varvara’s portfolio
work 

i'm varvara pekhota and i'm excited about things going wrong, blurriness and digital uncertainty,,,

@varvarapekhota



               
                                                                                                                                       
                               
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
*-*-•*-*-*
(2025)
a raspberry pi is housing a machine vision algorithm detecting blobs in pictures. 

we hear the bubbles pop in the stream of outsourced joy.






*-*-•*-*-* installation documentation


eternal 
🫛🥒🥬🥦🥗🥝🍈🍋‍🟩🥟🌯🥔🌭🍍
 
soup

(2024)
artificial intelligence aims to produce photorealistic image and enhance the existing ones to 4k, while spending as much computing power as can be physically possible

a gif feels like a file that can't be bigger than 300kb

my custom LORA is trained on an archive of blingee gifs, whose palimpsestic structure has been a subject of various net art works

 due to the structure of ComfyUI, it was possible to create a circular cross-referential workflow, generating ingredients of the future eternal soup: water, vegetables, meat and herbs. as a new generation of an ingredient appears, the soup updates, while staying the same soup of theseus








comfyUI workflow & the soup


[sickly{sweet}(de)composing

(2024)

the work explores mixamo as a collection of movements that constitute a norm to be perceived. the screens display a body, dying  “normally”, over and over again - differently every time


The doctor called, the 
results came in.  he says that        im 
laying severe coughing, 
            hit by car.   
Is your body 
insured?  
As my kilobytes.        take a pill.  
injured 
hurting idle.        
Paracetamol.  Folders         and folders and                     folders they are whispering.   tonic seizure. 
                Hit by car. 







installation documentation






also as seen on display @ swsws69; documentation by Eva van Boxtel <3








primary substances

(2024)


Everything consists of and participates in interconnected complex systems; all things are synthesized and lie at the border between what was called nature and what may be called artificial.  

Plastic can be the physical expression of this blurriness. Its uncanny structure is loaded with everchanging connotations ranging from futuristic, to kitsch, to the dreadful vastness of the oil industry - and forth.

A plastic toy dinosaur may or may not be made from a regular dinosaur. A wall is made from the same calcium as the egg laying next to it. Maybe a part of this dinosaur has already seen that plastic patch of grass...






















caring eye

(2024)
“caring eye”  is a video art and installation based on google maps 3d data

    moving slowly and unstably through the landscapes of the
    netherlands, the viewer is put in a perplexing (or perplexed)
    position. through whose eyes are they looking? what is their
    role in this act of surveillance? are they even meant to see
    what they're watching? these questions gain urgency with
    (alleged) authenticity of data. 

    staged in unreal engine and borrowing relevant information
    from google maps api, the work questions the mediation of
    the environment through the data infrastructures - and the
    way we build relationships with those images



“caring eye” video excerpt




installation view



ios trespassing pack

(2024)
    the rounded-rectangular 'snooze -- add to the calendar’
    accept free trial' button is the shape of commodified utility

    it is one of the basic parts of swiftUI, the coding language
    designed by apple to make most apps existing today.
    i misuse this language by not trying to make profit out of
    it; instead, i trespass this boring ecosystem to see its limits


ios trespassing: apple maps



ios trespassing: more



ios trespassing: animation


misreding

(2024)
    the biggest wisdom comes from thewise people's words,
    accidentally misread

    based on a common issue of havingto read curatorial texts
    in a hurry, this website takes the best out of that experience
    and makes the user misread a randomly picked hans ulrich
    obrist quote





“misreding” video documentation of a website



new! also upgraded to a google chrome extention! now you can misread any of your favourite wise words!


“misreding”, browser extension documentation





image making

(2023)
    where does an image seize to be?

    how many layers of cables, shields and filters can we strip
    off of a screen and still see one?

    this visual synthesizer passing current through the leftovers
    of an lcd screen is an attempt to grasp this question




“image making” video documentation




🦠

(2023)
      the environment of the gut bacteria is also an actor:
      it’s the human themselves. the relationship between
      the human and their body carries almost mystical
      character; trying to affect the bacteria (which
      performed. 

    a fluctuation between the promise of serotonin and whatever comes next becomes a mysticist run.

    the viewer is invited to affect the digitally represented bacteria.















      who is julia

      (2023)
      “who is julia?” is a short movie set within the interface of touchdesigner. despite being primarily utilitarian, the interface can become an environment for a playful narrative. it creates miscommunication and shapes the dialog with the viewer, making them question the existing cliches of the software.

      for example - who the fuck is julia?



      “who is julia”, full video work