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Studio Above&Below are IAS/SCCI Quirk Creative Fellows from 8 April to 31 July 2025.
Studio Above&Below is an art and technology practice founded by Daria Jelonek (GER) and Perry-James Sugden (UK) founded after graduating from the Royal College of Art. Grounded in research-based methodologies, their work seeks to bridge the gaps between humans, machines, and the environment by exploring how technology can shape more meditative, healing and sustainable interactions with our surroundings.
Since their founding in 2018, they have specialised in creating immersive artworks that combine Mixed Realities (XR), digital art, and live data systems to make invisible phenomena tangible. Their large-scale public artworks often employ bespoke technologies, such as real-time systems builds, to give surroundings a voice and foster deeper connections with our umwelt.
A critical aspect of their practice is collaboration. They work extensively with scientists, ecologists, technologists, policymakers to push the boundaries of digital media and generate new narratives around responsible contemporary and future living. By integrating ecological principles into their work, they strive to challenge the status quo of technological development and provoke reflection on its social and environmental impacts.
Their projects have been exhibited internationally, from the Royal Academy and Tate Modern in London to SONAR+D in Barcelona, UCCA in Shanghai and Transmediale Studio in Berlin. Awards and recognitions, including the STARTS Prize and Repairing the Present fellowship, Bloomberg bursaries, underline their commitment to responsible innovation and practices.
In this phase of their practice, they aim to step back from advanced technologies to critically engage with the idea of low-tech and the movement of “slowness” in order to foster deeper knowledge. By focusing on simplicity and different concepts of time, they hope to challenge the resource-heavy nature of contemporary AI and create a movement that reimagines how technology interacts with society and the natural world in a slower and deeper way.
Low-Tech AI Infrastructures
Low-Tech AI Infrastructures is an artistic research project that reimagines the present and future of artificial intelligence through simplicity, accessibility, and environmental consciousness. In contrast to today’s high-powered and opaque AI systems, this project explores what it means to build AI that is slower, more deliberate, and deeply rooted in responsible knowledge-sharing and ecological balance.
At the heart of the project is a large-scale artistic roadmap that visualizes possible pathways toward this alternative AI future. This speculative design tool maps out technologies, ethical challenges, and creative directions that prioritize low energy use, transparency, and collective and ecological access over speed and scale.
Throughout the process, the project actively explores low-tech and Lo-TEK infrastructures, drawing from indigenous knowledge systems, analogue tools, and ecological design principles to imagine AI differently.
Making full use of the fellowship’s collaborative environment, the roadmap will be shaped through a series of public talks, critique sessions, and a Research Series hosted at UCL. These events will create opportunities for students, researchers, and the wider public to co-develop ideas and practices for more intentional, inclusive AI futures.
Ultimately, Low-Tech AI Infrastructures seeks to shift the conversation around artificial intelligence. Rather than accelerating toward ever-greater complexity, the project proposes a future in which AI is grounded in care, resilience, and thoughtful exchange, designed not just for efficiency, but for long-term value to people and the planet.
