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Title – Untitled, practice within the limitations of citizenship (with a smile) – Book

‘The book lays out the aesthetics and the legal framework of “ambition” as a criterion for immigration and creative practice. Interestingly, Zavidova relies explicitly on the automation of processes and the use of templates and default software. Apart from the cover, the book is coded and printed entirely as an exported HTML file. In her encounter with immigration policy as an interface, she opts for an artistic creation that dodges the use of an interface (typically being InDesign).’ Excerpt from (Not) Giving Form To Interfaces – On Bureaucracy, Datafication And Supply Chains by Laurens Otto read here. Photos by Hans Poel.

Year – 2019 Type – book Collaborators –

Title – Untitled, practice within the limitations of citizenship (with a smile) – Installation

‘Untitled’ is an exploration of the systems of value, to which a creative practice owned by a non-EU citizen has to comply in order to remain in The Netherlands. The perception of a non-EU creative as a single case and not as a part of a large group is facilitated by rhetorics and the ways in which the ‘terms and conditions’ are made impenetrable. The book documents working on an active approach to these ‘terms and conditions’. Installation exhibited at ‘Not Too Close To The Walls Or The Corners’ (Sandberg Instituut Design Department graduation show), at Studio Spijkerkade, Spijkerkade 4A, Amsterdam, 13-16 June 2019. Photos: First two by Emirhan Akin, the rest by Sander van Wettum.

Year – 2019 Type – book, installation, merch Collaborators –

Title – Influencers Aren’t Very Good At Influencing Anymore

NEW GLOSSY MAGAZINE IN TOWN
COMING SOON TO EVERY BROWSER NEAR YOU
ALSO COMES WITH A STICKER

Enquire about the magazine at zavidova@gmail.com
Photos by Hans Poel

 Year – 2019 Type – magazine, writing, editorial Collaborators – Simona Koutná

Title – Celestial Services

Visual identity for a graduation exhibition of the Design department of the Sandberg Institute. 
sandberg.nl/design/celestialservices/

 Year – 2018 Type – Visual identity Collaborators – Lucie de Brechard, Sascha Krischock, Alex Walker

Title – Ambition

Investigating the terms and conditions of a migrant-owned creative practice, I am looking for an intersection of my own practice and legal work. In particular, I am interested in the terms such as “ambition” and “innovation”, which are very hard to define and yet are used to define the value of a migrant-owned practice. Work in progress.
Read more…

 Year – 2018-ongoing Type – Mixed media Collaborators – Searching for collaborators

 

Title – Artificial Intelligence Never Has A Headache

Written in 2016, this text was revisited and published on oneacre.online.
Read the publication here. Web design and development by Titus Knegtel & Stef Kors.

 Year – 2016, 2018 Type – Writing, research Collaborators – oneacre.online

Title – Confidence & Alienation

Confidence & Alienation exhibits and preserves the feeling of the non-belonging, archiving it in a simulated conversation between two figures. Produced during TempStudio residency in Lisbon, Portugal, 6-12 November 2017. https://zavidova.com/Confidence_alienation/

 Year – 2017 Type – Website Collaborators –

Title – HDSA’17

This “cookbook” publication is a part of Hackers & Designers Summer Academy documentation. The content was initially gathered on etherpads and hosted via a wiki content creator. The publication was edited, designed and produced within three days.

Year – 2017 Type – Publication Collaborators – HDSA'17

Title – The Comfort of Control

The installation visualizes fictional user interfaces, applied to a human body. The User is searching for a partnership with an intelligent machine. User’s body becomes a platform for digital interaction, developing organically. BA Graduation project. Movement/Performance by Judith van der Made, voice by Tania Singh. Photo by Roel Backaert.

Year – 2016 Type – Multimedia installation, video Collaborators –







Title – Whenever The Eye Falls

Publication design for a Dutch artist Robin van der Heijden.

Year – 2017 Type – Publication Collaborators –

Title – Digital Mold Growth

Year – 2015 Type – Canvas HTML5 Collaborators –

Title – Colonial Conquest

Departing from 16th-century maps, this project loosely maps colonial history focusing on islands, routes, and vessels. From a retrospective and speculative view connecting Christopher Columbus to Elon Musk, landmasses are rendered as stages in a seemingly predetermined process. Sea and space are not necessarily the elements which divide islands and celestial bodies. Likewise, routes are neither bridges or connections, its an archipelago of narratives.

 Year – 2015 Type – Poster Collaborators – Michael Tjia, Erik van der Veen

A bomb webpage in the making

(intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading)

The cast of characters:

  • Karina Zavidova, webpage owner (karina@zavidova.com)
  • A visitor

Hello visitor, how are you?

Hey hey hey! I’m doing well, enjoying my corporate past future and present spiced with matcha powder and dewy filters. What’s up with you?

I’m doing fine, thank you! I also prefer my life spiced with matcha powder. That stuff isn’t cheap, so I am looking for work.

Why is your website still in the making?

Oh, it will always be in the making. While rebuilding it I realized that the most wonderful thing about the Web is that it’s always in progress – things evolve, stuff breaks all the time and I am learning new things. This website runs on WordPress. Do you know that the first release of WordPress was in 2003? That's quite crazy, thinking about all the changes in the appearance and purpose of websites since then. Everything changed! And Wordpress still exists and powers a huge part of the Web. Coming back to your question, I generally prefer to work in iterations, showing a bit of progress here and there instead of aiming for 'one big reveal'. Being able to keep versions and to see the progress (or the lack thereof) is the best thing. By the way, did I tell you that my website got featured on brutalistwebsites.com?

That's nice! But what about the real work?

The first time we had this conversation, about a year ago, I told you that I want to move from working on digital stuff to designing for print. And then I started making books and graduated my MA with a book. I love books and I want to make more books and magazines. But I do love websites dearly and want to make more of them! I am my best at building structures to host content and to map how the information is presented to the viewer. I have a very analytical way of working, but I also thrive on fascinations and want the audience to get fascinated with me. I am independent and quite autonomous, but not individualistic. I genuinely love collaborations and I learn a lot from my colleagues. In the last year, I have initiated a few collaborative projects myself and want to have more!

Give me an example of a dream client/assignment?

I am fascinated by topics and fields which are considered 'uncreative'. Give me a project about something seemingly boring and I'll be delighted. While I am excited to do my research, I am quite tired of overly theorethical art school stuff. I want practical assignments which can benefit from some theory behind it. A visual identity. A website. Working with an archive. Making a publication. After graduating my BA in Graphic Design in 2016 I have struggled to call myself a graphic designer for some time, but now I finally feel that it's an appropriate title. I am a graphic designer and also a writer. I do research, I make books, I make websites. One day I can curate an exhibition, the other day I will work on curating someone's Instagram.

Previous answer: I listen to a lot of podcasts, and I am very curios how this genre can be interpreted visually. Update: Not anymore, but I still find the format very intriguing.

Previous answer: A newsletter and a book. I read a lot and I appreciate a good newsletter, so I would be very interested in designing one. Also, I am beginning to realize that I really want to design a book. Big, solid, and heavy. (Deleted paragraph) Update: I made a big, solid and heavy book. Currently in the process of finding a publisher.

Previous answer: I am enthusiastic about software and always happy to find great tools, so I would love to work for a software company. Update: Now, this is a big deal, since my projects are becoming more and more tech-heavy. In my work, I am opting to use scripts rather than apps, but also I am a very big fan of a few apps and services. I have a love and hate relationship with software, and I am enjoying its complexity.

A software company, huh? It's been a year since our first conversation and I am still sceptical. You are quite autonomous and make conceptual stuff, can you also work in a commercial field?

Look at my domain name. “com” is short for “commercial”. I mean it. Also, why can't you be both?

I guess you can.

Exactly. And I am working on making my multiple professional personalities pay my bills and bring me my matcha lattes. It's going to be okay, trust me. I know what I'm doing.

You seem quite confident.

Yes, finally. Well, I do have self-doubt and often feel the existential dread which comes with a master degree in Art and Design (obtained June 2019, still fresh, both the degree and the dread). But I have enough energy, curiosity, passion and self-discipline to deal with anything which comes my way.

I like your optimism!

That's a millennial thing. We struggle with all the stuff we allegedly ruined but then calm down and restore our inner balance by looking at plants.

Sounds quite spiritual. Are you also wondering what’s the meaning of life?

Sure. Also, what is love?

Baby don't hurt me.

Don't hurt me.

No more.