Cezar Mocan
ABOUT
Cezar Mocan is a Lisbon-based artist and computer programmer interested in the interplay between technology and the natural landscape. Using narrative generative systems—animated videos of infinite duration, real-time simulations built in game engines or other software—he creates worlds that recontextualize aspects of digital culture we take for granted, often in absurd ways, while investigating the power structures which mediate our relationship with technology. He is interested in the built infrastructures which enable our digital lives, as well as the ways in which their presence in the natural landscape affects our perception: the moments when utility becomes nostalgia. Drawing on media archaeology and art history, his research process traces the origins of our current thought patterns around (technological) progress.
Some of his past works have been exhibited with Inter/Access (Toronto), Transmediale Vorspiel (Berlin), Office Impart (Berlin), Onassis ONX Studio (New York), Currents New Media (Santa Fe), Romanian Design Week (Bucharest) and The Wrong Biennale. His real-time simulation work, Arcadia Inc. was recognized as a 2021 winner of the Lumen Prize in Art and Technology. Cezar holds a B.S. in Computer Science (2016) from Yale University and an M.P.S. in New Media Art (2021) from New York University, where he also served as a research resident and adjunct professor.
BIO
Cezar Mocan (Romania, 1993) is an artist and computer programmer. His work explores the connections between the natural landscape, built infrastructures and digital technologies through narrative generative systems. He lives and works in Lisbon.