Creative Days X Open Fields

As a partner of Vienna- based creative practice for Architecture and Design, Open Fields, Zeynep is at the forefront of technological developments in the practice. She also provides strategic consultancy services to businesses seeking to embrace AI-driven innovation and data-based design in their workflows. She is a Research Associate and lecturer at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, an Assistant Professor at TU Vienna, and a respected faculty member at IAAC Barcelona. Zeynep is a distinguished figure at the intersection of AI, architecture, and design, known for her expertise and insights shared through public lectures.

Mark Balzar is an architect, urban designer and innovator specializing in sustainability urbanism and energy design. He is the founding partner of OpenFields, a Vienna-based creative practice for architecture and urban design. His visionary leadership and innovative approach to design and technology have made OpenFields an office notable for its integration of cutting-edge design with sustainable principles and technology. Balzar's role extends into academia, where he serves as a lecturer at the Technical University of Vienna and holds a respected faculty position at IaaC Barcelona. His contributions to the field of architecture have won international recognition and awards, including the prestigious Europan.

Claudia Larcher is an artist and filmmaker who also works as a teacher. Since 2021, she has been focussing on the role of AI in art, using this technology as an experimental tool to explore the intersection between artistic and machine intelligence. Her artistic work includes film, site-specific video animation, collage, photography and installations. Larcher lives and works in Vienna and has presented her work in numerous exhibitions in Austria and abroad. She has received numerous awards, including the Kunsthalle Wien Prize, the Outstanding Artist Award and the Austrian Art Prize.

He holds a PhD in Conservation Planning awarded by James Cook University, Australia. After his PhD Visconti held postdoctoral positions at the University of Rome, Microsoft Research Cambridge Computational Ecology Group, the Zoological Society of London and University College London. The Research Group he leads at IIASA develops and applies ecological knowledge, methods, and tools to understand ecosystem functioning, biodiversity change, and feedbacks in coupled social-economic-ecological systems. Visconti and his group use this knowledge to develop management options to achieve biodiversity and sustainability goals.

Margarete Jahrmann, is a ludic artist and researcher. As head of Experimental Game Cultures at the University of Applied Arts Vienna she launched in 2024 The Psycholudic Approach: Exploring Play for a Viable future (Austrian Science Fund, building on ideas of Ludic Cultures and Non-human Agencies. In her collaborative and interdisciplinary artistic practice, she develops LUDIC method, installations, explores the human and non- human, cognitive, emotional and political conditions of games, world and society. Her artistic focus is on performative and installation pieces that explore AI.