Cybernetic Subjects

Latent Heat Generation / Ting-Chun Liu - Photo: Ting-Chun Liu

Ars Electronica Campus Exhibition

Exhibition

Cybernetic Subjects

Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (DE)

Since the 1930s, cybernetics has shaped our understanding of systems—mechanical, electrical, biological, and social. However, in the wake of computational dominance, the foundational ideas of cybernetics have largely faded from discourse.
For this year’s Campus Exhibition, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar revisits cybernetics through a contemporary lens, questioning the role of Artificial Intelligence in shaping our reality. In Cybernetic Subjects we draw from historical perspectives and contemporary thinkers to critically examine AI’s impact on our lives: How much trust can we place in AI-driven systems? Can computational models, rooted in reductionist frameworks, adequately represent the complexity of ecosystems?
Artistic contributions by faculty and students address these questions by attuning to the environment and critically examining the interplay between technological systems and ecological, political, and economic structures. Together, these works engage contemporary technologies not to reinforce the dominance of AI and computation, but to challenge their hegemony and advocate for a more nuanced understanding of living systems and environments.

University of Arts Linz, Hauptplatz 8

  • The Pond

    Mindaugas Gapševičius (LT), Kerstin Ergenzinger (DE), Klaus Fritze (DE), Negin Ehtesabian (IR), Cosmo Schüppel (DE), Outi Wahlroos (FI)

    The Pond is a living platform and installation that interrogates the complex ecological, political, economic, and mental networks that shape ecosystems. These interdependencies range from living organisms to machines, from pristine to degraded environments, and from open to closed systems.

  • Ymr.x

    Maximilian Götz (DE), Parisa Salimi (IR)

    In Ymr.x machine learning and 3D data mapping is used to investigate a dataset of more than 8,000 Twitter impressions on a recent local political event. In this way, we uncover insights and the geometry of users’ interactions.

  • Latent Heat Generation

    Ting-Chun Liu (TW)

    Latent Heat Generation is an artistic research project investigating the hidden material infrastructures of AI systems through thermal imaging feedback loops, creating real-time feedback where computational waste heat becomes generative material for AI imagery.

  • Sonic Ecologies

    Jacob Elias Aran (DE), Diana Karle (DE), Jasper Seibert (DE), Robin Max Wieber (DE), Karlotta Sperling (DE), Lisa Zwinscher (DE), in collaboration with Nina Bendix Igleses (BR)

    Sonic Ecologies is a sonic and performative platform presenting a collaborative concert that investigates the ecological, generative, and disruptive dimensions of listening. How many voices can we truly attend to at once? What new patterns emerge when we shift how—and with what—we listen?

  • She’s So Centsible!

    Passion Asasu (TH)

    She’s So Centsible! is a durational performance powered by the audience—insert coins into the acceptor to match the hourly minimum wage (€12.41), and the performer runs until the money runs out. The work explores the entanglement of labour, energy, and financial responsibility.

Credits

Curated by Prof. Ursula Damm, Prof. Kerstin Ergenzinger, Dr. Mindaugas Gapševičius I Gestaltung Medialer Umgebungen (Media Environments) I Akustische Ökologien und Sound Studies (Acoustic Ecologies and Sound Studies) I Supported by STIL – Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre

Please note: The program for the Ars Electronica Festival 2025 is still in progress.
We are currently preparing all the information for the website and plan to put the full program online in the coming days – stay tuned!