MANIFEST:IO 2025

Program

JOIN US FOR THE THIRD EDITION OF MANIFEST:IO, THE SYMPOSIUM FOR NEW MEDIA AND ELECTRONIC ART
CREATE TOGETHER

Workshops

Three unique workshops inviting you to create with the artists. Delve into AI, create an interactive experience, or join a guided walk.

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Feb 21, 2025 11:00
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Feb 21, 2025 13:00
Clara Francesca and Anne Wichmann

Letters Without Borders

2 hours

Free registration with any MANIFEST:IO ticket

Feb 22, 2025 11:00
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Feb 22, 2025 13:00
Mania Napiórkowska and Anita Burato

Scripts to read the city

2 hours

Free registration with any MANIFEST:IO ticket

Feb 22, 2025 10:00
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Feb 23, 2025 13:00
Arshia Sobhan

Autolume: A Small Data Neural Visual Synthesizer

2 Days, 3 Hours each

Register for Workshop + Weekend Pass

CONVERSATIONS STAGE

Talks Schedule

Talks from artists, designers, researchers, from around the world gathering in Berlin. From topics of heritage, to the climate crisis, and between DIY technologies to XR tools, listen and engage with new perspectives and applications of new media and electronic art.

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FEB 22

2:00 PM      OPENING / KEYNOTE

Re(emerging) Pasts: Heritage Futures in the Global Heritage Industry

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Robert Parthesius and Alia Yunis

Heritage is a highly interdisciplinary field and a foundation for numerous artistic practices. However, it has also become a commodity. As heritage increasingly intersects with socio-economic issues, nation-building, ethnicity, race, religion, and gender, its protection and promotion have taken center stage in the agendas of political leaders, environmentalists, and tourism planners.

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This talk provides an overview of heritage studies, questioning whether heritage can be managed objectively or equitably. It examines how heritage connects cultures and subcultures as shared history, while also serving as a source of conflict and contestation, as seen in various memorials, archaeological sites, and expressions of collective memory.

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We will explore how archaeologists, heritage professionals, and community activists are adopting more holistic approaches to interpreting and safeguarding the past, with a focus on erased and fragmented heritage. The talk concludes by reflecting on our HeritageLab’s manifesto, Re-emerging Pasts.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Robert Parthesius is the founder of the Amsterdam-based CIE – Centre for International Heritage Activities, a UNESCO-accredited NGO. He is also the former Program Head and Professor of Heritage and Museum Studies, as well as the founding director of Dhakira – Center for Heritage Studies at New York University Abu Dhabi. A maritime historical archaeologist and museum curator with extensive international experience, focussing his research on how heritage is shared, contested, used, and misused.

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He has pioneered the innovative HeritageLab research concept—an interactive platform that invites researchers, artists, students, and communities to engage in multidisciplinary projects that rethink the concept of heritage and its applications.

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Parthesius has published extensively, authoring scholarly books, academic papers, exhibition catalogues, and publications for general audiences. Additionally, he has organized numerous international heritage conferences and is an accredited UNESCO expert, serving on various expert committees for ICOMOS and ICOM.

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Alia Yunis works at the intersection of environmental and transoceanic heritage, with a particular focus on the Muslim and Arab worlds and their diasporas. As a scholar, journalist, author, and filmmaker, her work has been translated into ten languages.

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Her recent publication, Heritage Futures: Stories in the Global Heritage Industry, co-edited with Robert Parthesius and Niccolò Cappelletto, is a ground breaking volume centred on the Global South and serves as a unique pedagogical contribution to Heritage Studies (Routledge, London, 2024).

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Her feature documentary, The Golden Harvest,explores the heritage and future of the olive tree and the people of the Mediterranean. The film continues to screen at festivals and events worldwide, including a recent showing at the Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art. The Golden Harvest inspired Tree Routed, an interactive platform that globally connects personal heritage stories about trees (currently in production). She is also in the early production stages of films examining the complex heritage of the date palm.

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Alia Yunis recently co-edited book Re-Orienting the Middle East: Film and Digital Media Where the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean Meet (Indiana University Press, 2024). Her critically acclaimed novel, The Night Counter (Random House, 2010), received praise from The Washington Post and other notable publications.

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In 2010, she co-founded the Zayed University Middle East Film Festival (ZUMEFF), which has since become the longest-running film festival in the Gulf.

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15:15 PM     MAKING VISIBLE / Moderated by Dr. Rene G. Cepeda

Uncovering Maximalism

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Marta Torres

There is a gap in analyzing vernacular elements from the Latin American and Central American region, especially from a social and non-Western standpoint. It is a relevant topic in El Salvador under the current government of Nayib Bukele, which has eliminated programs for social inclusion and decreased any opportunity for LGBTQ+ rights and reproduction rights. There is heightened censorship, mass incarceration, and specific gentrification to make the country desirable for international investors. This is reflected in aesthetics, the loss of spaces, and elements sold in these spaces, such as the phenomena, electro-domestic coverings, and street sellers. Losing an already fragile and mixed identity, deviancy through maximalism and identity becomes an act of resistance. As this paper was written, identity elements have been displaced, which will probably grow throughout the following years.

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The phenomena of maximalist covers for appliances, toilets, and aprons sold and used in certain parts of El Salvador. These are loud and include lace, prints, and bold colors; they change how a home is perceived by covering appliances. These coverings are usually seen as “tacky,” “kitschy,” and “excessive,” contrasting with elements in a house that is seen to have “good taste” or houses with a higher income. The country has a significant wealth disparity, creating a confrontation in social dynamics where there’s a clear division. With imperialism and colonialism, there is this sense of taste that Salvadorans tend to navigate towards; it can be inferred from the influences that the population wants to identify with upper-class Europeans or Americans from the US, where things are seen in fewer colors, fewer elements, an interpretation of cleanliness, a simplicity that does not connect to the culture that is already fractured by colonization and imperialism.

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The aesthetics of the government's new construction pleases a more minimalistic aesthetic to parts of Europe and the USA. It dismisses any element that is incompatible with the reality that’s been trying to be built, and that includes excess that comes from the mixture of Indigenous culture, pop culture, identity building, and how objects can have a more intimate connection to individuals that hold on to what they can. As with other stories, crafts, and styles in other parts of the global south, these parts can be heightened, further conserved, and appreciated through new media, especially hybrid media, where various mediums can elaborate important stories and give space. New technologies can serve as a tool to conserve these elements representing this mixed identity by creating an archive or world-building, creating utopias, and speculating a more inclusive reality. It also can enhance the materiality, the phenomena, and the treasuring of everyday objects in these homes through metaphors and interpretations. The case studies in this research provide examples of how each lens can be transformed and create a meaningful discourse through contemporary and new media art. New media is also in itself a deviating art form that opens opportunities to create new realities.

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Lifting the Veil: Memory, Identity, and the Politics of Erasure

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Elyana Shams

Identities do not form in isolation—they are constructed from stories inherited, histories shared, and defining moments that shape perception. But what happens when those narratives are censored? When entire voices, faces, and histories are erased, leaving only fragments of reality?

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Elyana Shams interrogates these urgent questions through her artistic practice, exposing how the deliberate erasure of a generation’s moments doesn’t just silence—it distorts, fractures, and reshapes the way individuals and societies understand themselves and one another.

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Borrowed from her own girlhood in Tehran, her explorations in new media art peel back layers of omission to reveal the invisible forces that manipulate individual, collective, and cultural memory and identity. In this talk, she shares how new media art can challenge censorship, expose the mechanics of erasure, resurrect lost narratives, and claim what was forced to be forgotten.

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Beyond Walls: Rethinking Museums

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Jens Blank

Over the past several years, Jens Blank has collaborated with some of Berlin’s most prominent cultural institutions—such as the Humboldt Forum, the Pergamon Museum, the James Simon Gallery, and key government sites like the Reichstag and the Finanzministerium—to help bring their spaces and collections into the digital realm. This work has provided a unique perspective on how cultural institutions can navigate the challenges and opportunities of the digital age.

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Jens asks, what is the continued justification for physical museum spaces in a world increasingly shaped by digital experiences? Should immersive, all-access digital experiences become a required standard for museums and cultural institutions, much like barrier-free access is for individuals with physical disabilities?

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These questions delve into the broader implications of digitization for the democratization of cultural heritage. What role can digital spaces play in providing access to learning materials for people who might never have the chance to physically visit a museum or cultural site?

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Additionally, Jens will discuss practical considerations and creative possibilities for designing these digital resources. Do they need to replicate the physical experience of a museum, or can they offer something entirely new? How can cutting-edge technologies, such as augmented reality, virtual reality, or interactive media, be leveraged to enhance accessibility and engagement without diluting the authenticity of cultural heritage?

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By sharing insights from real-world projects and raising thought-provoking questions, Jens aims to spark a meaningful conversation about the intersection of digital innovation, cultural preservation, and equitable access. This is not just about bringing museums into the digital space—it’s about reimagining what these spaces can be in the digital age and what they can bring to a wide audience across the planet.

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5:30 pm

Wandering Through Critical Futures

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RMIT Architecture Immersive Futures Lab

This talk will critically present the work of the emerging RMIT Architecture Immersive Futures Lab that explores the role of gaming environments, technologies and allied immersive media in spatializing, engaging, teaching, designing and constructing speculative futures through the lens of the architecture discipline. It will discuss, through projects developed in teaching and research, how speculative virtual gaming environments can serve as critical and imaginative provocations to contemporary planetary concerns such as ecological crises. Immersive, open-world experiences provide opportunities for audiences to reflect on the impacts of environmental change while envisioning speculative futures for our cultural and built environments.

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These speculative environments utilize game engine technology to design and construct layered and interactive worlds that challenge traditional architectural representation. They operate as experimental spaces, where participants can engage with ecological narratives, cultural histories, and imaginative futures. By navigating these virtual landscapes, users may encounter hybridized ecosystems and provocative scenarios that challenge binary conditions—natural versus artificial, virtual versus real—and encourage reflection on the dynamic relationship of human and non-human systems.

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Grounded in themes of ecology, climate crisis, and radical imagination, these speculative environments investigate the relationship between disappearing landscapes, the residues of their transformation, and the imaginative futures we might construct in response through architecture and cities. How can we preserve and reinterpret remnants, histories and stories to envision hopeful trajectories? Through an interdisciplinary approach, these speculative worlds integrate ecological data, cultural storytelling, technological simulations, and imaginative design. These platforms encourage dialogue, foster collaboration, and provoke discourse on the socio-political and ecological questions surrounding contemporary concerns.

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The presentation will examine how virtual environments can redefine architectural and creative practice in the context of the New Media Age, moving beyond static representation to embrace hybridized and interactive forms of communication. These dynamic worlds challenge conventions of drawing, representation, and audience engagement, proposing new methods for exploring complex systems and narratives.

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This presentation invites participants to reflect on the fragility of our landscapes, the resilience of our cultures, and the transformative potential of critical imaginings. It positions speculative virtual gaming environments as vibrant, immersive propositions—not distant utopias or dystopias, but critical and hopeful visions that inspire action. By navigating these worlds, audiences are encouraged to engage in dialogue, discover new constellations of ideas, and imagine futures where creativity meets the challenges of our ecological and cultural crises.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Vei Tan is co-founder of the RMIT Architecture Immersive Futures Lab that explores the potentials of gaming technologies and immersive media for architectural design. The lab's interdisciplinary approach explores gaming environments and technologies to develop new immersive and real-time design processes, visualisations, applications and pedagogies. It posits that understanding possible “now, near, and future” visions and realities, require innovative hybrid methods for making, curating, engaging, and imagining our cultural and built environments. The lab has exhibited projects at various international events such as Melbourne Design Week (2021), Venice Architecture Biennale (2021), Barcelona Architectures Festival (2023) and more. It has worked with various cultural and education institutions such as Melbourne Recital Centre, Federation Square, ACMI, MPavilion, Jacques Rougerie Foundation and more. The lab is part of the RMIT School of Architecture and Urban Design where she is an industry staff member and design studio leader.

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Vei Tan is also the co-founder of Superscale, a research-led and speculative multidimensional creative practice that amplifies our architectural training to permeate disciplinary boundaries - unearthing new realities, possibilities, techniques and imaginings for architectural speculation, pedagogy and design.

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6:00 pm

From Sputnik to Starlink: Why we should talk about satellites

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Quadrature

From earth satellites are visible only in the rare case that they are in the perfect angle to reflect the sun. All necessary data about the positions and paths of (most) satellites is publicly available, constituting a dynamic data source for creative processes. The lecture will dive into Quadrature`s artistic practice about this rather new layer of infrastructure, its meaning for our technology driven society and the recent exponential increase in satellite launches.

6:15 pm

Space Art and Ancestrality

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Nahum

Nahum will explore how artists throughout history have envisioned humanity's connection with the Cosmos. From ancestral cultures to contemporary practices, Nahum will discuss how art continues to shape and expand our understanding of the universe, offering new imaginaries through poetic and critical lenses.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Nahum is an artist and musician. His works craft unconventional perspectives and narratives to evoke wonder and deepen our understanding of cosmic existence. In his oeuvre, Nahum orchestrates a diverse array of media, including performance, installation, video, music, painting, and storytelling. Nahum frequently incorporates space technologies, illusionism, and hypnosis to transport audiences on otherworldly journeys that spark critical dialogues about existencehood.

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In 2011, Nahum founded the KOSMICA Institute, a space organisation with a mission to create a platform for critical, cultural, and poetic discourse about our relationship to the Universe, space activities, and their impact on Earth. The Institute develops initiatives that bridge the arts and humanities, the space sector, and broader society.

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His work has been internationally exhibited at prestigious venues, including the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, Germany; The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Southbank Centre, The British Library, and FACT Liverpool in the UK; Garage Museum and Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, Russia; Galerija Kapelica in Ljubljana and Kiblix Slovenia; Ars Electronica in Linz, Switzerland; SESC in São Paulo and Casa Firjan in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California, Rubin Center in El Paso, Texas, and the Chicago Architecture Biennial in the USA; Bonniers Konsthall in Stockholm, Sweden; National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung, Taiwan; Hong Kong Arts Centre; Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Museo Jumex, and Centro Nacional de las Artes in Mexico City; and Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Jalisco in Mexico.

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8:00 PM     CURATORIAL PRACTICES AND COMMUNITY / MODERATED BY HARSHINI J. KARUNARATNE

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IKLECTIK

Founded in 2014, IKLECTIK is a nonprofit creative organisation based in London.

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IKLECTIK focus on experimentation within sound, art, new media, emerging technologies and cross disciplinary works. Their research initiatives and collaborations with academic institutions inform their curation and event selection. Through this, they explore processes and techniques whilst addressing social, political and cultural issues.

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Their dynamic programme spans sound and music events, workshops, residencies, talks, panel discussions, installation work, film screenings and readings aiming to catalyze education, growth and transformation within our community both in-person and online.

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Over the last 10 years IKLECTIK has hosted live performances from over 3000 emerging and established international artists across 1600+ live shows, 21 festivals and 23 fundraisers.

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Amir B. Ash

Amir B. Ash (Amir Bahador Ashrafzadeh) is a Freelance self-taught new media artist/ indie experimental filmmaker with  educational background in digital arts and film making and over 15 years of professional experience. Having a filmmaking and animation background and his love for music motivated him to start experimenting with live visuals and lights in late 2007. Since then he has been collaborating with musicians such as Siavash Amini, Idlefon, Umchunga and Temp-Illusion live on stage in festivals such as Mutek Japan, Mawaheb St.Petersburg, TCS festival Berlin and more. He also helped create contents for Lionel Ritchie’s 2020 USA tour, Westlife reunion show 2019, America’s Got Talent 2019 as well as 3 music videos for the London based band, Bastille.

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In late 2009 he co-founded a Design and Technology studio called CODON Interactive media with three of his fellow artists as a collective in which he works as visual artist and art director, focusing on a variety of projects such as Real-Time Simulations, Interactive Light Sculptures and Installations on an international scale. He also is one of the Co-Founders and part of the managing director’s team at SET Experimental Art Events, an international electronic music festival in Tehran/Iran which started in late 2015, collaborating with festivals such as CTM Berlin and Mutek.

Sound, Space, and Community: Building Resonance in the sonic landscape of the UAE and wider GCC

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Safeya Alblooshi

In this presentation, Safeya reflects on the complex terrain of curatorial practices and community building within the UAE and broader GCC region, where art spaces often face unpredictable challenges in securing long-term venues. With limited physical infrastructure, we explore how collaborations with cultural institutions and the use of temporary pop-up spaces have become vital tools in creating alternative platforms for art. The presentation delves into Resound UAE, a pioneering initiative that amplifies the often-overlooked sound art scene in the region, examining its origins and vision for the future. Additionally, Safeya addresses the pressing need for comprehensive documentation of sound art practices, given the scarcity of resources and visibility for sound artists in the region. Through a focus on inclusive, free gatherings, the presentation highlights how building a supportive, accessible community for creative exchange and growth can be achieved while navigating the expectations of governing art institutions and balancing institutional support with grassroots initiatives.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Safeya Alblooshi is a sound artist who experiments with found sound via participatory performance and installation. Her work extends to being presented and performed at the Expo 2020 Dubai, Louvre Abu Dhabi, Alserkal Avenue, IRCAM Forum, London Design Biennale, Festival X, Sharjah Art Foundation, and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. She was part of the second cohort of Numoo in 2023 at the NYUAD Arts Center, where she recently curated the 4th edition of ElectroFest, and the founder and organizer of Resound UAE supported by the National Grant Program for Culture & Creativity. Safeya just completed her 3 year tenure as a Research Fellow with the Music and Sound Cultures research group at NYU Abu Dhabi.

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FEB 23

2:00 pm

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Forensic Architecture

3:00 pm

Inter(mediate) Spaces: Storytelling with Generative AI and Co-Creating Immersive Experiences with Communities

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Chloé Lee, Present Futures

This talk looks at the intersection of generative AI and community-driven storytelling. Through projects like "Inter(mediate) Spaces", funded by Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, and "Temporal World" (SXSW 2023), Berlin-based artist, Chloé Lee, shares her process as she explores ways new technologies, like AI tools XR, can be used in creative and accessible ways, particularly within communities that are often underrepresented in tech spaces.

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Through a series of case studies — including Living Labs held at the Lee Association community center in Montreal, Chinatown, New York City and Silent Green, Wedding, Berlin—Chloé will delve into the process of co-creating with individuals from diverse backgrounds, using generative AI to empower them to tell their own stories and imagine new worlds. We will reflect on how this approach can foster empathy, inclusivity, and social change.

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3:15 pm

AI as mirror, AI as canvas: From reflecting societal paradigms to envisioning utopian futures

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Theresa Reiwer

This talk explores the dual role of AI—first as a mirror of societal structures, then as a tool for speculative futures. Beginning with the spatial video essay Decoding Bias (2023, Ars Electronica, Lumen Prize Gold Award 2024 a.o.), Theresa highlights how AI reflects and perpetuates discrimination and marginalization, emphasizing its entanglement power structures of human society. The focus then shifts to her latest piece Lasting Generation (2024, Hauptstadtkulturfonds, Hebbel am Ufer), which envisions an AI not shaped by profit-driven tech corporations but one that fosters solidarity, advocates for non-human intelligence, and seeks more-than-human alliances. Through this transition, the talk questions AI’s role in shaping the world—not just reflecting what exists, but imagining what could be—while also shedding light on the ambivalences inherent in future-oriented technologies.

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5:00 pm

M(ol)AR, HYBRID LANDSCAPE: Radio waves as an extended ecology

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Esteban Agosin

This research addresses fundamental questions: What role does technology play within the Anthropocene paradigm? How can we speculate about future possibilities by understanding and learning from nature's intelligence?

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This research investigates the use of organic materials in radio antenna construction, specifically focusing on handmade antennas using seawater electrolytes and salt crystals as electrical conductors. Although this technology is functionally effective, it presents limitations when considered on a larger scale. Within this context, these devices serve as speculative antennas, offering an alternative perspective on social and technological development in the Anthropocene era.

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The research culminated in a site-specific, durational installation born from an exploration of speculative antenna design, radio signal experimentation, and machine listening (AI). The resulting artwork creates a fictional, hybrid landscape where technological elements converge with natural ones: objects, sounds, sculptures, plastic, wires, speakers, computers, rocks, creatures, fluids, motors, and sensors. It juxtaposes electricity with water, plastic with salt, copper with sand, and sound with objects, exploring the tension between the inaudible and the invisible.

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This paper documents and reflects on the entire research process, examining it from technological, technical, and philosophical perspectives.

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5:15 pm

DIY process and exploring Fragile States

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Technologies of Consciousness

Driven by the spirit of DIY, their projects embrace a radical and popular point of view of non-expertise, demystifying the organic world in relation to the healing of the body, and the processes of decomposition and the notion of the end of the cycle. Fragile states of body is explored where the body is ill, burnt out, or has reached its' end cycle - where does this state inhabit - Is the body the place where consciousness becomes, Defining consciousness is akin to grasping a fleeting dream—it slips through our fingers as we attempt to maintain our grip of it. Is consciousness intimacy? Awareness?  When did we understand the concept of consciousness as a young human?

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Motivated by the porous and undefined intersections between art, media and science, the collective seeks to define our biological consciousness through our shared potential to feel a deep and meaningful communion with the sphere of Nature. Driven by the spirit of DIY, their projects embrace a radical and popular point of view of non-expertise, demystifying the organic world in relation to the healing of the body, and the processes of decomposition and the notion of the end of the cycle.

6:00 PM     DESIGNING COLLECTIVE FUTURES / MODERATED BY

A More Perfect Future: Performing the Archive in Theater Mitu’s Utopian Hotline

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Alex Hawthorn

As a company member with Theater Mitu, Alex Hawthorn co-authored their 2021 piece, Utopian Hotline, which was borne from the question: “how do you imagine a more perfect future?” They interviewed everyone from philosophers to schoolchildren and, in partnership with SETI (the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) and Arizona State University’s Interplanetary Initiative, astronauts, physicists, and futurists. To collect a wider array of responses, we set up a telephone number so that people could leave us voicemails about how they imagined a more perfect future. The resulting research became a performance, an installation, an album, and a digital archive.  The piece is currently touring as an installation and performance, and the phone number is still active, collecting voicemails, adding to the archive.

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Alex will share images, video, and audio from the performance while talking about the process of creating the piece from a growing archive. Alex will explore how disparate voices from around the globe can contribute equally to an archive and how difference in opinion or outlook doesn’t make the archive weaker but in fact creates a more potent space for co-imagining and co-creating our more perfect future. Far from the billionaires funding private missions to Mars, what do the thinkers and dreamers of today have to say about our possible futures? And how can we take an active role in choosing our future?

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Artistic Democratization

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XR Ensemble (Clara Francesca & She's Excited!)

Giving up artistic control, to empower audiences to safely become the featured experience.

From Hostile to Hospitable

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Martin Binder

A more inclusive Berlin: Using interactive Web-AR technology, the app visualizes utopian urban spaces and addresses issues of discriminatory design in public space. The project was developed in the framework of the Aurora School for Artists at HTW Berlin.

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Performance Schedule

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