Discussing art and digital technologies w/ Ju Schnee

Hey Ju, tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am Ju Schnee, an interdisciplinary artist born in Graz and after almost six years in Berlin, I am now based in the beautiful Vienna.

Since 2020, I call myself an artist and earn a living the traditional way with galleries showing my art, or by working with branding partners and commercial collabs.

You describe your art as a dialogue between the abstract, painted world and physical objects. How do you bring those two worlds together?

I connect the two worlds with Augmented Reality (AR) and recently also with a bit of Artificial Intelligence (AI). After I finish painting a picture on canvas, I link the picture with an animation using an app, which can then be played using AR on a mobile device. This creates the illusion that the image is moving.

Earlier this year I also began experimenting with AI and created my sketches using artificial intelligence.

You studied Information Design and Communication Design but are now an independent artist. Do you see your art as design work or is it completely different from what you studied?

I see my work as art. I am an artist through and through, and even when I do commercial work for clients, it represents me as a person and my innermost.

Also, I don’t like to compartmentalize and that is why I love mixing traditional painting with modern technologies: to question these kinds of questions.

You experiment a lot with different kinds of media and digital technologies. How do you feel about the rising interest in AI, AR and NFTs in the art world? 

I find it very exciting. I always try to embrace new technologies and create a symbiosis. In the end, AI is only what humans make of it. If we manage to make something creative with it, I think it’s a great add-on. AI can create scenes, that I would never be able to construct in my head. I can only reproduce something that I have seen somewhere in my life before. Even if I abstractly recreate it, it will always be something that I have encountered before. With the help of AI, I can think beyond my world of thought.

You were based in Berlin until recently, before moving to Vienna. How would you compare the art scene in the two cities? 

Well, the people in Vienna are just as hard to crack as the people in Berlin. Since I never studied at a fine arts academy, I often face challenges in some of the traditional fields of the art world. The two cities are no different in that regard.

But I have the feeling that some of these fields are starting to open and are not as compartmentalized. Vienna has a very young and strong scene, that is maybe even a bit more open and wilder than Berlin. In Vienna it is a lot easier to gain access to the scene and connect with others. There is not as much going on as in Berlin and that is why there are more opportunities to get to know the people a bit better.

You have also shown your art internationally. What insights and experiences have you gained from that? 

In the end it is no different to when I showed my art in Vienna or Berlin. It is exciting to see that the culture in South Korea, Los Angeles and Basel couldn’t be any more different but the art in general has its own independent existence and is a universal language everywhere.

‘the art of manifestation’ will be on display at solebox Vienna from October 5th 2023 until February 3rd 2024.