Zeno Gries was Styrian Artist in Residence in Graz in May and June. At the end of the residency, he will give an insight into his own artistic work and talk about the project development of an essay film that deals with so-called ‘death bots’. ‘Death bots’ or ‘ghost bots’ are artificial intelligences that are trained with the data of deceased people in order to create immortal digital versions of them. This exploration of ‘ghosts’ in the context of new technologies will serve as a starting point to examine the everyday mystifications of modern technologies such as AI.

Practices that were once associated with the occult and pseudoscientific, such as “ghost summonings”, are now applied in Silicon Valley IT companies for commercial purposes. What is happening at the intersection of technocapitalism and parapsychology? Is a new transhumanism emerging there?

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After his two-month stay in Graz as Styrian Artist in Residence, Or Ariely gives an insight into his artistic work. He also presents his latest project ideas and implementations through video art and sculpture, which he developed during his time in Graz.

In his multidisciplinary approach, Ariely uses and combines different media such as video, print and sculpture. The focus of his work is the modeling of internal organs of mammals from silicone. They serve as metaphors for the investigation of the symbiosis between humans and technology and the dynamics between organic and synthetic.

At the same time, they are intended to stimulate reflection on how technical developments also contribute to distancing and alienation, for example when people interact from a distance during a medical procedure.

Or Ariely, whose work is repeatedly influenced by science fiction and horror films, examines how people in a capitalist world are alienated from themselves by the economy, globalization and technology and become a kind of alien.