• AI and its Consequences - Artistic Positions on Post-Digital Futures - Austrian Cultural Forum Warsaw 2026

     Since late 2022, the rapid rise of generative AI systems has increasingly shaped artistic, societal and political debates. Within just a few years, enormous investments have been made in data centers, and new infrastructures and global power configurations have begun to emerge. At the same time, questions concerning energy consumption, regulation, digital ethics and democratic oversight have moved to the forefront.

    Examples such as the virtual AI minister “Diella” in Albania or the admission of the non-binary AI system “Flynn” as a student at the University of Applied Arts Vienna illustrate how deeply AI is already embedded within social, institutional and symbolic orders. Central terms such as deepfakes, neural networks and AI agents have become ubiquitous, yet remain opaque to many.

    This exhibition approaches these developments from an artistic perspective. Adopting a critical and post-autonomous stance, art is positioned here as a framework, mirror, testing ground and early warning system. The exhibition asks whether debates surrounding AI can extend beyond concerns about artistic autonomy and whether broader social transformations must be negotiated collectively with other actors.

    At its core, the exhibition engages with themes such as humans and machines, bodies and data, publics and authorship, histories and entanglements, as well as the ambivalence between fascination, ideology and power. AI appears not merely as a tool but as a cultural infrastructure: it reproduces norms and biases, shapes narratives and imaginaries of the future, sets aesthetic standards and exerts political and material agency.

    A dedicated section of the exhibition focuses on questions of digital ethics. Lectures, presentations and discussions accompany and deepen the artistic positions on display.


    Artists

    ·         Die Aschenbrecher

    ·         The Future Foundation

    ·         Begi Guggenheim

    ·         Olivier Hölzl

    ·         Lukas Lex

    ·         Daniel Mazanik

    ·         The Meaningful Noise Collective

    ·         Anna Pelz

    ·         Sebastian Pfeifhofer

    ·         Sebastian Pirch

    ·         Bettina Schülke

    ·         Annette Tesarek

    ·         Norbert Unfug

    ·         Ana Vollwesen

    ·         Moritz Wildburger

    Note: “The Future Foundation” is listed both as an artist and as an academic partner because its role intersects production and research. Photo: Aron Cserveny.


    Academic Partners

    The Future Foundation

    The Future Foundation is an interdisciplinary forum of professionally distinguished and independent personalities thinking about and working on questions of technology in our digitised future. Its mission is to develop practical, orientation-providing guidelines for urgent and forward-looking questions concerning the good life in a digital world. The 10 Rules for the Digital World were developed by 11 university representatives from 13 different disciplines in 2025.

    https://www.thefuturefoundation.eu/en

     

    Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jörg Menche

    Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Network Medicine at the University of Vienna.

    https://netmed.lbg.ac.at/


    Curator

    Andreas Schlichtner


    Credits

    Photo courtesy of Ana Vollwesen


    Programme

    Opening: Thursday, February 26, 7:00 p.m.
    Talks & lectures: Friday, February 27, 3:00 p.m.
    Closing event: Thursday, April 9, 7:00 p.m.

    Opening hours: Mon-Fri, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.


    Venue

    Austriackie Forum Kultury w Warszawie / Austrian Cultural Forum Warsaw
    Próżna 7/9 | PL-00-107 Warszawa

    austria.org.pl

    AI and its Consequences - Artistic Positions on Post-Digital Futures - Austrian Cultural Forum Warsaw 2026

    photo courtesy of Ana Vollwesen

AI and its Consequences - Artistic Positions on Post-Digital Futures - Austrian Cultural Forum Warsaw 2026