My creations include robotic art, sculptures, sculpture-paintings, digitally drawn artworks, video art and installations. Through this process, I experiment with analogue and digital techniques, combining and transforming them. For instance, I use FaceTime mapping to superimpose my facial expressions onto physical sculpture-paintings, breathing life into these formerly silent works of art by creating videos. Through this process, I attempt to break down the boundaries imposed by formats, media, people and society, surrendering myself to the creative journey. In my universe of humans and technology, as well as their fusion and influence on our identities, the question always arises of who invented whom.

This fundamental question is addressed in the robotic artwork Who is ADAM? When creating Adam, Michelangelo demonstrated how humans were created by pointing to the touch, the interface. Through my art, I explore where the analogue and digital worlds converge. Today, technology cannot be separated from humans. It takes away abilities but also creates new ones. For me, this is the crucial point.

When I was 27 and had completed my Master's degree in Cultural and Gender Studies, I developed the concept of the 'Divorg', a dividing organism. Culturally speaking, the Divorg is the offspring of the cyborg — a concept examined in detail by Donna Haraway in her Cyborg Manifesto. This immediately conjures up images of the Terminator or the replicants in Blade Runner, which portray technology as dangerous. The term 'cyborg' refers to a cybernetic organism that is controlled. However, this term seems outdated to me in relation to the human subject in the 21st century. The Divorg, on the other hand, is a further development of the cyborg — a dividing organism. It is an organism that must keep moving to survive in today's fast-paced, information-rich world. This is precisely the interface that I explore with my art. I see technology as an opportunity to embrace the future with curiosity rather than fear. Art is my preferred means of facing the future.
New concepts of identity are always criticised at first. That's how it has to be.

However, I am more interested in the opportunities that technology offers us and the things we gain from it than in what it takes away. We have already crossed that line, so for me, that point is settled. Technology has become indispensable, and I want to give it a face. I want to make technology visible. This makes it our mirror.

I was born in 1979 and grew up in a small town in the Swiss canton of Aargau. I lived in a kind of commune with my patchwork family. I now live in Zurich. My father's work with computers in the 1980s paved the way for me to explore the relationship between humans and technology. I attended art school in Zurich at the age of 16, and I still live there today. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree at the age of 20. I completed my Master's degree in Cultural/Gender Studies at ZHdK when I was 27. This strongly influenced my worldview. Rather than simply reproducing the work of the great masters of contemporary cultural studies, I wanted to continue writing myself. In doing so, I developed the concept of 'Divorg — a dividing organism'.

Additionally, inspiration is literally stuck in my head. I suffer from schizoaffective disorder. I hear voices and see things that others don't. I hear distortions. The world collides, exploding and disintegrating into a thousand pieces — and with it, a thousand identities. On the one hand, this is a curse, but blessings follow hard work. Today, I see this great dimensionality as a significant source of artistic enrichment. Art helps me to cope with my illness. It enables me to express myself in a way that makes the world tangible and prevents me from becoming lost in my own universe. The tug-of-war between the 'inside' and the 'outside', and the power that arises from the struggle between identities, provides me with inspiration. This inspiration reflects the duality of 'analogue' and 'digital'. I have been exploring these fields for over 30 years, focusing on the fusion of humans and technology. It is important to me that barriers are broken down and interfaces are illuminated.

I work with a variety of materials. For physical works, these include pieces of computer circuit board, ceramics, silicon and technical elements. When it comes to digital works, I use various software and draw on my iPad, embracing both analogue and digital work processes without boundaries. Art is my weapon of choice when it comes to confronting the future.

https://www.noa-ry.com/
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Aug 16 Noa Ry

Aug 16 Cor Fafiani

Aug 16 Hédia Carron