Penesta Dika is a university lecturer at the University of Art and Design in Linz, the University of Applied Sciences in St. Pölten (FHSTP) in Austria, and at UBT in Prishtina, Kosovo. She lectures in three languages and teaches several different subjects annually, including scientific-artistic publication practices and the history of media art.
She also works as an independent curator and has curated international exhibitions in renowned museums, galleries, and cultural institutions in Vienna, Croatia, France, Slovakia, Kosovo, and North Macedonia — including the exhibition ANTopolis at Austria’s central museum complex, the MuseumsQuartier in Vienna, which attracted more than 10,000 visitors per day.
Her expertise covers the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), telematics, and synesthesia. Her research projects and academic publications have been released by well-known publishers such as Transcript, Springer, and Logos, and have been presented at leading international conferences and festivals such as Ars Electronica, the European Researchers’ Night, WRO Biennale, MediaArtHistories, and ISEA.
Due to her expertise, she has been invited by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) for research and artistic collaborations, and has served as a member of the International Program Committee of the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) in both the 2020 (Montreal) and 2023 (Paris) editions.
Penesta Dika is the founder of the Association SciTechArt in Vienna. The purpose of the association is education, promotion and research in scientific and technological art. She also established the styles of art MediaDetoxism and BigDataism.
Penesta Dika is the author of two books: Die Computerkunst Herbert W. Frankes (2007), published on the occasion of the 80th birthday of scientist and artist Prof. Dr. Herbert W. Franke, and Interactive Digital Art. Visual Motifs and their Meaning (Logos, Berlin 2017).
In 2023, she was honored with the international e-Culture Award, presented by Anilla Cultural Latinoamérica–Europa in Montevideo.
Penesta Dika studied Art History at the University of Vienna (Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees) and completed her PhD in the field of Interface Cultures at the University of Arts in Linz.