Damjanski is an artist living in a browser. Concerned with themes of power, poetry and participation, he explores the concept of apps as artworks. The app Bye Bye Camera is the camera for the post-human era. Every picture people take automatically removes any person. The app Never Not There transformed the ZKM museum in Karlsruhe, Germany into a dystopian server room and the LongARcat app creates long cats in AR.
In 2018, he co-founded MoMAR, an Augmented Reality gallery app aimed at democratizing physical exhibition spaces, art institutions and curatorial processes within New York’s Museum of Modern Art. WIRED covered the launch with the headline "Augmented Reality Is Transforming Museums".
He created an online space that only programs can access. This software performance, called Humans not invited, first hit Reddit’s front page before it was shown at the König Galerie in Berlin.
In 2023, he launched Still Here, a site-specific and permanent Augmented Reality sculpture of himself floating above the entire island of Manhattan in New York.
His work has appeared internationally at the ZKM Karlsruhe, Centre Pompidou, NRW-Forum, Postmasters, Roehrs & Boetsch, Pioneer Works, König Galerie, MoCDA, Tropez, Import Projects. Currently Damjanski resides in New York.
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Sleepover2024, online performance @ New Float, www
Sleepover is an online exhibition and performance. At the opening, people were invited to join New Float’s virtual space and put down their phones/laptops to take a communal 30-minute nap..
Magenta Elephants2024, sculptures, app @ Office Impart, Berlin
A URL diorama created with IRL sculptures based on the object detection process. Accompanying the exhibition is the 'Self Portrait' app. Exhibition text by Charlotte Kent.
The app 'Self Portrait' only works when the artist, Damjanski, is present in the picture. If he is in the picture, he will be deleted and replaced with a bounding box labeled 'damjanski #[number of pictures created until then],' based on the artist's 'Self Portrait' sculpture that is part of the 'Magenta Elephants' exhibition at Office Impart in Berlin.
A site-specific 'Unhuman Composition' that is generatively moving. It's based on the dapp Unhuman Composition.
More info about the site specific installation here
More pictures of the 'Unhuman Composition Moving' here
Nude Study RGB Dance2024, choreography, video, software @ NEORT++, Tokyo
This piece is part of the group show 'Web as a Medium' and was realized with the help of Julie Seal, a movement artist, who performed a choreography inspired by the RGB color theme.
The work 'Tlönish' is a rendition of Jorge Luis Borges‘ 1940 short story 'Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius', delving into themes of reality, language, and existence. Borges depicted the language of Tlön as devoid of nouns, relying instead on impersonal verbs modified by monosyllabic suffixes or prefixes. For instance, ‚The moon rose above the river‘ in Tlönish reads: ‚Upward behind the onstreaming it mooned.‘
Using artificial intelligence, Damjanski developed the Tlönish language and translated the short story into 'Tlönish’.
The dress, the wind and me 2024, sculpture @ Postmasters, Budapest
In 'The Seven Year Itch,' actress Marilyn Monroe famously stands over a subway grate, her white dress billowing from the air of a passing train. Wearing the same dress at this location, Damjanski replicated the scene, filmed himself in the exact position, and uploaded the video to a dedicated website. A customized laptop intermittently activates fans, triggering updates on the website that synchronize with the fluttering of the dress in the video.
KAiRAiOKE Venice2024, A.i. performance with Aarea @ Venice, Italy
A performance that utilizes artificial intelligence technology to generate videos in real time from karaoke singing. Developed in partnership with David Lobser and in collaboration with at a karaoke bar in Venice, Italy.
KAiRAiOKE São Paulo2023, A.i. performance with Aarea & Ybytu @ São Paulo
A performance that utilizes artificial intelligence technology to generate videos in real time from karaoke singing. Developed in partnership with David Lobser and realized in collaboration with Aarea and Ybytu at a karaoke bar in Japantown, São Paulo.
Sie liebt mich, sie liebt mich nicht v22023, software performance @ :DDD Kunst House, Yerevan
Two synthetic bots commenting alternately on a daisy flower on Instagram: "She Loves Me" & "She Loves Me Not" until Instagram shuts one down and the next comment from the other bot determines the outcome.
Inside: Balloon Dog2023, augmented reality sculpture @ Goethe-Institut, Buenos Aires
Inside: Balloon Dog is a web-based and site-specific Augmented Reality sculpture and part of the group exhibition 'El centro ha muerto, viva el centro'.
The NFT ⓦⒽⒶⓣ ⒾⓈ ⓜⓨ ⓢⒺⓔⒹ ⓅⒽⓇⓐⓈⓔ represents the seed phrase of the wallet 0xCEAFbEC0C3e02CEcDbB5E7412092890c1Dff058d that holds it currently. Each word of the seed phrase was used as a prompt for DALL·E. Anyone can grab the NFT if they guess the right words and log into the wallet.
The Crypto.OGenerator creates crypto OG badge NFTs that are determined by the person's first interaction with the ETH blockchain. All crypto OG badges are fully stored and rendered onchain - they are mutable and add an 'O' every year moving forward.
The OGenerator creates OG badge NFTs that display the moment when a person began their involvement in art and technology, directly from their wallet. All OG badges are fully stored and rendered onchain - they are mutable and add an 'O' every year moving forward.
Unhuman Compositions is a collection of 777 participatory generative photography NFTs – each generated when you take a photo with the camera of your smartphone. Each NFT is fully stored and rendered on chain.
The group show 'Augmented Species', curated by Tina Sauerlaender and Ursula Ströbele, brings together five artists: Sofia Crespo & Feileacan McCormick, Tamiko Thiel, Carla Gannis and Joanna Hoffmann. MoMAR v4 is an international touring exhibition of AR-sculptures in museums and sculpture gardens around the world.
Select all squares with memes 01:13 01.07.20192021, sculpture @ König Galerie, Berlin
This sculpture is part of the group exhibition THE ARTIST IS ONLINE. PAINTING AND SCULPTURE IN THE POSTDIGITAL AGE curated by Anika Meier and Johann König at the König gallery in Berlin. 'Select all squares with memes 01:13 01.07.2019' is a physical manifestation of the permanently available online performance, Humans not invited, which is a reversed CAPTCHA that filters out humans and is only accessible to bots.
This piece is part of the group exhibition 'Abstract Art in the Age of New Media' curated by Marie Chatel and Serena Tabacchi at the Museum of Contemporary Digital Art.
FitArt – Female Body2020, app, group show with Roehrs & Boetsch, Zurich
FitArt provides art shows on your phone in the form of a fitness plan. The application is designed as a series of workouts, featuring exercises created by artists: !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Alexandra Bachzetsis, Johanna Bruckner, Giulia Essyad, Juliette Gampert, Maëlle Gross, Maria Guta, Esther Hunziker, Douna Lim & Théo Pesso, Katrin Niedermeier, Simone C. Niquille / Technoflesh, Colette Sadler & Mikko Gaestel, Ramaya Tegegne & Soraya Lutangu and Teresa Vittucci. This exhibition is realized with the support of Pro Helvetia
FitArt – Connected in Isolation2020, group show with Roehrs & Boetsch, Zurich
FitArt provides art shows on your phone in the form of a fitness plan. The application is designed as a series of workouts, featuring exercises created by artists: Petra Cortright, JODI, Olia Lialina, Constant Dullaart, exonemo, Elisa Giardina Papa, Lauren Huret, Molly Soda, Jeremy Bailey, Sam Lavigne, Jillian Mayer, Evan Roth, Sebastian Schmieg and Damjanski.
Contagion Post Human - Trailer2020, video @ Tropez, Berlin
Contagion Post Human - Trailer is a trailer for the upcoming full Contagion Post Human movie (1h 46min). It's part of the series called Post Human Media.
Post Human Dogs is a new series that I started during the COVID phase here in New York. Every day I try to make 5k steps to stay healthy and sane. During my walks I realized that the almost deserted city resembles my Bye Bye Camera (www.byebye.camera) pictures that I have been taking since last year – no humans on the streets. During my walks I came across dog owners. The application uses neural networks to erase humans from the picture but the camera keeps the human traces as well as the dogs. I compare these visual traces to surreal artifacts of a speculative scenario that is post-human.
The installation Humans Not Invited - IRL is a physical manifestation of the permanently available online performance, Humans not invited, which is a reversed CAPTCHA that filters out humans and is only accessible to bots.
Nude Study 292019, augmented photography @ CADAF, Miami
'Nude Study 29' was part of the CADAF fair during Art Basel in Miami. This piece is part of a new series called 'Nude Studies' where I explore photography with the Bye Bye Camera.
Natural selection2019, ongoing performance series @ ON CANAL, New York
The project investigates ideas of collaboration with AI. Exploring the subject of thinking processes, I created an AI trained on archived MoMA exhibition statements. The exhibition comprises a headset where people can interact with the AI to create and print new exhibition statements.
Troll Candy2018, installation @ SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York
Troll Candy is a product sold in a bubble gum machine. People can buy delicious looking candy for a quarter but instead of receiving the ones on display they are served Troll Candy. It’s a piece of candy with the troll meme smile on it and it tastes bitter.
MoMAR v12018, gallery @ MoMA New York
An unauthorized gallery concept aimed at democratizing physical exhibition spaces, museums, and the curation of art within them. MoMAR is non-profit, non-owned, and exists in the absence of any privatized structures. MoMAR uses Augmented Reality to overlay art onto existing artwork and frames housed in museums and gallery spaces around the world. It’s also open source.
A CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) that filters out humans and only lets programs pass. This is the first iteration of a system that I am working on.
what am I pretending today?2018, browser extension
The extension replaces in Facebook the most displayed question ‘What’s on your mind?’ with how most of the people answer the question in reality: ‘What are you pretending today?’.
blow_hot_and_cold2017, installation @ Import Projects, Berlin
The work consists of a life-size politician mounted to a flag pole surrounded by eight fans connected to twitter. Each fan represents an opposing political opinion currently dividing the political landscape. blow_hot_and_cold exhibited during the German federal election 2017 when the dividing opinions included social justice, refugee reception, EU exit and the ‘Energiewende’.
Sie liebt mich, sie liebt mich nicht2017, software performance
Two synthetic bots commenting alternately on a daisy flower on Instagram: "She Loves Me" & "She Loves Me Not" until Instagram shuts one down and the next comment from the other bot determines the outcome.
Around the world and dot in red2017, online performance
A livestream is started in New York and is rebroadcast live from Lisbon, then to Berlin, then to Belgrade, then to Los Angeles and finally returned to New York. This creates an infinite loop of live streams that circle the world with a dot in red. It's the 3rd piece of the series It's just all now.
3472242391 and hand in red2017, online performance
A phone and a red hand in a live stream and everybody can call it and talk to the visitors of the website. It's the 2nd piece of the series It's just all now.
It's the first piece of the series It's just all now. and consists of a Facebook live stream of Damjanski's Twitter live of Damjanski's Instagram live of Damjanski's Youtube live of his Facebook live... and a herring in red. The appearance of the herring in red in the live streams is connected to real world happenings that appear within his feeds outside of the live streams.
The work consists of a life-size politician mounted to a flag pole surrounded by eight fans connected to twitter. Each fan represents an opposing political opinion currently dividing the political landscape. blow_hot_and_cold premiered during the U.S. election 2016 when the dividing opinions included gun laws, climate change, health care, and abortion.
