Juliana Castro Varón


Hi! I’m Juli (pronounced who-li). I’m interested in using technology—writing, design, or artificial intelligence—to connect people with art and stories. 

I’m a Senior Design Editor of A.I. Initiatives at the New York Times. We use machine learning to uncover data patterns, and make journalism more accessible—not to write articles but to support reporting. I also draw, and my cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker

I founded Cita Press, a publisher of open-access books,  in 2017. Alongside a small but mighty team and Educopia, we raised ≈$1M to create digital readers, eBooks, and ensure Cita remains free for everyone. You should check it out

I’m also an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard. When I was a fellow there in 2022, I studied the history of image manipulation, from darkroom to AI.

Previously, I wrote a book about art and artists, lived in nine cities in four countries, was invited to a bunch of podcasts, taught interaction design and typography at the college level, gave a few talks (including a keynote), got a Fulbright scholarship, and worked for a couple contemporary art museums. 

Finally, just because I can, here’s a list of things I love: jokes, Times New Roman, memes, the literary line between poor memory and fiction, taking baths, rocks shaped as rocks, rocks shaped as UFOs, when my cat looks like a loaf of bread, crying at the movies, and sunset. 

Online: Insta, Ex Twit, Threads, Arena, Email.
Offline: I’m around!
ARE IMAGES REAL? (2022-2023)

‘Are Images Real?’ is an interactive index of the history of image manipulation, from darkroom tricks of the 1800s to modern-day deepfakes and AI-generated images. It uses a graphic chronology and storytelling to explore the evolution of image manipulation from its earliest days to the present, examining the ways in which photographic images have been altered, distorted, and transformed over time. This project explores misleading photographic manipulation through three key eras: analog and film photography; digital images; and generative artificial intelligence. I created ‘Are Images Real?’ a at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.