Pedro Ferreira is an artist and holds a PhD in Fine Arts, with the specialisation of Multimedia Art, from the University of Lisbon. He is interested in art that addresses technologies and their effects in culture, society and the environment.
In my artistic practice I engage with media technologies from a material perspective and through hands-on DIY creative approaches as a form of becoming. To me, making art is a way of engaging with and understanding the world that surrounds me. Over the past decade, I have developed a body of audiovisual works that explores sound and visual relationships using any materials available to me. This means that sometimes I reappropriate analogue film and reuse obsolete media, physical materials, video devices and sound generators. I explore electro-acoustics, digital generative art and computation through creative coding, hacking and making practices. I approach digital generative art with a special interest in exploring sound, generative computational errors and failures as artistic material with aesthetic potential to effect audio-visual perceptions, affections and emotions. My artistic practice explores media materiality to address digital technologies from a critical perspective and is founded in hybrid media that result in combinations of physical materials, digital media, custom-made software (FLOSS) and hardware assemblages that unfold in physical space. I am particularly interested in DIY, hacking and making approaches and critical making practices to address digital technologies from a hands-on making perspective infused with critical thinking.
Pedro Ferreira (born in 1988 in Oliveira de Azeméis, Portugal) is a multimedia artist based in Berlin, Germany. As a child, he started to make short videos, as a teenager he spent his time playing electric guitar, creating web-pages, making graphic design and street art. From 2007-2011 he studied Multimedia at the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Portugal, and, from 2011-2013, he pursued a Master’s degree in Multimedia Arts and Culture at the University of Porto, Portugal, with a thesis on experimental film and live cinema performance. From 2018-2022, he enrolled in a PhD program in Fine Arts, Multimedia Art, at the University of Lisbon, Portugal, where he researched post-digital aesthetics in audiovisual art, addressing the impacts and effects of digital technologies on daily life, society and the environment. In 2023 he earned his PhD with honors distinction. In his artistic practice he experiments with media materiality with a critical stance towards the consequences of computational technologies. His works range from experimental music and sound art to generative art, audiovisual performance, experimental film, video art, game art and net art.
■ Fine Arts, Multimedia Art – PhD degree at University of Lisbon, Portugal 2018-2022.
■ Multimedia Arts and Culture – Master’s degree at University of Porto, Portugal 2011-2013.
■ Multimedia – Bachelor’s degree at Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Portugal 2007-2011.
Dissertations
■ Ferreira, Pedro. 2023. Audiovisual Disruption: Post-digital Aesthetics in Contemporary Audiovisual Arts. (PhD Dissertation) Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon, Portugal.
■ Ferreira, Pedro. 2013. Avant-garde and experimental cinema: From Film to Digital. Workshop for painting students. (Masters Dissertation) Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal.
Papers
■ Ferreira, Pedro. 2022. “Rematerialising Digital Technologies Through Critical Making.” In 10th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X, edited by Miguel Carvalhais, Mario Verdicchio, Luísa Ribas, and André Rangel, 134–47. Porto, Portugal: i2ADS.
■ Ferreira, Pedro, and Luísa Ribas. 2021. “Off the Digital: Neo-Analogue Hybrids.” In 9th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X, edited by Miguel Carvalhais, Mario Verdicchio, Luísa Ribas, and André Rangel, 325–39. Porto, Portugal: i2ADS.
■ Ferreira, Pedro, and Luísa Ribas. 2020. “Post-Digital Aesthetics in Contemporary Audiovisual Art.” In 8th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X, edited by Mario Verdicchio, Miguel Carvalhais, Luísa Ribas, and André Rangel, 111–24. Porto, Portugal: Universidade do Porto.
Short Papers
■ Ferreira, Pedro, and Assunta Alegiani. 2023. “All To Sand Returns.” In 11th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X, edited by Miguel Carvalhais, Mario Verdicchio, Luísa Ribas, and André Rangel, 359–362. Porto, Portugal: i2ADS.
■ Ferreira, Pedro. 2022. “Datox.” In 10th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X, edited by Miguel Carvalhais, Mario Verdicchio, Luísa Ribas, and André Rangel, 391–95. Porto, Portugal: i2ADS.
■ Ferreira, Pedro. 2022. “Things I Do When I’m Bored.” In 10th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X, edited by Miguel Carvalhais, Mario Verdicchio, Luísa Ribas, and André Rangel, 352–57. Porto, Portugal: i2ADS.
■ Ferreira, Pedro. 2022. “Debris: The Detritus of Digital Media Technologies.” In 10th International Conference on Digital and Interactive Arts, 1–4. ARTECH 2021. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery.
■ Ferreira, Pedro. 2020. “On A Scroll Through The Cloud.” In 8th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X, edited by Mario Verdicchio, Miguel Carvalhais, Luísa Ribas, and André Rangel, 363–67. Porto, Portugal: Universidade do Porto.
■ Ferreira, Pedro. 2019. “O Limite e a Tensão Atuante na Obra de Hugo Paquete.” In Revista Estúdio, n.27, July-September. Lisboa, Portugal: CIEBA/FBAUL.
■ Gago, Ana, Marques, Diogo, Cruz, João and Pedro Ferreira. 2018. (DES)conexão: um laboratório de alquimia digital. Fernandes-Marcos, Adérito (Ed.). Lisbon, Portugal: Editions Artech-International in collaboration with Aberta University.
■ Ferreira, Pedro. 2013. “Innovative Digital Moving Images: Structural Digital Video and Handmade Digital Cinema.” In hambrecine espacio cine experimental. Online Magazine.
■ Recipient of the Doctoral Scholarship by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), University of Lisbon, Faculty of Fine Arts, Lisbon, Portugal, 2019-2022.
■ Recipient of the grant Move On, European Media Artists in Residence Exchange (EMARE), 2014.
■ Recipient of Erasmus+ Scholarship, Professional internship as Assistant Professor, Multimedia and Electronic Media class, Academy of Art and Design, Wrocław, Poland, 2012-2013.
■ Music Tech Fest Labs (MTF), Just Ocean, Aveiro, Portugal, 2021.
■ Invitro-Gerador, Lisbon, Portugal, 2018.
■ AV Espaço Montepio, Porto, Portugal, 2016.
■ Thraidos Artist Residency Thailand at Prem International School, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2015.
■ Images Festival/LIFT, Toronto, Canada, 2014.
■ Roundtable, POR-POL Contemporary Net Art colloquium, Lisbon, Portugal, 2023.
■ Post-digital Art Games Artist talk for Game Design students of Macromedia University, Cologne, Germany, 2023.
■ Artist talk at Encontro de Investigação em Arte e Design (EnIAD), Faculty of Fine Arts, Lisbon, Portugal, 2019.
■ Artist talk and screening at Goethe-Institut Toronto, Canada, 2014.
Selected Performances
■ Datox, AV Performance, xCoAx Conference, Coimbra, Portugal, 2022.
■ Datox, AV Performance, 48hrs Neukölln, Berlin, Germany, 2022.
■ Constructive Rest, Sound artist for choreographer Judith Förster, adastudios, Berlin, Germany, 2019.
■ The Time It Takes To Melt, Sound artist for choreographer Judith Förster, adastudios, Berlin, Germany, 2018.
■ opencircuit, A/V Performance, Spektrum, Berlin, Germany, 2018
■ Audiopollination #32.2, Music improvisation with Zach Clark + Kayla Grant, Toronto, Canada, 2015.
■ Derme - You can’t buy a ticket for this session, AV Performance, Woliery 10 collective exhibition, Contemporary Museum MWW, Wrocław, Poland, 2014.
■ Derme - You can’t buy a ticket for this session, AV Performance, Gallery U, Wrocław, Poland, 2014.
Selected Exhibitions
■ Things I Do When I'm Bored and Scrolling Around, Installation, UL Gallery, Gdansk, Poland, 2023.
■ All To Sand Returns, xCoAx Conference, Weimar, Germany, 2023.
■ Deep Touch, Installation, Intermediartes 2023, Galeria P.Artes, Porto, Portugal, 2023
■ Things I Do When I'm Bored, Installation, xCoAx Conference, Coimbra, Portugal, 2022
■ Things I Do When I'm Bored, Installation, [e]motion Conference, Porto, Portugal, 2021.
■ Debris, Installation, Sonic Curiosities VI, Berlin, Germany, 2021.
■ Debris, Net art, Maker Art: Pandemia, The New Art Fest, online, 2021.
■ On A Scroll Through The Cloud, Game, xCoAx Conference, online, 2020.
■ On A Scroll Through The Cloud, VR Installation, PostDigitalDreams, Tbilisi, Georgia, 2019.
■ On A Scroll Through The Cloud, Installation, Split Level collective exhibition, Berlin, Germany, 2019.
■ (Un)evenness, Jovem Criador, collective exhibition, Museu de Aveiro, Aveiro (2019).
■ Erosion, Installation, The Beholder collective exhibition, SomoS Art House, Berlin, Germany, 2017.
■ (Des)conexão 2.0, Installation, Palacio da Ceia, Lisbon, Portugal, 2018
■ No Matter Where You Go You Are Here, Installation, AV Espaço Montepio, Porto, Portugal, 2016.
■ Fragments, Installation, Move On collective exhibition, Werkleitz Festival, Halle, Germany, 2015.
■ Self-portrait, Photography, Woliery 10 Group exhibition, MWW Contemporary Museum, Wrocław, Poland, 2014.
■ (Portugal dos pequeninos)^2, installations, solo exhibition, Galeria Tomás da Costa, Oliveira de Azeméis, Portugal, 2014.
Selected Screenings
■ Cadavre Exquis, Video-loop, Transgression Art + Technology, online, 2021.
■ Material Representations, Screening Programme, 60min, CoCArt Music Festival, Torun, Poland, 2017.
■ Material Representations, Screening Programme, Entropia Gallery, Wrocław, Poland, 2015.
■ A Thousand Things To Frame, Screening Programme, 60 min, Curator for Regional Support Network, Videofag, Toronto, Canada, 2015.
■ Fragments, Live Visuals with live music by Allison Cameron, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Canada, 2014.
■ Fragments: Space/Time, Identity and Memory, Screening Programme, 60 min, CineCycle, Toronto, Canada, 2014.
