My name is Sylwia Zolkiewska. I am a Polish new media artist and researcher working across artistic practice, writing, and critical reflection on technology and visual culture. My work explores how emerging technologies reshape visual culture, perception, and the shifting relationship between digital and physical space.
My bio
Practice
Working across artistic research, experimental moving image, AI-based processes, and adaptive installation formats, I investigate the fragile, ephemeral, and transformative condition of contemporary visual experience. Through adaptive, often minimalist forms, I explore how digital tools, interfaces, and platforms influence memory, time, emotion, and the environments we inhabit. I treat art not only as a form of expression, but also as a method of investigation.
Artistic Trajectory
My path has not been linear. Rather than a smooth artistic evolution, it has been shaped by a series of smaller revolutions, shifts, and long periods of searching across different media, contexts, and ways of working. I was originally trained in fine arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, but early on I moved beyond traditional forms toward experimental film, animation, and later new media. I continued this exploration at the New Media Faculty of Turku Polytechnic in Finland, and later worked professionally in motion design and special effects. These transitions between art, applied media, moving image, and research still inform the way I work today.
Current Research Focus
In 2024, I completed my doctoral degree at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Warsaw with a dissertation on the aesthetics of the mobile era, focused on the impact of smartphones, apps, and mobile platforms on art and visual culture. In recent years, my research and artistic experimentation have increasingly centred on AI, platform aesthetics, authorship, and the ecological costs of contemporary digital tools.
International Recognition
My work has been presented in more than 50 exhibitions, festivals, and art events on four continents. It has been supported by four public scholarships, including two grants from the Ministry of Culture and two KPO for Culture scholarships. Some of my works are part of the Punto y Raya new media collection, and my practice was recently featured in Contemporary Lynx along Leo Crane in 2026 article by Alicja Stąpór titled Artificial Intelligence in Artistic Practice.
Read more on the Recognition page.
Writings
For years, I’ve been writing about the intersections of art, technology, and digital culture, analyzing how emerging innovations reshape visual language and artistic expression. My texts—published mainly in Contemporary Lynx online magazine—explore themes such as sustainability, speculative futures, and the evolving role of new media in contemporary art. By combining artistic research with technological discourse, I aim to provide critical perspectives on how digital transformation redefines the boundaries of visual culture today.
List of articles
- Low-waste practices in digital art. Material and Mental Footprint of “Non-existing” Images, Contemporary Lynx Online, February 25th, 2026
- AI (versus?) artists: snapshot from the eye of the hurricane, Contemporary Lynx Online, December 18th, 2024
- Filtered realities: How mobile technologies have changed visual culture and landscape. Contemporary Lynx Online, December 4th, 2023
- Innovation for our planet. How technologies prevent food waste, Contemporary Lynx, 2(18)2022
- Our world in 2050. Prediction and Challenges in Art, Culture and Education, Contemporary Lynx, 2(16)2021
- 10 culture-oriented apps, that are worth installing on your phone in 2021, Contemporary Lynx Online, July 7th, 2021
- Filmhack: Interactive Films. Where Audiovisual Narration Meets State Of The Art Technologies, Contemporary Lynx Online, November 9th, 2020
- Less is more. Artistic mobile games, Contemporary Lynx Online, July 1st 2020
- Predicting the future: visual arts in 2050, Contemporary Lynx Online, July 19th, 2019
- Will AI replace art curators?, Contemporary Lynx Online, October 13th, 2018
- App art and new media: how mobile apps have captured artists’ imagination, Contemporary Lynx Online, July 21st 2018
- Art in Your Pocket. Museums in your smartphone – how the modern, mobile phone-driven society can access works of art, Contemporary Lynx Online, May 26th, 2018