OUT OF CONTROL

Part II
Nick Acorne, Nina Botthof, Sofia Crespo, Harriet Davey, Imogen Davey, Emanuel Gollob, Akinori Goto, Juli Laczkó, Nicolas Montgermont, Mir Raggam-Alji, Christof Ressi, Anna Ridler, ::vtol:: aka Dmitry Morozov, Jennifer Merlyn Scherler, Lotta Stöver

Laufzeit: 

18/09/2025 to 14/11/2025

Öffnungszeiten: 

Opening hours steirischer herbst’25

September 27 – October 12, Tue – Sun 2:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

 

Opening hours

October 14 – November 14, Tue – Fri 2:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. and by appointment

 

Preview

September 18 – September 27, Tue – Sun 2:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

 

Opening

September 27, 5:00 p.m.

Introduction by Reni Hofmüller and Ilse Weber

Opening lecture by Pamela C. Scorzin (DEU): Who’s Afraid of AI? Co-creativity or competition from new AI agents in art?

Guided tour with the artists

7:00 p.m.

TURBO

Live performance and DJ set by Warrego Valles (SLO)

 

October 2, 6:00 p.m.

disarming II

Performance by Gobi Drab (AUT), Emanuel Gollob (AUT), Eva-Maria Kraft (AUT), ReBel

as part of ORF musikprotokoll 2025

 

October 4, 6:00 p.m. – midnight

ORF-Lange Nacht der Museen

The directors of esc medien kunst labor, Reni Hofmüller and Ilse Weber, will guide visitors through the exhibition. Nina Botthof (AUT) will demonstrate the hacking of robot vacuum cleaners; Emanuel Gollob (AUT) will activate an industrial robot arm.

 

October 5, 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

phonoECHOES Competition 2025

Public listening and selection of winning projects

Austrian Composers Association in cooperation with Klanghaus Untergreith

 

October 13, 6:00 p.m.

Controls Unbound

Artist talk

with Harriet Davey (GBR/DEU)

 

October 14, 1:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Controls Unbound Workshop "Dramaturgy and Direction" on the occasion of Ada Lovelace Day with Harriet Davey (GBR/DEU)

Participants should already have familiarity with Blender (or another 3D software), limited number of participants, registration required: office@esc.mur.at, free of charge

 

November 12, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Lessons on Change

Book presentation

Sigrid Bürstmayr (AUT), Bettina Gjecaj (AUT), Sophie Kauper (AUT), and Karl Stocker (AUT) in conversation with Reni Hofmüller (AUT)

 

Finissage

November 14, 6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

An Eye from Above

Performance by Nicolas Montgermont (FRA)

Eröffnung: 

Saturday, 27. September 2025 - 17:00

Installationen: 

Long Short Term Memories
Controls Unbound
disarming II
Crossing #03
Solar Crawlers
AN EYE FROM ABOVE
My Internet Is Not Your Internet but My Reality
Mutated L-System
1000 Behaviors
Ich stimme zu / I agree
Character Study
IMITATION GAME
esc medien kunst labor OUT OF CONTROL Flavia Mazzanti and Manuel Bonell

Media artists are pioneers, also when it comes to dealing with artificial intelligence in a reflective manner and highlighting perspectives for fair and ethically responsible use – such as the right not to be controllable or codable.

From intelligent algorithms that evolve beyond the intentions of their programmers to installations and sculptures that grow in symbiosis with their environment or living organisms, current  media art positions show that creativity is always a process that can never be completely controlled, but that is always generative and innovative, without it being possible to know its goal in advance. Art therefore needs and creates space for dynamic, open-ended work.

 

From intelligent algorithms that evolve beyond the intentions of their programmers to installations and sculptures that grow in symbiosis with their environment or living organisms, current media art positions show that creativity is always a process that can never be completely controlled, but that is always generative and innovative, without it being possible to know its goal in advance. Art therefore needs and creates space for dynamic, open-ended work.

 

Complex new networks of human, more-than-human, and non-human actors are surprisingly creative. These new creative agents—such as AI models—remind us that creativity has always  been a collaborative and cooperative act, a symbiotic evolutionary process that transcends humanity.

 

On the other hand, the use and rapid development of generative and multimodal AI in artistic processes raises the question of creative competition – is this domain of human creativity now also spiraling out of control?

 

Artists:
Sofia Crespo (ARG), Harriet Davey (GBR/DEU), Imogen Davey (GBR), Emanuel Gollob (AUT), Akinori Goto (JPN), Juli Laczkó (HUN/NDL), Nicolas Montgermont (FRA), Anna Ridler (GBR), Jennifer  Merlyn Scherler (CHE), Lotta Stöver (DEU), Jiří Suchánek (CZE), House of Horrors (INT), Uncomputable Practices (INT), ::vtol:: (RUS/SLO)

Kooperation: 

Co-production with ORF musikprotokoll; co-production with kunst@werk, cooperation with steirischer herbst ’25. Thanks to the Funkclub RCCW, Radioclub for Communication and Wave Propagation, TU Graz, for providing and maintaining the weather satellite receiving station for the installation An Eye from Above by Nicolas Montgermont.