing or a curse to digital art?. In Computer and Media Art at the Age of Metaverse and NFT, proceedings of CAC.7. Published as e‑book by Europia Productions, Paris (https://europia.fr), ISBN 979‑10‑90094‑58‑1
• Varvara Guljajeva and Canet Sola, Mar. 2022. Dream Painter: an Interactive Art Installation bridging Audience Interaction, Robotics, and Creative AI. Proceedings of the 30th ACM International Conference on Multimedia (MM ’22), October 10–14, 2022, Lisbon, Portugal. https://doi.org/10.1145/3503161.3549976
• Mar Canet Sola and Varvara Guljajeva. 2022. POSTcard Landscapes from Lanzarote. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series: Creativity and Cognition (C&C ’22), June 20–23, 2022, Venice, Italy. ACM , 634−636. https://doi.org/10.1145/3527927.3531191
• Varvara Guljajeva and Canet Sola, Mar. 2022. Keep Smiling. Proceedings of the 10th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X 2022,Coimbra (Portugal), 6‑8, July 2022. Ed. André Rangel, Luísa Ribas, Mario Verdicchio, Miguel Carvalhais. xCoAx, 340−346. https://doi.org/10.24840/xCoAx_2022_66
• Mar Canet Sola and Varvara Guljajeva. 2022. Dream Painter: Exploring creative possibilities of AI‑aided speech‑to‑image synthesis in the interactive art context. Proc. ACM Computer Graph. Interactive Technology, Vol. 5, No. 4, Vancouver, Canada https://doi.org/10.1145/3533386
• Kelomees, Raivo, Guljajeva, Varvara and Laas, Oliver. 2022. The Meaning of Creativity in the Age of AI. Estonian Art Academy, Tallinn
• Varvara Guljajeva. 2022. Synthetic books. The Text Between Reality and Dreams. In: Raivo Kelomees, Varvara Guljajeva, Oliver Laas (Ed.). The Meaning of Creativity in the Age of AI. Estonian Art Academy, Tallinn, 12‑15.
• Varvara Guljajeva. 2021. Synthetic Books. In 10th International Conference on Digital and Interactive Arts (Aveiro, Portugal). ACM, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1145/3483529.3483663
• Varvara Guljajeva and Canet Sola, Mar. 2021. ENA Participate Art Forms During Pandemics. HyMEx Hybrid Museum Experience Symposium 2021 Proceedings: HyMEx. Ed. Kálmán, Borbála; Nolasco‑Rózsás, Lívia. 2021: Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest (HUN), 78−83.
• Varvara Guljajeva. 2021. From Interaction to Post‑Participation: The Disappearing Role of the Active Participant. In Leonardo journal Vol.54, No. 5, Oct 2021. https://doi.org/10.1162/leon_a_02111
• Varvara Guljajeva. 2021. I am not searching for an active participant. In Ethnographic Experiments with Artists, Designers and Boundary Objects. F. Martinez (eds). UCL Press, London. 89‑91.
• Kelomees, Raivo, Guljajeva, Varvara and Laas, Oliver. 2021. Strategies of Engagement and Attraction in Interactive Artworks. In Radical Immersions. Navigating Between Virtual/Physical Environments and Information Bubbles: DRHA 2019 Conference Proceeedings. Ed. Elena Papadaki. London: University of Greenwich, 130−137.
• Kelomees, Raivo, Guljajeva, Varvara, Laas, Oliver and Montgomery, Sean. 2020. Aesthetic and User Experience in Biofeedback Art. In WHY SENTIENCE? 26th International Symposium on Electronic Art ISEA2020. Ed. Christine Ross, Chris Salter. Montreal: ISEA International, 837−842.
• Varvara Guljajeva. 2019. From interaction to post‑participation: the disappearing role of the active participant. Introducing research framework of post‑participation, in Park, J., Nam, J., and Wan Park, J. (Eds) ISEA2019, Lux Aeterna. Gwangju. 92–98.
• Varvara Guljajeva. 2018. From interaction to post‑participation: the disappearing role of the active participant. (Doctoral Thesis, Estonian Academy of Arts). Tallinn: Estonian Academy of Arts.
• Varvara Guljajeva and Canet Sola, Mar. 2015. An Example of Soft Digital Fabrication. In: Irini Papadimitriou, Andrew Prescott, Jon Rogers (Ed.). Crafting Our Digital Futures. London: Uniform Communications.
• Varvara Guljajeva and Canet Sola, Mar. 2014. NeuroKnitting. First steps toward neuro fabrication. In: Piibe Piirma, Veronika Valk (Ed.). RHIZOPE. Art & Science ‑ Hybrid Art and Interdisciplinary Research (85−88). Tallinn: Estonian Academy of Arts.
• Varvara Guljajeva and Canet Sola, Mar. 2013. Knitic – The Revolution of Soft Digital Fabrication. In: Michelle Baggerman, Danielle Arets (Ed.). Social Fabric (46−50). Eindhoven, The Netherlands: Eindhoven Design Academy.
• Varvara Guljajeva, Canet Sola, Mar and Stubbs, Mike. 2012. The Conceptualisation of Urban Media: FACT’s ‘Disco Window’. In: Susa Pop, Ursula Stalder, Mirjam Struppek , Gernot Tscherteu (Ed.). Urban Media Cultures. Germany: Av Edition. 52−56

Recent Exhibitions

SOLO SHOWS

• 2023. Abello, Imaginary Landscape, Abello Museum, Mollet del Valles, Spain
• 2022. After Everyone Left for Planet B, Kanal Gallery, Võru, Estonia
• 2022. Psychedelic Trips, Alalimon gallery and ISEA conference external program, Barcelona, Spain
• 2022. Synthetic Landscapes, Digitaliseum, Malmö, Sweden
• 2021. Dreampainter, Tabakalera Centre for Contemporary Culture, San Sebastián, Spain
• 2020. NeuroKnitting Beethoven, performance curated by Susa Pop, Hong Kong art center and Art Center Nabi in Seoul with Goethe Institute.
• 2020. We Are the Clouds, UrbanScreen, Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey, Canada

GROUP SHOWS

• 2024. Needle in a Haystack, KIKK Festival, Namur, Belgium
• 2024. HUMANS NEED NOT COUNT, group show The Future is Already Here curated by Véronique Baton, Le Grenier a Sel, Avignon, France
• 2024. Visions of Destruction, IEEE CVPR’2024 AI Art Gallery, Seattle, USA
• 2024. Needle in a Haystack, land art exhibition Wild Bits part of Tartu2024, Maajaam, Estonia
• 2024. Psychedelic Forms, group show Art Digital Vilanova curated by Oscar Civit and Betty Bigas, Contemporary Art Center LA SALA, Vilanova, Barcelona
• 2024. Visions of Destruction, TEI 2024 Art Gallery, Cork School of Music, Ireland
• 2023. Various works, in group show Cultural Analysis & Synthesis curated by Mar Canet, Cultural Data Analytics Conference 2023, Tallinn University, Estonia
• 2023. Visions of Destruction, In Unruly Times, Art Gallery SIGGRAPH Asia 2023, Sydney, Australia
• 2023. Beneath the Cloud, Loading Ceramics curated by Martin Melioranski, Lauri Kilusk and Varvara Guljajeva, Estonian Museum of Architecture, Tallinn, Estonia
• 2023. Keep Smiling, Festival Panoràmic, Fundació Lluís Coromina – Espai Isern Dalmau, Granollers, Barcelona
• 2023. Synthetic Landscapes, ISEA2023 Paris, curated by Vincent Auvray, Digitale Zone in Marseille and Caen, France
• 2023. WiFipedia Buenos Aires, Asuntos de nuestro espacio curated by Cristian Reynaga, EAC Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo, Montevideo, Uruguay
• 2023. Psychedelic Forms, ACM TEI art gallery, Warsaw, Poland
• 2023. Circular Knitic, group exhibition Fait Machine curated by Noëlig Le Roux & Margherita Balzerani, MIAM museum, Sete, France
• 2022. Keep Smiling, Siggraph Asia art program, Daegu, South Korea
• 2022. Interactive NeuroKnitting Beethoven, VISAP, VIS IEEE 2022, Oklahoma City, USA
• 2022. Dream Painter, ACM Multimedia conference art gallery, Lisbon, Portugal
• 2022. Keep Smiling, DRHA conference art gallery curated by Bill Balaskas, Stanley Picker Gallery, UK
• 2022. Keep Smiling, xCoAx conference art gallery, Coimbra, Portugal
• 2022. Synthetic‑scapes of Tartu, group exhibition VAIM curated by Reet Varblande and Mare Taska, Tartu University Museum, Estonia
• 2022. Psychedelic Forms, group exhibition ”Art Mesh” curated by Torun Ekstrand at the Cultural Center Ronneby Art Gallery, Sweden
• 2022. Psychedelic Forms, neurIPS Art Gallery
• 2022. Dream Painter, neurIPS Art Gallery
• 2021/22. HUMANS NEED NOT TO COUNT, group show Decision Making curated by Dominique Moulon and Alain Thibault, Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris, France
• 2021. Keep Smiling, group show El desempleo tecnológico curated by Adonay Bermúdez, Tabakalera, San Sebastian, Spain
• 2021. NFT Shop, Crypto Roots curated by Albert Barqué part of the Sónar Festival Sonar Plus
• 2021. POSTcard Landscapes from Lanzarote I, II at DA Fest (International Digital Art Festival) curated by Venelin Shurelov and Galina Dimitrova‑Dimova in Sofia, Bulgaria
• 2021. NeuroKnitting, group exhibition Soft Negotiations curated by Varvara Guljajeva and Textile Department of EKA, EKA Gallery, Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn
• 2021. Hidden Dimensions, group show Quantum Critic curated by Natalia Alekseeva, Ramiro Camelo, Timo Tuhkanen, Myymälä2 pop‑up gallery, Helsinki and at Masters art school, St.Petersburg.
• 2021. Drawing Automata and I, Human and Eva, festival Speculum Atrium, Trbovlje, Slovenia
• 2021. Signal of the World, online group show Instructions Follow curated by Pau Waelder at Feral File
• 2021. SPAMpoetry, group show Linz: City of Media Arts ‑ The Art of Interface curated by Christa Sommerer and Cesar Escudero Andaluz, Macao International Art Biennale 2021, Chief Curator Yao Feng, Mong‑Ha Villas, Macao
• 2021. Rescue Plan, group show Life in Decline curated by Francisco Martinez, Estonian Mining Museum in Kohtla‑Nõmme, Estonia
• 2021. Phantom Landscapes of Buenos Aires, +CODE Festival curated by Tania Puente and Cristian Reynaga in Buenos Aires, Argentina
• 2021. POSTcard Landscape from Lanzarote I, II, art gallery CONSTRUCTING CONTEXTS of the Symposium Art Machines 2.0 curated by Tobias Klein and Rodrigo Guzman‑Serrano, in City University Hong Kong
• 2020. POSTcard Landscape of Lanzarote, group show Expeditions curated by Victor G. Moreno, festival Veintinueve trece, Lanzarote, Spain
• 2020/2021. Data Shop, group show BIG D@T@! BIG MON€Y! curated by Michael Artz, HALLE 14, Leipzig, Germany
• 2020. Under the Water, group show Ecodata‑Ecomedia‑Ecoaesthetics curated by Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits and Yvonne Volkart, RIXC Art Science Festival, National Library of Latvia, Riga
• 2020. The Rhythm of Heart, group show Data are emotions | Emotions are data curated by Joanna Rutkowska and Magda Kochanowska, Gdynia Design Days, Poland
• 2020. Data Shop, group show E scap ES, Association of Electronic Art and Experimental, Centro C. Galileo, Madrid, Spain
• 2019/20. Binoculars to…Binoculars from…, group show Open Codes by ZKM curated by Blanca Giménez, Rakel Esparza, Fernando Pérez, Jaime de los Ríos at Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao, Spain