a terrarium

a terrarium / Till Schönwetter - Photo: Till Schönwetter

Theme Exhibition

Exhibit

a terrarium

Till Schönwetter (DE)

a terrarium explores artificial life, survival, and collapse within a sealed environment. A projection maps an evolving simulation onto a miniature landscape, turning the terrarium into a living world. Visitors can read and influence the emerging narratives, sending “god prompts” to influence the system. Within, generative AI agents build shelters, cultivate land, and adapt to their surroundings. Their behavior is driven by a system inspired by Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior (Park et al., 2023), in which language-model cognition, memory, and reflection are combined to simulate believable planning and social dynamics. The environment evolves continuously, shaped by agent actions and external interventions. Referencing artificial life research, ecological experiments, god games, and AI alignment debates, the project reflects on control, consequence, and the strange familiarity of artificial struggle.

POSTCITY, Bunker

  • Till Schönwetter

    Till Schönwetter is a new media artist whose work spans technical systems and poetic structures, crafting playful, romantic critiques of technological inevitability. With a background in landscape painting, his practice moves across interaction, fiction, and systems thinking, folding digital tools into strange experiments, unruly interfaces, and speculative environments. His works tend to glitch, loop, or contradict themselves as systems and environments that misbehave just enough to stay alive.

Credits

Based on Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior (Joon Sung Park et al.) Selected work of the 2025 Gwangyang-Linz Media Arts Exchange Grant. This project is presented with the support of the City of Gwangyang, the City of Linz and the Ars Electronica Festival as a recipient of the 2025 Gwangyang-Linz Media Arts Exchange Grant.

Please note: The program for the Ars Electronica Festival 2025 is still in progress.
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