Anatomy of Non-Fact

Schaufenster Junge Kunst, Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen, Anatomy of Non-Fact / Martyna Marciniak - Photo: Kilian Blees

Prix Ars Electronica Exhibition / For AI Inquirers

Exhibit

Anatomy of Non-Fact

Chapter 1: AI Hyperrealism, Chapter 2: Tick, tick, tick... boom

Martyna Marciniak (PL)

Anatomy of Non-Fact is an artistic research project that examines forensic science, technology, visual culture, and history in response to the widespread manipulation of fake images and videos. Chapter 1: Hyperrealism focuses on the so-called “fake Balenciaga Pope” that gained significant attention during the 2023 “AI boom.” The research is compiled into an 18-minute video centered around a meticulously recreated “Balenciaga coat” from circulating fake images, along with distorted glasses, a ring, and a cross pendant missing half its chain. Chapter 2: Tick, tick, tick… boom combines insights from an investigation into the visual misinformation surrounding the “Pentagon explosion,” which caused a brief but impactful crash in stock prices and cryptocurrency values in mid-2023. The project confronts audiences with their own entanglement in the “social authority” of technological media and prompts a reexamination of the centuries-old relationship between images and truth. 

Prix Ars Electronica 2025 
Award of Distinction – Artificial Life & Intelligence 

Lentos Kunstmuseum

Ticket //

FESTIVALPASS+, FESTIVALPASS, ONE DAY PASS, Partner Venue Ticket

By starting the content, you agree that data will be transmitted to youtu.be.
Data Protection Declaration

  • Photo: Marina Cavazza

    Martyna Marciniak

    Martyna Marciniak’s practice bridges media theory, and legal imaginaries to trace how power inscribes itself through image regimes and visual infrastructures. Her work engages in a form of pataforensics—poking at the tropes of scientific and forensic aesthetics, revealing their uncertainties, contradictions, and lapses. Oscillating between sculpture, video, and animation, she writes visual counter-histories and smuggles in other ways of seeing.

Credits

CHAPTER 1: Written, produced and directed by Martyna Marciniak | Balenciaga Pope played by Derrick Jenkins | Hands played by Rojia Forouhar Abadeh, Martyna Marciniak, Kotryna Slapsinskaite | Sound design and score by Marco Pascarelli | Production Management: Kotryna Slapsinskaite | Videography: Hagen Betzwieser | Technical Design Consultancy: Edward Grace | Design Consultancy: Joanne Grace | Technical Consultancy: Jan Schluter from Johannes Kepler University | Supported by European Digital Deal Program, Ars Electronica and Akademie Schloss Solitude. ‍CHAPTER 2: Written, produced, and directed by Martyna Marciniak | Balenciaga Pope played by Ralf Schuster | Hands played by Martyna Marciniak, Kotryna Slapsinskaite | Security played by Edward Grace and Mindaugas Patapas | Sound design and score by Marco Pascarelli | Production Management: Kotryna Slapsinskaite | Technical Design Consultancy: Edward Grace | Supported by: European Digitial Deal program, Ars Electronica, Kemmler Stiftung | This project has been developed and is presented in the context of European Digital Deal. European Digital Deal is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport.