About

ORKHAN MAMMADOV (B. 1990, GANJA, AZERBAIJAN) IS AN INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED NEW MEDIA ARTIST WHOSE PRACTICE EXPLORES THE INTERSECTIONS OF ART, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY. RENOWNED FOR HIS PIONEERING WORK WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND GENERATIVE ART, MAMMADOV’S INSTALLATIONS AND DATA-DRIVEN PROJECTS TRANSFORM THE COLLECTIVE MEMORY INTO IMMERSIVE AESTHETIC EXPERIENCES.

EDUCATED IN COMPUTER SCIENCE, VISUAL COMMUNICATION DESIGN, AND FINE ARTS, MAMMADOV CULTIVATED AN INTERDISCIPLINARY WORLDVIEW FROM THE OUTSET. A SELF-TAUGHT GRAPHIC AND WEB DESIGNER BY THE AGE OF TEN, HE BEGAN COMPETING ON THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE AS A TEENAGER, RAPIDLY EXPANDING HIS SKILL SET TO ENCOMPASS PRODUCT, MOTION, AND INTERACTIVE DESIGN, AS WELL AS PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO. HIS EARLY FASCINATION WITH MERGING CREATIVITY AND COMPUTATION LAID THE FOUNDATION FOR THE BOUNDARY-PUSHING ART HE WOULD LATER DEVELOP.

AT EIGHTEEN, MAMMADOV EMBARKED ON A PROFESSIONAL CAREER AS A WEB AND GRAPHIC DESIGNER, RISING THROUGH THE RANKS OF DESIGN STUDIOS AND AGENCIES TO ASSUME ROLES AS ART AND CREATIVE DIRECTOR. BY TWENTY-THREE, HE DEBUTED HIS FIRST PUBLIC ART INSTALLATION, WHICH SIGNALED HIS SHIFT INTO CONTEMPORARY ART. HIS EARLIEST WORKS CENTERED ON AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA AND INTERACTIVE INSTALLATIONS, EVENTUALLY EVOLVING TO FOCUS ON THE AESTHETIC POSSIBILITIES OF MACHINE LEARNING AND AI. THIS TRANSITION CULMINATED IN REPRESENTING AZERBAIJAN AT THE VENICE BIENNALE IN 2019—AN INTERNATIONAL MILESTONE THAT INTRODUCED MAMMADOV’S VISIONARY APPROACH TO A GLOBAL AUDIENCE.

OVER MORE THAN A DECADE OF PRACTICE, MAMMADOV HAS MOUNTED UPWARDS OF TWELVE SOLO EXHIBITIONS AND PARTICIPATED IN OVER TWENTY GROUP SHOWS, GARNERING MULTIPLE INTERNATIONAL ART AND TECHNOLOGY AWARDS. HIS WORK—COLLECTED BY MORE THAN ONE THOUSAND PATRONS WORLDWIDE—HAS GENERATED OVER $1 MILLION IN PRIMARY SALES, POSITIONING HIM AS A TRAILBLAZER WITHIN THE DIGITAL ART LANDSCAPE. LIKE HIS INFLUENCES WHO PROBE THE NATURE OF “POST-HUMAN” AND MACHINE INTELLIGENCE, MAMMADOV HARNESSES CUTTING-EDGE ALGORITHMS AND COMPUTATIONAL PROCESSES TO PROPOSE NEW CULTURAL NARRATIVES AND VISUAL VOCABULARIES.

FROM HIS EARLY, SELF-DRIVEN EXPERIMENTS TO HIS GENERATIVE AI INSTALLATIONS AND LARGE-SCALE IMMERSIVE ENVIRONMENTS, MAMMADOV CONTINUES TO EXPAND THE POSSIBILITIES OF ART IN THE DIGITAL AGE. HIS FORWARD-THINKING PROJECTS INVITE AUDIENCES TO SEE TECHNOLOGY NOT MERELY AS A TOOL, BUT AS A MEANS OF REIMAGINING HOW WE RELATE TO CULTURE, HERITAGE, AND SHARED HUMAN EXPERIENCES. THROUGH EACH DATA SCULPTURE, INTERACTIVE PIECE, AND SITE-SPECIFIC INSTALLATION, MAMMADOV REDEFINES THE ROLE OF THE ARTIST IN AN ERA SHAPED BY MACHINE INTELLIGENCE—AN ERA IN WHICH CREATIVITY AND COMPUTATION CONVERGE TO ENVISION ALTERNATIVE REALITIES.

INSPIRED BY THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF DATA AND MACHINE INTELLIGENCE, MY WORK RESIDES AT THE INTERSECTION OF ART, TECHNOLOGY, AND COLLECTIVE MEMORY. I ENDEAVOR TO ILLUMINATE THE HIDDEN NARRATIVES EMBEDDED ACROSS GLOBAL CULTURES. BY BLENDING COMPUTATIONAL AESTHETICS WITH A DEEP ENGAGEMENT WITH THE EVOLVING DYNAMICS OF DIGITAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND PERCEPTION, I SEEK TO QUESTION OUR NOTIONS OF MEMORY WITHIN AN ERA SHAPED BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.

MY PRACTICE DRAWS UPON COLLECTING EXTENSIVE DATA SETS—FROM INSTITUTIONAL ARCHIVES AND PUBLIC DOMAIN TO BESPOKE SOURCES. IN HARNESSING THESE STREAMS OF INFORMATION, I CRAFT GENERATIVE ART COLLECTIONS, IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES AND NEW MEDIA ART INSTALLATIONS THAT PROBE THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN THE TANGIBLE AND THE INTANGIBLE. I AM PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN HOW COLLECTIVE AND COGNITIVE MEMORIES INTERACT WITH MACHINE INTELLIGENCE, REVEALING THE SHIFTING BOUNDARIES BETWEEN WHAT WE PERCEIVE AS “REAL” VERSUS “SIMULATED” OR “FAKE.” BY FOREGROUNDING THIS TENSION, I INVITE VIEWERS TO REFLECT ON THE FRAGILITY OF OUR KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURES AND TO CONSIDER HOW TECHNOLOGY CAN BOTH PRESERVE AND DISTORT OUR SHARED PAST.

BUILDING UPON GENERATIVE PROCESSES, I CREATE CUSTOM AI MODELS AND DATA-DRIVEN SYSTEMS THAT EVOLVE WITH MINIMAL HUMAN INTERVENTION—MIRRORING THE ORGANIC WAYS IN WHICH ORAL TRADITIONS, HISTORICAL NARRATIVES, AND CULTURAL NORMS MORPH OVER TIME. INFLUENCED BY PIONEERING MEDIA ARTISTS LIKE NAM JUNE PAIK AND JODI, AS WELL AS THEORISTS SUCH AS MARSHALL MCLUHAN AND LEV MANOVICH, I REGARD ART AS A META-DISCIPLINE THAT UNITES PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY, TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION, AND A CRITICAL ENGAGEMENT WITH CONTEMPORARY CULTURE. THROUGH THIS LENS, MY WORKS BECOME CONDUITS FOR EXAMINING HOW HUMANITY, IN THE FACE OF ACCELERATED CHANGE, CAN REMAIN ETHICALLY ANCHORED AND SUSTAINABLE.

I CONTINUALLY EXPLORE THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN THE MECHANICAL PRECISION OF DIGITAL SYSTEMS AND THE WARMTH OF HUMAN EXPRESSION. EXHIBITED AT INTERNATIONAL VENUES LIKE THE VENICE BIENNALE, MIAMI ART BASEL, ART DUBAI, AND DUBAI’S MUSEUM OF THE FUTURE, MY PROJECTS SPOTLIGHT THE PARADOX OF OUR HYPERCONNECTED REALITY: THE TENSIONS BETWEEN GLOBALISM AND LOCAL IDENTITY, BETWEEN TECHNOLOGICAL UTOPIAS AND SOCIO-POLITICAL TURMOIL, AND BETWEEN THE ETHICAL IMPERATIVES OF SUSTAINABILITY AND THE GROWING ENERGY DEMANDS OF AI.

ULTIMATELY, MY ART ASPIRES TO SERVE AS A CATALYST FOR DIALOGUE, CHALLENGING US TO RE-EXAMINE THE DELICATE BALANCE BETWEEN PROGRESS AND PRESERVATION, THE REAL AND THE ARTIFICIAL, THE PAST AND THE IMPENDING UNKNOWN.