HOTHOUSE. A Renegade Lab for Democracy against Technocapitalist Authoritarianism
September 12 – October 4, 2025
Atelier Augarten, Scherzergasse 1A, 1020 Vienna, and online via livestream
thefutureofdemonstration.net/hothouse
<https://thefutureofdemonstration.net/hothouse>
HOTHOUSE, the fifth season of the art series The Future of Demonstration by
Sylvia Eckermann and Gerald Nestler, explores the political, social, and
ecological implications of artificial intelligence – and asks how democratic
agency can be remade under technocapitalist conditions.
Artificial intelligence is already a part of our everyday lives – but how can
we live with it without submitting to it?
With artificial intelligence, a transformative power has emerged with massive
impact on our lives. We use AI chatbots for a wide variety of purposes today –
whether at work or in our free time – and often with great benefit. Yet, every
promise hides a claim, and recent AI applications indicate that the promise of
a more participatory, diverse and equitable world – and hence a better
planetary future – veers towards a profoundly reactionary deepening of control.
Shifting from AI gamification to AI weaponization, generative AI has become the
new frontier of capitalist extraction.
HOTHOUSE brings together artists, activists, practitioners and thinkers from
around the world to challenge emerging AI supremacy and how it classifies,
governs and even annihilates life. They participate in real time via a new
technology: 3D-point cloud video sharing allows us to create a space of shared
presence at Atelier Augarten, regardless of where contributors are located on
Earth.
What does it mean to resist? How do successful counter-alliances and
counter-investigations operate? What can be done to expose and resolve power
schemes that abuse AI infrastructure? How do we reorient the agency of
resistance against systems and agents of oppression towards insurrections that
are politically and culturally adaptable and resilient (as the German term
“Widerständigkeit” implies)? Unlike closed AI black box machines, human beings
are capable of betraying systems and agents of oppression.
Four performative-discursive live events focus on a specific aspect of the
theme. They are embedded in an installation consisting of objects, animations,
maps, posters, documentaries, videos, and sound. A DisintegratorPodcast special
series and talks allow for deeper understanding, workshops offer practice-based
interventions.
Contributors participate via a new collective real time-technology: 3D-point
cloud live video sharing allows us to create a collaborative space of shared
presence, regardless of where contributors are located on Earth.
HOTHOUSE does not use AI to create art. It is not about AI aesthetics – nor
about whether AI can be made “ethical” or “friendlier.” Instead, we examine
what it takes to reclaim democratic agency and human rights, and counter
predatory forms of domination and the inequalities they produce.
The Future of Demonstration is an art series by Sylvia Eckermann and Gerald
Nestler that explores new forms of collective resistance and expanded ways of
perceiving the world. Its postdisciplinary format combines exhibition,
discourse, performance and documentation, bringing together artistic,
technological, political and social practices in a participatory way.
HOTHOUSE is produced in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Foundation – Global
Unit for Human Security, Tactical Tech, Berlin; and the Lisbon Architecture
Triennale. Participating groups and initiatives includeadO/Aptive (Vienna),
Disintegrator Podcast (Online), Forensic Architecture / Centre for Research
Architecture (London), Stop Killer Robots Coalition (Global), Technopolitics
(Vienna), Territorial Agency (London).
Contributors: https://thefutureofdemonstration.net/hothouse/programme.html
Programme: https://thefutureofdemonstration.net/hothouse/credits.html
thefutureofdemonstration.net/hothouse
<http://thefutureofdemonstration.net/hothouse>
______________________
TIM.theories in mindpostdigital art
clubgene@theoriesinmind.netwww.theoriesinmind.netwww.thefutureofdemonstration.netNeulinggasse
9/VI
A-1030 Wien
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