AI (Ancestral Immediacies): Alterlife/Afterlife—The three-day festival revolves around our idea of life, consciousness and agency in a technologised world

AI (Ancestral Immediacies): Alterlife/Afterlife
Von Technologien, Sein und (Un-)Bewusstsein
On Technologies, Consciousness, and Non/Being
Screenings, Performances, Conversations, Keynotes, Installations
24.–26.5.2024
free Admission

This year's edition of AI: Ancestral Immediacies takes life as a condition that is, in many ways, already emerging through and with technology. The clear-cut divisions of life and non-life are open to alteration.

As new media technologies such as AI (Artificial Intelligence) are increasingly driving social and environmental change, the divisions between life and non-life are undergoing recalibration. In particular the condition of life after technological ubiquity is pertinent to how our future socialities might unfold when our discarded devices seep into the fabric of the earth, emitting chemicals into the environment, and unknown substances having unknown effect on bodies and worlds. 

Alterlife/Afterlife interrogates what it means to be alive against the backdrop of sentient, conscious, and desiring machines from the homunculus to artificial general intelligence. It does so by taking into consideration the long history of sentient objects as well as a revision of humans and non-humans deemed as non-sentient. Through performances, lectures, conversations, and screenings, the programme interrogates animism, anthropomorphism, and the cultural afterlives of human and non-human data. How do digital technologies that materialize in memorial sites and deadbots remediate ancient rituals of burial and acknowledgement of the dead—how do they urge us to stay alive?

With contributions from: 
Sofia Borges, Hexorcismos, Wakanyi Hoffman, Charles Mudede, Suzanne Kite, Fatou Kandé Senghor, Ksenia Fedorova, MAF, Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás, Giulia Bini, Lou Cantor

Free entry. All events and conversations in English with German translation.

Programme

Friday, 24 May 2024

GOD AFTER GOD
Keynote by Charles Mudede followed by a Q&A
Haunani-Kay Trask Hall
19:30

MUTUALISMX: Becoming Sonic Networks
Performance by Hexorcismos & MAF
Sylvia Wynter Foyer
21:30

Saturday, 25 May 2024

ARE YOU FOR REAL
Paneldiscussion with Bassam el Baroni, Giulia Bini und Lou Cantor in conversation with Lívia Nolasco-Rózsá 
Haunani-Kay Trask Hall
14:00

Sense Acts: Interfacing with Nonconscious Cognition
Keynote by Ksenia Fedorova
Haunani-Kay Trask Hall
16:00

Giving Birth
Screening, followed by a conversation with Fatou Kandé Senghor and Wakanyi Hoffman
Haunani-Kay Trask Hall
19:00

Wičháȟpi Wóihaŋbleya (Dreamlike Star)
Performance von Suzanne Kite
Angie Stardust Foyer
20:30

Sunday, 26 May 2024

Wiháŋble S'a: Dreaming with AI
Keynote by Suzanna Kite, conversation with Sara Morais dos Santos Bruss
Haunani-Kay Trask Hall
16:00

Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam
Performative Screening with Sofia Borges
Safi Faye Hall
18:00

AI: Ancestral Immediacies presents conversations, performances, and screenings that question the dominant narratives of AI as disembodied, universal, and superintelligent. More information here: hkw.de/AI

Pressefotos: hkw.de/pressphotos
For interview requests and accreditations, please contact: presse@hkw.de 

Information on traffic disruptions due to events as part of the 75th anniversary of the Basic Law can be found on hkw.de and our social media channels.­

Visit Information

Opening Times
Wed.–Mon. 12:00–19:00
Extended opening hours during evening programmes.
Free admission on Mondays and on every first Sunday of the month (Museumssonntag Berlin). 

Childcare with programme
HKW offers free childcare for many of its programmes. For further information visit hkw.de

Current information about visiting and accessibility.

Weltwirtschaft Restaurant is open daily, from 12:00–00:00 on weekdays and 10:00–00:00 on weekends.­

Contact

Jan Trautmann

Pressesprecher
Lead Communications Officer
Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW)
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
10557 Berlin

T: + 49 (0) 30 397 87 157
presse@hkw.de

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