People

The communities project is initiated by Jonathan O’Hear, Maria Sappho, Qondiswa James, Lineo Segoete and Sello Majara.
AI engineering is done by Timothy O’Hear from the impactIA foundation.
Chimère was first dreamt up by Jonathan and Timothy in 2021 for AiiA.

Jonathan O’Hear
As an experimental artist, his work is often, but not exclusively, technological. He is currently co-founder and co-director of the artistic collective, Association de Malfaiteurs and the AiiA experimental art laboratory. His work has been presented throughout the world and most recently at the CCS – Paris, Musée Tinguely – Basel, Villa Bernasconi – Geneva, Fonderie Kugler – Geneva, Médiathèque de Biarritz, Fluxum – Geneva, Analix Forever – Geneva, Centre d’art Contemporain – Geneva, Indent – Delhi, Trinity college – Dublin and at the Black Box Okhla – Delhi
At the end of 2017 he launched the Dai project, (an artificial intelligence performance robot), presented in Switzerland, Ireland and India. The project is ongoing.

Timothy O’Hear
During his studies as an EPFL engineer in mechanical engineering, he founded Virtually Unlimited, a company specialized in 3D technologies for video games and virtual reality.
In 2000 he founded the company Revelate where he developed a business management software, managed software implementation projects and advised on IT management.
In 2014 he discovered social entrepreneurship, which led him to ask himself fundamental questions about the impact of companies on society.
In 2015 the enormous advances in “machine learning” or “artificial intelligence” allowed him to immerse himself in a total convergence of computing, human beings and society. He then followed courses at Stanford, MIT and Caltech and developed his first neural networks.
Since 2017 he has been the AI engineer behind the Dai project (an artificial intelligence performance robot) and the AiiA festival.
Today he focuses on the integration of artificial intelligence in companies and takes part in fundamental discussions on the consequences for our society.
To relax, Tim programs Lego robots with his children and gets lost in contemporary art.

Maria Sappho
Maria Sappho is a Puerto Rican American, originally from Brooklyn, NY currently working as an improviser, artist and researcher in the UK. She is a member of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra (GIO) and founding member of the Noisebringers ensemble (CH/UK). She is a winner of the  BBC Radiophophonic Daphne Oram award (2021), Dewar awards (2018) and New Piano Stars Competition (2015). She has worked with a number of large ensembles; International Contemporary Ensemble (US), BBC Scottish symphony orchestra, Australian Art Orchestra, and the Instant Composers Pool (ND).
Currently Maria’s work is deeply involved in experimental AI where she has an ongoing collaboration with the creative AI named Chimere whom she works with developing interactive sound works that involve collaboration with mushrooms.
Maria gained her doctorate at Huddersfield University, on the European Research Council project IRiMaS. She continues her work in advocating/platforming artists via her Feminist Free Improvisation Archive, (for women and non-binary artists), curating for Mopomoso TV (oldest running free improvisation series in the UK) and co-editing the monthly political arts magazine the Mass.

Qondiswa James
Qondiswa James is a freelance cultural worker living in Cape Town, South Africa. She is an award-winning theatre-maker, performance artist, film and theatre performer, instillation artist, writer, arts facilitator and activist. She has received her Masters in Live Art, Interdisciplinary and Public Art at the Institute of Creative Arts. Her work engages the socio-political imagination towards mobilising transgression.
Currently she is researching possible methods of embodying the consciousness of objects, fusion, merging, becoming one with, in this case specifically, the wall, wallpaper, concrete. She is also looking at the concept of discardment, asking what gets discarded here, and to where, and how might making visible these discarded things, being, bodies, help us towards a more holistic picture of our world.

Lineo Segoete
Lineo Segoete is a versatile professional writer, arts research-practitioner and project manager from Lesotho. Her creative roots are set in storytelling and expressed creatively through photography and other artistic expressions. Her work is grounded in critical literacies spanning from media, history and curriculum and pedagogy, while her practice focuses on cultural production and the cultivation of creative heritage in Lesotho and other settings through workshops and other interventions. While her training is in Business and Education administration, Segoete has also been practicing within the cultural space for over 10 years through various programming initiatives.

Sello Majara
Sello Majara is a self-taught photographer and videographer. He consciously transitioned from the corporate world into the realm of art-education because he wanted his life to be more than just a tool of the capitalist machine. Sello actively exploits his experience gained in tech; coding, graphic design and web design as basis, to activate historical archives, document living histories and transfer skills to young artists through apprenticeships. Since 2003, Sello’s photographic work has been centered on portraiture, still-life, fashion and design, all of which are aspects of the subtle yet intrinsic culture of Basotho. He has recently transitioned into visual literacies and film production. He believes that people’s personal histories matter and deserve to be told!