Lida Zacharopoulou
Data analytics engineer and interdisciplinary artist> whoami
Lida Zaharopoulou is a data analytics engineer, creative coder and interdisciplinary artist from Athens, Greece. She completed her studies in Computer Science at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and worked for a year at CERN as a software developer. She continued her academic pursuits with a Master's degree in Cognitive Systems and Interactive Media at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. Currently, she is a postgraduate student of Digital Arts at the Athens School of Fine Arts, while working in the field of data analytics.
Her work has been presented at festivals, exhibitions and conferences in Greece and abroad. She participated in Sónar+D (Barcelona, June 2019), Medialab-Prado’s ProgramaLaPlaza (Madrid, November 2019), the group art exhibition Apnea (European Center Athens, March 2023), and in FILE SP Festival (São Paulo, July 2023). She is a fellow of the EthicAI=LABS 2022 program of Goethe Institute, where her group project BlackboxAI, a multidisciplinary art installation about gender bias and AI won the first prize (Sofia, May 2022). The installation was presented in EthicAI=FORUM: How can AI be right? (Athens, November 2022), as well as during Breaking the Bias Summer School (Athens, July 2023). The research behind this project led to the development of the paper titled A Multimodal Installation Exploring Gender Bias in Artificial Intelligence, which was published by Springer and presented at the 25th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction in Copenhagen in July 2023.
In her artistic research, she focuses on how AI and technology shape our perception of the world, exploring the intricate connections between reality, memory and fiction. Using creative programming, data science and interactive systems combined with speculative research, story-telling and analogue media, her aim is to craft mappings of contingent places and weave narratives of not-necessarily true pasts and possible futures. Drawing inspiration from philosophy, science, nature and the human body, her interests lie in the social, political and ecological impact of technological systems, their reappropriation as a creative tool, and the discussions emerging from using algorithms in the arts.
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Work Experience
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Data Analytics Engineer
GWI, September 2020 - presentMaintain and expand ETL pipelines for all datasets, investigate and resolve data discrepancies to ensure data quality.
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Graduate Student Researcher
Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Barcelona, March 2019 - August 2019Developed my Master Thesis on activities of daily living recognition for stroke rehabilitation using machine learning and wearable devices, in the Synthetic, Perceptive, Emotive, and Cognitive Systems (SPECS) group.
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Software Developer
CERN, Geneva , April 2016 - April 2017Software quality assurance of the power control system of the accelerators. As a techincal student in the Converter Controls Software section, I wrote the specification, designed and implemented the functional reception testing of the new embedded computers series that control the powering of the magnets, analyzed the use cases of the libraries and applications and created test scripts to probe these use cases for bugs.
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Coding Educator
Code it Like a Girl, Athens, November 2015 - March 2016Provided coding assistance to participants during workshops and participated in the development of the educational material.
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Maths & Physics Tutor
Self-Employed, Athens, September 2009 - June 2013Private tutor for various ages and demands. Prepared high-school students for final exams, provided distance-learning tutoring via Skype, and assisted with homework, in English-speaking lessons, kids attending international primary schools.
Education
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MA, Digital Arts
Athens School of Fine Arts , November 2022 - present -
MSc, Cognitive Systems and Interactive Media
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, September 2018 - August 2019Courses inlcuded: Advanced Interface Design | Interaction Models | Cognitive Science | Research Methodologies | Systems Design, Integration and Control| Real-Time Interaction | Education, Games, and Entertainment
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User Experience, Summer School
ELISAVA - Escola Universitària de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona, Barcelona, July 2017 -
Computer Science, Erasmus Scholarship
Sorbonne Université (UPMC), Paris, January 2014 - June 2014 -
BSc, Informatics and Telecommunications
University of Athens, Athens, November 2011 - January 2018Courses included: Data Mining | Artificial Intelligence | Operating Systems | Systems Programming | Human-Computer Interaction | Implementation of Database Management Systems | Design and Applications of Databases | Algorithms and Complexity | Data Structures | Object-Oriented Programming | Probabilities and Statistics | Linear Algebra |Numerical Analysis | Systems Analysis | Software Development
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Workshops and Online Courses
Body Data and Complex Systems (School of Machines Berlin, 2023)
Google Cloud Big Data and Machine Learning Fundamentals (Google Cloud, 2023)
Clean NFTs (School of Machines Berlin, 2022)
Neural Networks and Deep Learning (DeepLearning.AI, 2021)
Intricate Data Modeling (Decode Fab Lab, 2020)
Data Scientist Nanodegree (Udacity, 2020)
Introduction to Creative AI (UAL, 2020)
3D Printing & Design (Code+Create, 2018)
Art & Activity: Interactive Strategies for Enganging with Art (MoMA, 2017)
Web Design and UI/UX Design seminar(Greek Graphic Designers Association, 2015)
Selected Group Exhibitions and Festivals
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2024
CVPR AI Art Gallery 2024, Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference, Seattle US [UPCOMING]
Yeast Film Festival, Palio Xydadiko, Limassol CY -
2023
Interface Festival, Art-Kino Croatia, Rijeka HR
ROS Film Festival, Teatre Arniches, Alicante ES
ICONA Festival, Corfu GR
International Digital Arts Festival, Sofia BG
Platforms Project 2023, Open Studios, Technopolis, Athens GR
Between Zero and One, Group Exhibition, Romantso, Athens GR
Young Artists Art Exhibition, Costa Navarino, Athens GR
International Forum of Perfomance Art, Drama GR
FILE Festival SAO PAULO 2023 FIESP Cultural Center, Sao Paulo BR
Apnea 2023 - Contemporary Art ExhibitionEuropean Centre Athens, Athens GR
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Past
EthicAI=LABS 2022, Goethe-Institut, Sofia BG / Athens GR
ProgramaLaPlaza Festival 2019, Medialab-Prado, Madrid ES
Sónar+D Innovation Challenge 2019, Sónar+D, Barcelona ES
Lomography turns on Timemachine 2010, Analogue photography group exhibition, Vryssaki, Athens GR
Black and White photography group exhibition 2010, Nosotros, Athens GR
Conferences and talks
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EthicAI=BLACKBOX
Goethe Institute, Sofia BG, May 2024[UPCOMING] Co-leading a 3-day training school on AI bias and diversity.
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AI and Art Conference, Platforms Project 2023
Technopolis, Athens GR, Oct 2023Presented my talk 10 things that Machine Learning taught me about life and art , and took part in the panel discussion on AI and Art.
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25th International Human-Computer Interaction Conference
Copenhagen DK, Jul 2023Co-author of the paper A Multimodal Installation Exploring Gender Bias in Artificial Intelligence .
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Breaking the Bias Summer School
Impact Hub, Athens GR, Jul 2023Presentation of the project BlackboxAI.
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EthicAI=Forum
Goethe Institut, Athens GR, Nov 2022Presentation of the project BlackboxAI.
Publications
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A Multimodal Installation Exploring Gender Bias in Artificial Intelligence
Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. HCII 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14020, Springer, July 2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35681-0_2 -
FILE SAO PAULO 2023 Catalog
SESI-SP, July 2023
ISBN 978-65-998220-1-8 -
EthicAI=LABS 2022 Publication
Goethe-Institut Athen, February 2023
Available here. -
This Is What a Data Scientist Looks Like
Towards Data Science, June 2020
Available in Medium. -
Amphibian Scuba Diving Simulator: A Critical Analysis of Virtual Subjectiveness
ResearchGate , December 2018
Available here.
> Skills
AREAS OF WORK
INTERACTIVE MEDIA
DATA SCIENCE
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Skills
Interactive Media:
Processing, p5.js, ml5.js, Pure Data, Sensors, Interfaces Design, Installations Prototyping,
Interaction Design, User Experience, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Ableton Live, SuperCollider, Tidal Cycles,
3D Printing (Blender & Ultimaker Cura), Grasshopper, Modular Synthesisers
Data Science:
Data analysis, Data visualization, Machine Learning, Regression, Classification, Clustering, Neural Networks, Reinforcement Learning
Software Engineering:
Python (pandas, numpy, matplotlib, sklearn, nltk, keras, tensorflow), C/C++, Javascript,
SQL, Linux, Git, Jira, HTML, CSS, Matlab, Perl, XML
Languages
Hobbies
Climbing, Reading, Playing Music, Phototography, Dance, Skiing, Snorkelling, Yoga
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Digital No-Man's : Do Androids Dream of Eclectic Steep?
Video Art ● AI Art ● Machine Learning ● Creative Coding ● Storytelling
2023
AI-generated images have nowadays become so realistic that distinguishing the real ones from the fakes is nearly impossible. Trained for days with massive data and GPUs scattered all around the world, they have crossed the borders of the Uncanny Valley into the hills of visual perfection. What about those digital beings that do not have the resources to complete their training? These low-res synthetic creatures are imagined as the low-class citizens of the Humanoid Realm. They can't afford to train forever nor to be GPU nomads. They are stuck in the Uncanny Valley, always striving to convince the Discriminator they look real enough, always dreaming of climbing the steep hill of human likeness. A short animated film exploring AI through AI, this project aims to shed light on the inner workings of AI algorithms, specifically those responsible for creating realistic human faces, like the GAN models. GAN systems (Generative Adversarial Networks) are machine learning algorithms comprising two neural networks: the Discriminator and the Generator. The core idea behind this model is a fascinating game played between these two entities: the Generator continuously produces images in an attempt to deceive the Discriminator into perceiving them as real rather than synthetic. In response, the Discriminator assesses each image's authenticity. This intriguing back-and-forth between the two networks is played out repeatedly, resulting in the production of increasingly realistic images. The video depicts a fictional dialogue between the Discriminator and the synthetic creatures it evaluates. These creatures engage in a Sisyphean effort, an endless struggle to reach an elusive perfection, as they strive to deceive the Discriminator and rise above their pixelated origins. Official Selections and Screenings:
Yeast Festival (Limassol CY, Feb 2024)
Interface Festival (Art-Kino Croatia, Rijeka HR, Dec 2023)
ICONA Festival 2023 (Corfu GR, Nov 2023)
Animation Marathon 2023 (Online, Nov 2023)
FINALIST, ROS Film Festival (Teatro Arniches, Alicante ES, Nov 2023)
Screen it ASFA (Athens School of Fine Arts GR, Nov 2023)
5th International Forum of Perfomance Art (Drama GR, Sep 2023)
Label Me Like One of Your Internet Girls
Video Perfomance ● Machine Learning ● Creative Coding
2023
Dancing in front of the camera, the self-portrait of our times, blends with how we are perceived by algorithms online, a set of data points for business opportunities. Εach body part, detected using Computer Vision and Neural Networks, is replaced by a speculative market segmentation name associated with my likes and behaviors. A juxtaposition of the human form and the online persona, a body with labels as the new organs, where identity is both fragmented and commodified. The physical self becomes a canvas upon which the virtual is projected—a new anatomy devoid of traditional structure, mirroring the chaotic and fluid nature of desire and selfhood in the digital age. We exist in the infinity between the zeros and ones of our attributes. And as these labels follow our every move and the algorithms try to put us into boxes, we create our own categories only to dance ourselves right out of them. Exhibitions:
Platforms Projects 2023 (Technopolis Athens GR, Oct 2023)
Between Zero and One (Romantso Athens GR, Oct 2023)
International Forum of Perfomance Art, (Drama GR, Sep 2023)
Haenyeo Memories
AI Art ● Visual Arts
2023
Haenyeo Memories is a physical photoalbum of AI-generated photographs of the Haenyeo divers. Haenyeo (sea women) are the female divers of Jeju Island in South Korea. Part of the world's intangible cultural heritage, the Haenyeo are free diving, often holding their breath for over 2 minutes, in order to collect sea urchins, squids, and other marine species. Since the 18th century, diving on the island is already a female-dominated profession: the Haenyeo become the basis of Jeju's economy, establishing semi-matriarchal family structures. Today, most of these divers are over 70 years old, while their numbers have decreased dramatically. Using an AI system, a collection of old photos inspired by the Haenyeo was generated. In the system's attempt to synthesize these photos, traditional costumes are mixed with diving suits, spacesuits are decorated with shells, and strange sea creatures are transformed into alien beings, in a retrofuturistic photo album straight out of a sci-fi movie. What inspired me about the culture of Haenyeo is that they contributed to the advancement of women’s status in the island, promoted environmental sustainability and community involvement in management of fishing practices. I think the story of the Haenyeo women offers a glimpse of how the history of greek diving islands could have been, a way out of the over-fishing practices of the Mediterranean. The physicality of a mid-century Asian photo album and the post-processing of the printed photographs to look worn, creates a nostalgic feel but holds memories of a past that never existed. Coming from an island of the East Aegean, I have spent most summers of my life diving and snorkeling for hours. This work is an homage to our summer long dives and to our memories, the confusion of what we have seen and what we have imagined. Exhibitions:
Apnea Contemporary Art Exhibition, (European Centre Athens GR, March 2023)
Thalassozoe
AI Art ● Visual Arts
2023
Thalassozoe is a series of marine life illustrations created with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system. The depths of the oceans are the most unexplored part of the earth, where even today new forms of life are discovered, too strange to be true. Inspired by the drawings of art and science with which naturalists of past centuries depicted their discoveries, these illustrations invite us to explore creatures of the seabed never seen again, as imagined by the algorithm. Exhibitions:
Young Artists Exhibition (Costa Navarino GR, Sep-Oct 2023)
Apnea Contemporary Art Exhibition (European Centre Athens GR, Mar 2023)
Blackbox AI
AI ● HCI ● Installation ● Research ● Gender bias
2022
Blackbox AI is an multidisciplinary art installation exploring gender bias in Artificial Intelligence.
Are AI algorithms biased? Why are many women (self-)excluded from the STEAM fields and the discussions around AI?
Drawing from the definition of the black box as a complex system whose internal
workings are hidden or not readily understood, the exhibition invites guests to enter
a physical maze and walk through various aspects of gender bias, presented using
storytelling and AI algorithms, such as facial recognition and text-to-image generators.
The idea for the project was developed during EthicAI=LABS 2022, where it won the first prize (Sofia, May 2022).
The installation was presented in EthicAI=FORUM: How can AI be right?
(Athens, November 2022), as well as during Breaking the Bias Summer School (Athens, July 2023).
The research behind this project led to the development of the paper titled
A Multimodal Installation Exploring Gender Bias in Artificial Intelligence,
vpresented at the 25th International Conference on
Human-Computer Interaction in Copenhagen in July 2023 and published by Springer.
Collaborative project together with Mihaela Dobreva, Tea Rukavina, Vivian Stamou and Anastasia Nefeli Vidaki.
Tools: Research, Python, OpenCV, DALL-E, Beamers, Fabric
Links: Conference Paper here.
#mood
Machine Learning ● Facial Expression Recognition ● Creative Coding ● Interactive Interface
2020
The #mood project is an interactive interface that takes input from the webcam and uses machine learning to map the facial expression to a mood of the iconic Soraya Montenegro.
Tools: FaceOSC, Wekinator, Pure Data
Links: Full project code available on Github.
Attractive Interactions
Generative Art ● Creative Coding ● Visuals ● Projection
2019
Molecules and people interact with attractive or repulsive forces, switching behavior between being drawn together to form groups
and needing their space. This generative visuals piece consists of particles that randomly change their mind about feeling social or antisocial.
Selected as one of the top projects of ProgramaLaPlaza Festival 2019, it was projected on the facade of Medialab-Prado in Madrid
during Fall-Winter 2019.
Tools: Processing (p5.js), Javascript
Links:
You can run the project here to see
the colors correctly (the video does not capture the true colours) as well as the differences of each repetition.
Technical details and code available on Github.
The hi-light project
Interactive Interface ● Creative Coding ● Music ● Machine Learning
2019
An interactive interface that uses machine learning and the webcam to allow you to play music and control audio effects with a light source.
A Processing script is capturing the video and displays the user interface, consisting of different areas and axes along the screen.
The coordinates of the brightest point are used as a tool to manipulate different audio effects, like reverb or VCF.
The light source can be a headlamp, a reflective wristband or simply the torch of your phone.
Tools: Pure Data, Processing, Wekinator
Links:
You can watch this video, where I explain all
the setup and do a live demo.
The project´s presentation with all the technical aspects is also available here.
Full project code available on Github.
Sónar+D Innovation Challenge
Interactive Interface ● Game Development ● HCI ● Affective Computing ● Embodied Interaction
2019
Developed in the context of the
Affective computing for learning through games challenge by Telefónica Alpha, where we were
asked to create a game with an agent that detects affective states
and delivers adaptive content in real-time.
This prototype for a music video game detects the excitement of the user and adjusts the difficulty of the game.
Players must hit the correct drum pattern appearing on the screen, using either Arduino-based or
MIDI controllers. A Bitalino sensor is capturing the user's heart rate, which adapts the tempo
of the song in real time. The more excited the user, the faster the tempo gets.
Group project together with Héctor López Carral, Marco Musto, Alayna Hughes, and Lucas Lorenzo
Peña developed during the 4 days of the Sónar 2019 festival.
Tools: Arduino, Sensors, Unity
Links: Presentation and documentation of the project here. See more about the 2019 challenge in this video by Sónar.
Celestial Navigation: An interactive storytelling experience
Interactive Installation ● Interactive Storytelling ● Embodied Interaction
2019
Conceptualization and prototyping of a large-scale interactive experience, inspired by the constellations of the night sky. This installation invites participants to navigate using the stars and form constellations in order to unlock the stories behind each one. Star formations are projected on a screen, while participants try to replicate them by placing themselves on tiles on the floor. When they step on the correct one, the tile lights up, and once all the stars of the constellation are lightened, the myth behind the constellation is narrated. It’s an embodied interactive experience, where participants learn through collaboration and moving in the physical space. Group project together with Xinyue Wang and Emily Theophilou.
Links:
The video above shows the demo of the prototype, also available here.
Presentation and documentation of the project available here.
Penguin in the Desert
Real-Time Interaction ● Research ● Game Development ● Data Analysis ● Interactive Media
2019
A 2D platformer game to reserach the correlation between semantic proximity and object recognition. Players go through 4 levels (desert, beach, winter, jungle), collect various objects which are positively, negatively or not associated (random) with the background and are later asked to recognise them in a separate survey. Group project developed togeher with Anna Bellmunt, Paul Hine and Mila Sevilla Zhou.
Tools: Unity
Links: Presentation and documentation of the project here. You can play the game here.
Yoga Master
Neural Networks ● Pose Estimation ● Computer Vision ● Interactive Media ● Embodied Interaction ● HCI
2018
Yoga Master is a web application that uses neural networks and pose estimation in order to provide feedback and help people through their home yoga practice. This minimal system prototype shows a sequence of target poses while tracking the pose of the user through the webcam. As you hit the poses correctly, the difficulty of the poses shown is increased. Group project together with Anna Bellmunt, Jordi Carrasco Frías and Óscar Guerrero.
Tools: Tensorflow.js, p5.js, ml5.js
Links: Presentation and documentation of the project here.