Frederik De Wilde

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ISEA2022

Frederik De Wilde’s artistic praxis situates itself on the interstice of art, science and technology exploring notions of the inaudible, intangible and invisible in digital and physical spaces. De Wilde critically examines the impact of technology and the role of art in our increasingly hyperconnected, -automated, -polarised world but which potentially offers a new model, new aesthetic with new consequences and organisation.

I am fascinated by dark ecologies and invisible territories and like to examine the radical shifts technology imposes on society and our “environment”, sometimes on the side of the technological, often in the conceptual, perceptual, sensorial and human register. My artistic praxis is grounded in the interaction between complex systems, processes resulting in post-minimal and techno-poetic aesthetics. Moreover, the indistinct, diffuse, ‘fuzzy’ area where the biological and technological overlap and commingle is a productive and favoured ground for my projects. I consider art not only a mirror to reflect on society with a critical lens, but also a hammer to shape it. An excellent example is the conceptualisation of the pioneering original Blackest-Black artworks (a new nano engineered colour for a new industrial revolution exploring the nature of nothingness) made in collaboration with Rice University and NASA. The project received the 2010 Ars Electronica Next Idea Award and the Creative Cities best European collaboration award between an artist and scientist. The project was extensively covered (e.g. Huffington Post, Dazzed, Creators Project, TED ideas worth spreading, Creativity World Forum 2011, and inspired many other artists worldwide; most notably Sir Anish Kapoor (Vantablack).

Frederik is a laureate and alumnus of the Royal Flemish Young Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts; artscience expert at the JRC EU; guest professor at the Artscience Interfaculty in Den Hague, Transmedia Brussels, St. Martins College London. Frederik is also an innovation consultant, evaluator and jury member for Innovative Partnerships of the Flemish Ministry (BE). Frederik collaborated with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the University of Leuven (Prometheus, division of Skeletal Tissue Engineering), Hasselt University (I-BioStat), UGent (Textile Department), Wyoming University, …, and many other organisations (e.g. ESTEC, NASA) worldwide. De Wilde is a finalist of ‘Giant Steps’ which aims to bring an artist to the Moon supported by x-prize lab MIT; finalist of the ZKM app art award with Coremites; Finalist of Worth.eu; Finalist of MediaFutures.eu; Finalist of BetterFactory.eu; Fred was Nominated for the Chinese 2019 “Present Future” Art & Technology Star Award.

De Wilde has exhibited at notable places like (selection) BOZAR museum of fine arts (Belgium), Brakke Grond (Netherlands), ZKM (Germany), Carnegie Museum of Arts (USA), Venice Biennial 2017 (Italy), MuST museum (Italy), MetaMorf Biennial (Norway), National Museum of the 21st Century (Italy), Kunsthal Amersfoort (Netherlands), Art Basel (Switzerland), Tetem (Netherlands), Todays Art (Netherlands), Z33 (Belgium), Scopitone (France), Singapore Art Science Museum (Singapore), MAAT museum (Portugal), Whitechapel Gallery (UK), Carroll/Fletcher gallery (UK), Centre Pompidou (France), National Gallery Singapore (Singapore), Vasarelly Foundation (France), Gulbenkian Museum (Portugal), Moody Center for The Arts Houston (USA), SIGGRAPH (USA), iMAL (Belgium) and the prestigious Monte-Carlo Global Ocean Gala (Monaco) organised by Prince Albert II, Onassis Foundation (Greece, USA), … De Wilde’s art is in the permanent collection of the ZKM (Germany), Frost Museum (USA, Miami), CHOPARD foundation (Switzerland), …

Frederik currently holds a position as affiliated artist at the University of West-England in the The Unconventional Computing Laboratory founded by Prof Andy Adamatzky in 2001 as a response to an urgent need to develop computers for next century (https://uncomp.uwe.ac.uk/people/) and exploring complex dynamics of non-lineair systems.

In 2021 he was featured in three episodes of EPISODE 8: Privacy_PART 1: Whose Data Is It? | Out of Reach?ART+TECHNOLOGY brought to you by Hyundai Motor Company and produced in partnership with Bloomberg Media Group.