Uncertain Intelligences

Uncertain Intelligences takes the deepfake as an entry point into the trajectory of AI expansion. The two-year research project examines how synthetic content both shapes and is shaped by social desires, emotional models, and technological imaginaries. The project asks how trust, participation, and concepts of truth might be renegotiated within a digitized public sphere—without slipping into authoritarian frameworks or retreating into technology-sceptic isolation.  

Grounded in diverse research practices and methods of critical speculation and accompanied by a curatorial and scientific advisory board, artists manuel arturo abreu, Ash Baccus-Clark, and Nora Al-Badri develop artistic projects that engage with the scaffolding of the ‘generated real’, technologically produced social truths, and their broader contexts. The project foregrounds non-dominant technological perspectives and emphasizes ethical approaches rooted in anti- and decolonial thought. Uncertain Intelligences unfolds through residencies, study groups, as well as digital and public-facing formats, culminating in a public presentation at HKW in the summer of 2027.

From autumn 2026, a digital programme convenes, questioning dominant notions of intelligence and (un)certainty while also examining communication systems that continue to posit themselves as frictionless, smooth, and objective forms of knowing.  The first seminar takes place in collaboration with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, The New School, and delves into questions of disinformation and misinformation.