James Bridle is an artist and author best known for their groundbreaking work on technology, ecology, and more-than-human intelligence. In this conversation, James and Severin discuss AI and other ways of knowing and seeing the world.
In this episode, we think about the planetary and a version of history that doesn’t just include humans. We do this with the help of our guest, Patricia Reed, who specializes in world modelling, helping to visualize complex data models that broaden our perspective on the world around us.
The language we often use to detail laws doesn’t relate closely enough to the physical processes that are happening within our world every day. What does it mean to have a right to breathe if the quality of air we consume is different for everyone? Together with Daniela Gandorfer, a legal and media theorist and co-founder of investigative research collective Logische Phantasie Lab, we discuss how digital technologies, philosophical approaches and legal concepts come together to shape our sense of reality.
Think about a museum or an exhibition that you’ve been to that really stood out. What made it great? What sparked your imagination? What was it about the experience you had that really stuck in your mind? Often the exhibitions and spaces that captivate us most use a variety of different technology and storytelling methods to bring ideas, that are otherwise difficult to imagine, to life.
Our guest for this episode is Dan Koerner, creative director at award-winning experience design studio Sandpit. Whilst the last few episodes of this season have focused a lot on technology that takes us out of our everyday surroundings, this episode is all about technology that helps us engage closer with the physical spaces around us.
For many of us, the concept of ‘Entering the Metaverse’ has this classic Alice in Wonderland-type feeling of falling down the rabbit hole. It’s a digital gateway into an alternate reality, detached from many of the physical laws and structures that our world is subject to. Anything is possible once you step through the gateway into this alternate realm. Together with Lara Lesmes and Fredik Hellberg from architecture and design studio Space Popular we explore how portals function and can help us create better infrastructures in our future virtual spaces.
It’s no shock to anyone that we’re spending more time in virtual spaces. Our online lives are becoming ever more entangled with the reality we live outside of our screens and as this happens the role of our geocultural institutions is changing. After all, for an artist in need of exposure, why should they exhibit their work in a gallery if they can reach more people digitally? Of course there is still a need for spaces that create experiences the Metaverse can’t and as we see more physical work translated into digital media we also see digital media translated into the physical space. This is where we begin this episode exploring these ideas with Merel van Helsdingen and Tina Lorenz.
Keiken is an interdisciplinary artist collective exploring our relationship to technology through immersive and sensorial experiences. Through their work, the group asks questions about how societal constructs are shaping the construction of virtual space and how we might better relate to an unfamiliar virtual environment. Together with Eva Fischer and Martina Menegon, curators of Vienna’s CIVA festival, we explore the work of Keiken and talk about how these experiences can equip us to build a more emancipatory future.
When thinking about digital innovation and policy around technology we often view it either through the lens of Silicon Valley surveillance capitalism or Chinese digital authoritarianism. We don’t often think about what a European approach to innovation might look like. Francesca Bria on the other hand spends most of her time thinking about just that. In our conversation, Francesca offered insight on Europe’s role in digital innovation, how culture informs technology and how citizens can get active in the area of digital innovation and policy.
3D printing has reached a level of quality and complexity that the boundaries of what’s possible with the technology feel almost limitless. We can create entirely new shapes, geometries and materials that would be otherwise impossible to manufacture and in many industries, it’s helping to make processes more efficient and more sustainable. Julia Koerner is an innovator in the use of 3D printing in the fashion space and that’s why we took the time to sit down with her to better understand how these processes and her work are continuing to evolve.
Blockchain Chicken Farm: And Other Stories of Tech in China’s Countryside is the most recent book from artist and technologist Xiaowei Wang. We sat down with Xiaowei to discuss innovations in China’s countryside, agency in the tech community and how reading tarot gave them a sense of connection during a disconnected pandemic.