I am a transmedia artist from Vienna & Hamburg, based in Los Angeles. My works take form as installation, sculpture, animation and video games. My practice creates playful scenarios for collective imagining through speculative, cyber-feminist methods of worlding - exploring relationships between bodies, environments, landscapes, nature and technology.
I create entry-points to fictional, ambiguous spheres, worlds and futures, that point to absurdities within our society under capitalism and patriarchy; like gender disparities, the unequal distribution of power, utilization of resources, our relationship to nature and the planet, as well as (mental) health; and reimagines them in a playful way. My multilayered art making practice fluctuates between the digital and physical, it goes back and forth between analog practices and the use of digital software and AI. This process stems from my thinking about permeability and interconnectivity between the analog and the digital, the actual and the virtual, and the material and the imagination. Through the combination of classical art forms and old techniques with contemporary digital aesthetics and modern technologies I respond to the fast-paced changes and dynamic reinterpretations and transformations in contemporary art, culture, social media, politics and the corporate sphere.
Inspired by immersive theater, rave and internet culture, video games, archaeology and LARP, I work with aesthetics related to thoughts about (new) forms of togetherness, kinship, and a symbiosis of technology with a reinterpreted form of nature. Using aesthetics related to fantasy and science fiction, my work carries a playfulness and becomes a non-violent, cyberfeminist reclamation of digital media and futuristic narratives in the spirit of Ursula LeGuins “Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction”.
Working with animation and video games I utilize the possibilities of a liberatory fantasy space. I play with phenomena and mechanisms inherent to the medium that exist outside of the logic of gameplay and the engine, like glitches, idle states, conversations with side characters as well as misuse of materials and textures. Working with references and graphic styles from the 90s and early 2000s I refer to a language that is native to my generation.
The spatial and sculptural interactive elements of my work imply a way for bodies to engage inside of the work. They investigate narrative qualities of objects, their attributes beyond functionality, their relationships to bodies and their potential and role in the construction of reality. The engaging body and its absence is an important element. Similar to the “Glitch Feminist Manifesto” by Legacy Russel, I don’t understand the body as a closed off entity but as something constantly shaped by its surroundings, and technology not as a substitution for bodily experiences, but an extension of our corporeal world and potential tool to overcome bodily restrictions and to form a healthier and more sustainable society.
Alongside my art and media practice I also have a practice as a DJ and director/curator of the site specific gallery and community project "The Dirthole" in Cypress Park, Los Angeles - where I bring together visual and performance artists; which allows me to emphasize the importance of collective experiences and worlding in everyday life. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Scenic Design from HFBK Hamburg and an MFA from the Art&Technology program and Integrated Media specialization from California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.
CONTACT
naomisam.xyz@gmail.com
I create entry-points to fictional, ambiguous spheres, worlds and futures, that point to absurdities within our society under capitalism and patriarchy; like gender disparities, the unequal distribution of power, utilization of resources, our relationship to nature and the planet, as well as (mental) health; and reimagines them in a playful way. My multilayered art making practice fluctuates between the digital and physical, it goes back and forth between analog practices and the use of digital software and AI. This process stems from my thinking about permeability and interconnectivity between the analog and the digital, the actual and the virtual, and the material and the imagination. Through the combination of classical art forms and old techniques with contemporary digital aesthetics and modern technologies I respond to the fast-paced changes and dynamic reinterpretations and transformations in contemporary art, culture, social media, politics and the corporate sphere.
Inspired by immersive theater, rave and internet culture, video games, archaeology and LARP, I work with aesthetics related to thoughts about (new) forms of togetherness, kinship, and a symbiosis of technology with a reinterpreted form of nature. Using aesthetics related to fantasy and science fiction, my work carries a playfulness and becomes a non-violent, cyberfeminist reclamation of digital media and futuristic narratives in the spirit of Ursula LeGuins “Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction”.
Working with animation and video games I utilize the possibilities of a liberatory fantasy space. I play with phenomena and mechanisms inherent to the medium that exist outside of the logic of gameplay and the engine, like glitches, idle states, conversations with side characters as well as misuse of materials and textures. Working with references and graphic styles from the 90s and early 2000s I refer to a language that is native to my generation.
The spatial and sculptural interactive elements of my work imply a way for bodies to engage inside of the work. They investigate narrative qualities of objects, their attributes beyond functionality, their relationships to bodies and their potential and role in the construction of reality. The engaging body and its absence is an important element. Similar to the “Glitch Feminist Manifesto” by Legacy Russel, I don’t understand the body as a closed off entity but as something constantly shaped by its surroundings, and technology not as a substitution for bodily experiences, but an extension of our corporeal world and potential tool to overcome bodily restrictions and to form a healthier and more sustainable society.
Alongside my art and media practice I also have a practice as a DJ and director/curator of the site specific gallery and community project "The Dirthole" in Cypress Park, Los Angeles - where I bring together visual and performance artists; which allows me to emphasize the importance of collective experiences and worlding in everyday life. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Scenic Design from HFBK Hamburg and an MFA from the Art&Technology program and Integrated Media specialization from California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.
CONTACT
naomisam.xyz@gmail.com
CV
2024 MFA in Art & Technology and Integrated Media at California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles
2022 BFA in Fine Arts, Scenography/Scene Design at HfbK Hamburg
2017 BSc in Urban Planning, HafenCity University Hamburg
2013 Carpentry Apprenticeship Diploma & High School Graduation
SELECTED SHOWS
2024 s3r3nity_sp3llcast3erx2001 video, in Corporate Unwellness Group Show, curated by Schwindel LLC, Vienna, Austria
2024 The society of birds, in Birdculture Group Show, at Pallas Gallery, San Francisco
2024 s3r3nity_sp3llcast3erx2001, Thesis Show at Calarts, Los Angeles
2023 This is not a Place of Honor, at Calarts Art & Technology Midresidency Show, Los Angeles
2023 Looking for Evidence of the Virtual in a World that is disappointingly literal, at re:publica, Hamburg
2023 Opening of The Dirthole gallery project, Los Angeles
2023 Desert Interface, at Reimagining Art Institutions and Community at Human Resources, Los Angeles
2023 Desert Interface, at Speculum Fortunae at NonPlusUltra, Los Angeles
2023 Ancient Desert, for Punitive Worm Performance at 2220 Arts, Los Angeles
2022 Looking for Evidence of the Virtual in a World that is disappointingly Literal, at HfbK Grad Show, Hamburg
2022 Stuck in a bad Dream - Looking for Loopholes, at Center for Integrated Media, Calarts. Los Angeles
2022 Desertgame, at LUPERCALIA festival, Mojave Desert
2022 Fly on the Wings of Love, at HfbK Hamburg Show
2021 (Young) Burning Issues at Kampnagel Hamburg
2021 Video killed the Radio Star, at ASA Open Studios, Hamburg
2019 The Fetishization of the Wiener Schnitzel, at Anatolia Schnitzel, Vienna
2019 schatten (eurydike sagt), Scene Design at Kampnagel, Hamburg
2019 Baby don’t hurt me, at HfbK Hamburg Show
2018 Hills, at Isola Alicudi Group Show at Galerie Westwerk, Hamburg
2022 BFA in Fine Arts, Scenography/Scene Design at HfbK Hamburg
2017 BSc in Urban Planning, HafenCity University Hamburg
2013 Carpentry Apprenticeship Diploma & High School Graduation
SELECTED SHOWS
2024 s3r3nity_sp3llcast3erx2001 video, in Corporate Unwellness Group Show, curated by Schwindel LLC, Vienna, Austria
2024 The society of birds, in Birdculture Group Show, at Pallas Gallery, San Francisco
2024 s3r3nity_sp3llcast3erx2001, Thesis Show at Calarts, Los Angeles
2023 This is not a Place of Honor, at Calarts Art & Technology Midresidency Show, Los Angeles
2023 Looking for Evidence of the Virtual in a World that is disappointingly literal, at re:publica, Hamburg
2023 Opening of The Dirthole gallery project, Los Angeles
2023 Desert Interface, at Reimagining Art Institutions and Community at Human Resources, Los Angeles
2023 Desert Interface, at Speculum Fortunae at NonPlusUltra, Los Angeles
2023 Ancient Desert, for Punitive Worm Performance at 2220 Arts, Los Angeles
2022 Looking for Evidence of the Virtual in a World that is disappointingly Literal, at HfbK Grad Show, Hamburg
2022 Stuck in a bad Dream - Looking for Loopholes, at Center for Integrated Media, Calarts. Los Angeles
2022 Desertgame, at LUPERCALIA festival, Mojave Desert
2022 Fly on the Wings of Love, at HfbK Hamburg Show
2021 (Young) Burning Issues at Kampnagel Hamburg
2021 Video killed the Radio Star, at ASA Open Studios, Hamburg
2019 The Fetishization of the Wiener Schnitzel, at Anatolia Schnitzel, Vienna
2019 schatten (eurydike sagt), Scene Design at Kampnagel, Hamburg
2019 Baby don’t hurt me, at HfbK Hamburg Show
2018 Hills, at Isola Alicudi Group Show at Galerie Westwerk, Hamburg
