Die Abteilung Interface Culture lädt zum Gastvortrag von Martin Zeilinger.

Abstract:
Against the backdrop of a cultural landscape dominated by heavy reliance on exploitative, extractivist, and unsustainable uses of technology, what opportunities do media artists have for countering maximalist computational paradigms? This talk explores the concept of permacomputing as a critical framework for interactive, computer-based art-making. After an introduction of the concept and some of its current uses in digital art contexts, we will consider how permacomputing could be linked to contexts such as AI and game design, which are presented to us as computationally intensive “by nature,” but which mostly appear as antithetical to ecological thought and practice. What would it mean to develop a permacomputing aesthetic for these contexts? What practical challenges does a permacomputing perspective bring to creative computing, and what new critical affordances can emerge from these challenges?

About Martin Zeilinger:
Martin is an Austrian researcher, curator and creative practitioner affiliated with Abertay University (Dundee/Scotland) and the Orpheus Institute for Advanced Research & Studies in Music (Ghent/Belgium). He is also co-organiser of Wet Tech, a Dundee-based experimental sound and moving-image event series. His interests include artistic and activist experimentation with emerging technologies; low-tech counterpoints to hegemonic computational regimes; permacomputing; posthumanism and distributed agency; intellectual property issues in digital culture; and experimental videogame culture. Martin has contributed to key debates around critical artistic uses of AI and blockchain. His publications include Tactical Entanglements (meson press 2021), a monograph exploring critical issues at the intersection of AI art, creative agency, posthumanism, legal theory, and the digital commons, and Structures of Belonging (Aksioma Postscriptum Series 2023), which re-imagines blockchain technologies beyond digital property enclosures. Currently, Martin holds a Senior Fellowship at the IFK (Vienna/Austria), with a project focusing on non-player characters (NPCs) and the representation of labour in video games. (marjz.net)