Sougwen 愫君 Chung (1985) is a Chinese-Canadian artist and researcher, widely considered a pioneer in the field of human-machine collaboration – exploring the mark-made-by-hand and the mark-made-by-machine as an approach to understanding the dynamics of humans and systems. Sougwen’s work MEMORY (Drawing Operations Unit: Generation 2) is part of the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert museum, and is the first AI model to be collected by a major institution. Recently, Chung was recognized as a Cultural Leader at the World Economic Forum and named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in AI.
Chung has exhibited internationally at the Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver; Art Basel, Miami; National Art Center, Tokyo; NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo; ArtScience Museum, Singapore; MIT Media Lab, Cambridge; The Drawing Center, New York; The New Museum, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Geneva; Haus der Kunst, Munich; Mana Contemporary, New York; M+ Museum, Hong Kong; Boston Art Center, Boston; Tribeca Film Festival, New York; Francisco Carolinum, Linz; Singapore International Festival of Arts; Pearl Art Museum, Shanghai; and the V&A Museum, London.
Their work has been featured in publications including Art in America, Artnet, Artsy, BBC, Dazed and Confused, Designboom, EXIT Magazine, Fast Company, Financial Times, Forbes, Irish Times, Noema Magazine, NOWNESS, Seattle Times, Superrare, TED, The Art Newspaper, The Atlantic, The Jakarta Post, The New Yorker, The New York Times, TIME Magazine, USA Today, Wallpaper, The Washington Post, and Wired.
A former TED Speaker and researcher at MIT Media Lab, Chung has spoken at international conferences including the United Nations, Geneva; World Economic Forum, Davos and China; Oxford University; SIGGRAPH Conference, Vancouver; Global Art Forum, Singapore; World Science Festival, New York; Cannes Lions, Cannes; Gaia Art Foundation, London; for UNESCO; and at Tribeca Film Festival Interactive, New York.
Chung has been selected as TIME Magazine’s TIME100 A.I., for excellence in the Arts & Sciences as Woman of the Year in Monaco, received the Lumen Prize for Art in Technology, was an inaugural E.A.T. Artist in Residence in partnership with New Museum and Bell Labs, was awarded a commission for project Omnia per Omnia, and was the Japan Media Arts recipient of the Excellence Award for Drawing Operations.
Additionally, Sougwen Chung has been awarded Artist in Residence positions at Google, Studio Wayne McGregor, Laurenz Haus Basel, Eyebeam, Japan Media Arts, and Pier 9 Autodesk, and is the founder of SCILICET, an experimental studio based in London.
Awards
2024 — Time100 Impact Award Winner - Worldwide
2024 — Art & Science Award Winner, China National Science and Technology Museum, Beijing CN
2023 — Time100 Most Influential People in AI - Worldwide
2020 — Falling Walls Award Winner, Science in the Arts, Berlin, DE
2019 — Lumen Art & Technology Prize Winner, London, UK
2019 — Monaco's Woman of the Year for Achivements in Art & Science Monte-Carlo, Monaco
2016 — Excellence Award (Entertainment Division) Japan Media Arts Festival, Tokyo, JP
Residencies
2024 — Arctic Circle Residency, Svalbard, Norway
2023 — Artist-In-Residence, Gazelli Art House, London, UK
2023 — Artist-In-Residence, Ignota Books / Full Moon Journal, London, UK
2022 — Artist-In-Residence, Studio Wayne Mcgregor, London, UK
2021 — Laurenz Haus Residency / Invitation of Maja Oeri / Schaulager Foundation, Basel, CH
2015 — Artist-In-Residence, MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, US
Collections
V&A Museum, London, United Kingdom
EMMA Museum, Espoo, Finland
0x Collection, Basel, Switzerland
Selected Solo and Group Exhibitions
2025 — SPECTRAL, Davos: World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland
2024 — Parallel Time and Space, China National Science and Technology Museum, China
2024 — Artificial Consciousness (Solo Show), Art Dubai Digital, Dubai
2024 — Us In Another Form (Solo Show), Art Central, Hong Kong
2024 — New Beginnings, House of Fine Art Gallery, London, UK
2024 — Manipulated Motion, Art Fair Tokyo, Tokyo, JP
2023 — Relational Gestures, Frieze, House of Fine Art, London, UK
2023 — Realm of Silk, Singapore International Festival of the Arts, Singapore
2023 — Drawing Operations, Extensions of Self during Ars Electronica, Francisco Carolinum, Linz, Austria
2023 — GEN/GEN: Generative Generations, Gazelli Art House, London, UK
2023 — Ligatures No. 1-3, Synesthetic Immersion, Arts Space at Borislavka, 0X Collection, Prague
2023 — Mandala (Gaian Notation), Gemma Projects, New York, USA
2022 — Assembly Lines In Search of the Present EMMA Museum Espoo, Finland
2022 — Special Project Room The Imitaton Game Vancouver Art Gallery Vancouver, Canada
2022 — Virtual Ink (SOLO SHOW) Virtual Ink Gillian Jason Gallery London, UK
2022 — Ecologies of Becoming-With What will Life Become? Berggruen Institute Los Angeles, US
2021 — Exquisite Corpus Art & Humanity Stavros Niarchos Foundation Athens, Greece
2021 — Ecologies of Becoming-With Out of Nature Studio Wayne Mcgregor London, UK
2021 — Entangled Origins (Solo Show) Frieze Gillian Jason Gallery London, UK
2021 — Entangled Origins (Solo Show) Art Basel Schaulager Foundation Basel, CH
2021 — Flora Rearing Agricultural Network Thin as Thorns, in These Thoughts in Us Honor Fraser Gallery Los Angeles, US
2020 — Flora Rearing Agricultural Network In the Name of Flower Pearl Art Museum Shanghai, CN
2020 — Flora Rearing Agricultural Network Götzendämmerung Haus der Kunst Munich, DE
2020 — Mutations of Presence Re: Memory Sorlandets Kunstmuseum Kristiansand, NO
2020 — ( distance ) in place Language of Intimacy Abron Arts Center / Boston Center for the Arts Boston, US
2019 — Drawing Operations Duet (Performance) Artistic Intelligence Kunstverein Hannover Hannover, DE
2019 — Drawing Operations Duet (Performance) [SP a T i AL] GOOGLE I/O Mountain View, USA
2018 — Drawing Operations Duet (Performance) Global Art Forum: I am not a Robot ArtScience Museum Singapore
2018 — Omnia per Omnia (Drawing Operations Unit: Generation 3) Only Human Mana Contemporary New Jersey, USA
2017 — Memory (Drawing Operations Unit: Generation 2) OpenSpace NTT InterCommunication Center Tokyo, JP
2017 — Mytheme (Étude Op. 4) Naturalismo Digital Centro de Cultura Digital Mexico City, MX
2016 — MIMICRY ( Drawing Operations Unit: Generation 1 ) E.A.T. Launch New Museum New York, USA
2016 — MIMICRY ( Drawing Operations Unit: Generation 1 ) Ubiquitous Humanity The Annex Hong Kong
2016 — Imaginary Blueprints Drawing Sound III: Composing the City Drawing Center New York, USA
2016 — Coalesce RE:SOUND Simons Center Gallery Stonybrook, USA
2016 — MIMICRY ( Drawing Operations Unit: Generation 1 ) Japan Media Arts National Art Center Tokyo, Japan
2015 — MIMICRY ( Drawing Operations Unit: Generation 1 ) NEW INC Showcase Redbull Studios New York, USA
2014 — Praesentia NEW INC Showcase New Museum New York, USA
2014 — Ecdysis Drop Everything Drop Everything Galway, Ireland
2014 — Ecdysis Ecdysis Black Box Theatre Denver, USA
2014 — Ecdysis Ecdysis 319 Scholes Gallery Brooklyn, NY
2013 — Chiaroscuro Mapping Festival Museum of Contemporary Art Geneva, CH
2013 — Exuviae Hacking Arts MIT Media Lab Cambridge, USA
2012 — Chiaroscuro Of Art & Artifice Art Directors Club New York, NY
Selected Speaking & Teaching
2025 — Cultural Leader, World Economic Forum, Annual Meeting Arts and Culture Programme, Davos, Switzerland
2024 — Keynote Presentation: Beyond Optimization, Rob|Arch 2024, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
2024 — Speaker, Experiments and Experience: Indeterminacy and the Dao Seminar, Kings College, London, UK
2024 — Speaker, AI UK, The Alan Turing Institute, London, UK
2024 — Speaker, Cybernetic Serendipity: Towards AI, London, Institute of Contemporary Art ICA, London, UK
2023 — Cultural Leader, Annual Meeting of the New Champions World Economic Forum, Tianjin, China
2023 — Panelist on Creativity, AI For Good, United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland
2023 — Future Experts Series, Museum of the Future, Dubai
2023 — Keynote: Generative AI & IP UNESCO Paris, FR
2023 — Keynote Speaker: Seeing Double, Creative Robotics Symposium, University of the Arts, London, UK
2023 — As Above So Below, Ignota Books x Gaia Art Foundation, Science Gallery, London, UK
2023 — Creative Machine Symposium, Goldsmiths and University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
2023 — Keynote Speaker: Seeing Double, Open Ended Design, KOKO Lab, London, United Kingdom
2023 — Creating the Future, Drawing from the Past, Adobe Max, Los Angeles, US
2023 — Future of Creativity Panel, Gazelli Art House, London UK
2023 — Artist Talk, Design Investigations (Led by Anab Jain), Vienna, Austria
2023 — Keynote Presentation, Volvo Art Session, Zurich, Switzerland
2023 — Age of AI, Kings College, London UK
2022 — Artist Talk in conversation with Zakkiyah Iman Jackson, Future Humans, Berggruen Institute, LA, USA
2022 — Seeing Double (Performance Lecture) Sónar, Barcelona, Spain
2022 — In Search of the Present Artist Panel with Holly Herndon & Others Helsinki Design Festival, Helsinki Fi
2022 — Seeing Double (Performance Lecture), Global AI Summit, Riyadh, Saudi-Arabia
2022 — Artist Talk in conversation with Freya Murray London Design Festival, London
2022 — Making Art with AI (Panel) Columbia University, New York NY
2022 — Seeing Double (Performance Lecture) NOVA Festival Bucharest, Romania
2022 — Artist Talk in conversation with Daito Manabe, Mutek Japan, Tokyo JP
2021 — Seeing Double: Bridging Dualities w Relational Intelligence House of Beautiful Business Lisbon, PT
2021 — Artist Talk Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburg, USA
2021 — Where does 'AI' end and 'we' begin? ACM IMX2021 New York City, NY
2021 — Speaker World Artificial Intelligence Conference Shanghai, CN
2021 — Robots as Companions: In Conversation w M. Gannon & M. Yablonovich University of Toronto Toronto, CA
2020 — Keynote Speaker: Seeing Double (Performance Lecture) SIGGRAPH Vancouver, CAN
2020 — Artist Talk at Futures Sketches Group MIT Media Lab Cambridge, US
2020 — Artist Talk at Interactive Architecture Lab Bartlett School of Architecture London, UK
2020 — The Art and Language of Creativity AIGA New York, NY
2019 — The Art and Language of Creativity Neurips Vancouver, CA
2019 — Why I Draw with Robots TED Mumbai, IN
2019 — AI and its Others: In Conversation with Maya Indira Ganesh AI and its Others Berlin, DE
2019 — Making Art with AI Google I/O Mountain View, US
2019 — Future of Everything Wallstreet Journal New York, USA
2018 — Man and the Machine Cannes Festival of Creativity Cannes, FR
2018 — Hard to Read Bridget Donahue Gallery New York, USA
2017 — Speaker World Science Festival Vancouver, CA
2016 — Translation, Media, & Music (Talk with Luisa Pereria) Loop Festival Berlin, DE
2016 — RESOUND Simons Center for Physics Stonybrook, NY
2016 — Speaker Tribeca Film Festival Institute Interactive New York, NY
2016 — Speaker Gray Area Festival San Francisco, USA
2015 — Speaker FITC Tokyo Vancouver, CA
2015 — Speaker Internet Dargana Stockholm, SE
2014 — Speaker Alphaville London, England
2013 — Speaker OFFF Barcelona, SP
Faculty & Workshops
2014/20 — ITP Master Class: Guest Lecturer ITP NYU Master Class New York, NY
2017 — The New Normal: Visiting Faculty Strelka Institute Moscow, Russia
2015/7 — Social Computing: Visiting Researcher MIT Media Lab Cambridge, US
2017 — School of Poetic Computation: Visiting Lecturer SFPC New York, US Education
Education
2020 — Computational Media Arts: Doctoral Candidate Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong / China
2015 — Researcher MIT Media Lab Cambridge, US
2010 — Masters of Interactive Art Hyper Island Stockholm, SE
2010 — Bachelor of Fine Arts Indiana University Bloomington, US
