Sougwen Chung

Background & Biography

Sougwen Chung is a Chinese-Canadian artist and researcher whose practice combines drawing, robotics and computational systems. Chung founded SCILICET, an experimental studio in London, and the artist’s current website identifies London and New York as places associated with the practice. Their work includes physical paintings, live performances, machine-learning models and NFT editions.

Chung describes a sustained investigation into how human gestures and machine responses can shape one another. Since 2015, this has included drawing alongside robotic systems rather than treating computers solely as tools for producing finished images. The work belongs to a broader artistic practice; its use of artificial intelligence does not mean that every project involves blockchain technology.

Notable Contributions

The Drawing Operations series has developed through multiple generations of robotic collaborators, known as D.O.U.G. In MEMORY, the second generation, a recurrent neural network was trained on two decades of Chung’s archived artworks. The system reinterpreted this material while drawing alongside the artist. The Victoria and Albert Museum describes this as collaboration rather than simple automation and records its acquisition of a collaborative drawing, a version of the neural-network model and a performance video.

This museum context is distinct from the artist’s NFT activity. The V&A acquisition establishes institutional collection of the work and its constituent media; it is not used here to claim that the museum purchased an NFT. Keeping those categories separate helps explain a practice that crosses physical, computational and blockchain-based formats.

Blockchain & NFT Work

Verisart’s June 2021 account identifies Ligatures (Node 1) as Chung’s inaugural NFT, minted on 7 June through its collaboration with SuperRare. The augmented-reality work presents an evolving kinetic sculptural form and connects ideas of decentralized networks with mutual aid. Verisart certified it through its Fair Trade Art initiative and reported the artist’s intention to donate all artist proceeds to EV loves NYC. That is a documented pledge, not independent verification of the amount ultimately transferred.

Ligatures offers a specific example of NFT publication within Chung’s wider experiments with digital form. Its relevance does not depend on describing the artist as a cryptocurrency founder or a protocol developer. Rather, it shows how blockchain-based certification and distribution can accompany an artistic project involving augmented reality and a stated social purpose.

More recent direct evidence appears in the Verse record for RECURSIONS, presented by Fellowship. The platform identifies Ethereum and the ERC-721 token standard, with release metadata dated 1 April 2026. Its description connects six related paintings with a longer process of accumulating marks. These details establish a blockchain edition associated with the series without implying that a token automatically transfers copyright or every physical component of a work.

Current Practice

Chung’s current website describes RECURSIONS as a 2026 presentation with Fellowship and ARTXCODE at Art Basel Hong Kong. It features a scroll made with two robotic arms linked to the artist through live EEG data. The artist also continues to investigate relationships among gesture, biofeedback and computational systems. The physical presentation and the Verse token record provide complementary, rather than interchangeable, descriptions of the project.

Gallery documentation identifies Chung as SCILICET’s founder and artistic director and places the work across exhibitions, performances and paintings. Historical research affiliations and residencies are part of that background. They are not treated as current employment appointments in this profile.

Why Katharos.ai Follows

Chung provides a concrete connection between human-machine artistic collaboration and NFT publication. The work helps frame questions about authorship, provenance and the relationship between an artistic process and a collectible digital record. Katharos.ai follows these developments as part of the cultural use of blockchain, not as an endorsement of token prices or future returns.

Areas We Follow

- Artist-designed machine-learning and robotic systems. - NFT editions and blockchain certification of digital artworks. - Relationships between performance, physical objects and token records. - Museum documentation and the preservation of computational art.

Reporting Scope

This profile distinguishes institutional acquisitions, platform metadata and artist statements. It does not assume that all AI art is NFT art, or that a charitable pledge proves a completed donation.

Current Position

Artist and researcher; Founder of SCILICET. Verified 5 November 2026.

Photo Credit

Will Calcutt, Sougwen Chung, 15 September 2012, published by Incase via Flickr, CC BY 2.0. Original photograph and license are linked in Sources 7–8. Cropped to 16:9 and resized for the card. This is a historical photograph.

Source Notice

Prepared from the primary artist, museum, gallery and platform sources listed with this profile, checked on 5 November 2026. Roles and project availability can change.