Deniz Kurt is a creative technologist and interdisciplinary media artist based in Rotterdam. Her work merges algorithmic processes with themes of nature, post-anthropocentrism, speculative futures, and biomimicry—exploring how technology can sense, respond, or evolve. Through generative visuals, sound, and interactive systems, she creates new forms of experience that invite reflection on the interconnectedness of living and artificial worlds. Her practice often moves between the digital and the ecological, challenging linear narratives and opening up space for multi-sensory engagement. Alongside her artistic and industry practices, Deniz teaches at Breda University of Applied Sciences, where she shares her research-driven approach to emerging media and creative technology. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Luxembourg AI Pavilion (2021), NDSM Fuse (2022), Ars Electronica, IMPAKT, Dutch Design Week (2022), HMM FYI (2023), and Sketch to Pixel Digital Art Turkey (2024). We spoke to her about her art and working with generative systems to communicate with plants.
How would you describe your artistic practice?
My artistic practice explores the intersection of art, technology, nature and human perception. This became my holy grail. I work across mediums—sound, installation, generative systems, biomimicry, and interactive experiences—to create work that invites contemplation and connection, and challenge the way we interact with the world around us. I’m especially drawn to processes that blur boundaries between the organic and the digital, often using technology as a bridge. Whether through algorithmic visuals, biofeedback-driven soundscapes, or interactive installations, my work seeks to reveal hidden patterns and emergent behaviours in complex systems.
What interests you about working with generative systems and data?
Generative systems and data allow for a kind of co-creation that’s endlessly surprising, the output emerges from a tension between structure and chance. Generative systems offer that kind of living quality. I first became interested in data during my master's thesis in 2018, when I explored the creativity of AI—well before the mainstream wave of generative AI we see today. I was especially captivated by the surreal weirdness of early generative models and GANs. There was something beautifully broken and unexpected about them, and that aesthetic has stayed with me. Data became not just a tool but a material—something expressive, full of nuance and potential for storytelling.
I’m fascinated by how data, often perceived as abstract or sterile, can be transformed into expressive, emotional experiences. It’s a way of making the invisible visible, translating systems and phenomena into sensory forms that people can feel, hear, or interact with. Like environmental changes, neural activity, or plant responses, I love how these can be translated into artistic expressions.
I’d love to hear more about how you are communicating with plants through music?
This work began with a curiosity: What would it sound like if plants could sing, or if we could hear their inner rhythms? I use biofeedback sensors that pick up subtle electrical signals from plants—like changes in resistance, conductivity, moisture, or even human presence—and translate those into MIDI data or generative musical structures. Then I also translate them into visual representations and triggers.
It’s not that the plant is “playing music” in a human sense, but rather I’m creating an interface for us to listen to the fluctuations in a plant’s responses to stimuli and experience its living presence in a different way. It becomes a kind of dialogue, an audiovisual bridge between species. I aim to foster a deeper connection between humans and the natural world, challenging our perception of intelligence.
What makes art such a powerful way of interacting with new technology?
Art invites people to engage with technology emotionally and intuitively, not just intellectually.It allows us to ask better questions, not just find faster answers. While science and engineering often aim to define or optimize, art embraces ambiguity, open-ended interpretation, personal engagement, and critical reflection. It helps reveal the ethical, philosophical, and existential dimensions of new technologies –whether through speculative design, immersive experiences, or creative subversion of conventional tools. It’s through art that we humanize technology; giving form to our hopes, fears, and imaginations about the future.
Looking forward, what interests you most about AI and why?
My interest in AI goes back to those early days when its creativity still felt awkward and uncanny, and I loved that. I’m curious about how AI can become a strange and unpredictablecollaborator, not just a productivity tool. What happens when machine logicmeets human intuition? I’m especially drawn to AI systems that challenge our definitions of authorship, intention, and creativity. I think there’s so muchpotential for AI to generate friction—to make us rethink not just what wecreate, but how we relate to knowledge, to language, and even to ourselves.
I’m also deeply interested in theethics and aesthetics of machine creativity: How do we design systems that are not only intelligent, but also poetic, humane, and inclusive, without harmingthe world we live in? I think it’s a challenge we face today. As a person whowas extremely excited about the computational creativity for the last decade,I’m now equally sceptic about the creative inflation, and post-truth.
