Art Is Not a Thing

Send us a textIn this episode, Hanna Balber talks with architect Marina Otero Verzier about the environmental cost of data centres. Challenging the image of the 'cloud' as an immaterial entity, her project, Computational Compost, uses heat from computer servers to power a vermi-composting machine, thus imagining a potential symbiotic relationship between digital technology and nature. Art Is Not a Thing is produced by Ars Electronica and developed in collaboration with Radio Ö1.Host: Hannah BalberProducers: Ana-Maria Carabelea, Christopher Sonnleitner, Marlene GrinnerEditing: Hannah Balber, Ana-Maria CarabeleaMusic: Karl Julian SchmidingerArs Electronica:https://ars.electronica.art/https://www.instagram.com/arselectronica/https://www.linkedin.com/company/arselectronicaMarina Otero Verzier

Send us a textIn this episode, Hannah talks to German media artist Simon Weckert about the societal impacts of digitalisation and his artistic strategies to disrupt, redirect, or reduce the logic of systems to absurdity. His work points to the vulnerability of allegedly infallible digital systems and the risks of relying on them.Art Is Not a Thing is produced by Ars Electronica and developed in collaboration with Radio Ö1.Host: Hannah BalberProducers: Ana-Maria Carabelea, Christopher Sonnleitner, Marlene GrinnerEditing: Hannah Balber, Ana-Maria CarabeleaMusic: Karl Julian SchmidingerArs Electronica:https://ars.electronica.art/https://www.instagram.com/arselectronica/https://www.linkedin.com/company/arselectronicaSimon Weckert

Send us a textIn this episode, Hannah Balber talks to German-Iraqi artist Nora Al-Badri about the colonial inscriptions borne by Europe’s cultural heritage. Her work, The Post-truth Museum, reignites seemingly irresolvable debates about restitution. In glitchy deepfakes, the artist puts postcolonial theory in the mouths of former museum directors (rather than institutional discourse), in an attempt to signal where discussions of restitution need to start.Art Is Not a Thing is produced by Ars Electronica and developed in collaboration with Radio Ö1.Host: Hannah BalberProducers: Ana-Maria Carabelea, Christopher Sonnleitner, Marlene GrinnerEditing: Hannah Balber, Ana-Maria CarabeleaMusic: Karl Julian SchmidingerArs Electronica:https://ars.electronica.art/https://www.instagram.com/arselectronica/https://www.linkedin.com/company/arselectronicaNora Al-BadriThe Post-truth Museum

Send us a textIn this episode, Hannah talks to members of the Kairos Futura collective from Nairobi, Ajax Axe, Abdul Rop and Willie Ng'ang'a. Their project, The Wild Future Lab, won this year's S+T+ARTS Prize Africa, an initiative of the European Commission, recognising pioneering projects in Africa that catalyse social change by blending science, technology, and art. The Wild Future Lab not only creates a blueprint for the future but tries to build that future with resources available in the present.Art Is Not a Thing is produced by Ars Electronica and developed in collaboration with Radio Ö1.Host: Hannah BalberProducers: Ana-Maria Carabelea, Christopher Sonnleitner, Marlene GrinnerEditing: Hannah Balber, Ana-Maria CarabeleaMusic: Karl Julian SchmidingerArs Electronica:https://ars.electronica.art/https://www.instagram.com/arselectronica/https://www.linkedin.com/company/arselectronicaKairos Futurahttps://www.thefutureisonearth.org/

Send us a textIn this episode, Hannah talks to Golden Nica winner Paula Gaetano Adi about Guanaquerx, the first robot in history to cross the Andes Mountains. More than a technical object, Guanaquerx is a poetic, political, and collective operation that was two years in the making, involved a transdisciplinary team and fused ancestral knowledge with contemporary robotic technologies. Its symbolic crossing of the Andes hints at a new kind of revolution, one that brings about alternative technological futures.Art Is Not a Thing is produced by Ars Electronica and developed in collaboration with Radio Ö1.Host: Hannah BalberProducers: Ana-Maria Carabelea, Christopher Sonnleitner, Marlene GrinnerEditing: Hannah Balber, Ana-Maria CarabeleaMusic: Karl Julian SchmidingerArs Electronica:https://ars.electronica.art/https://www.instagram.com/arselectronica/https://www.linkedin.com/company/arselectronicaPaula Gaetano Adihttps://www.paulagaetanoadi.com/