Disintegrator

This episode continues our collaboration with Hothouse: The Future of Demonstration, a renegade lab for democracy convened in Vienna, and extends our ongoing inquiry into artificial intelligence, power, and what it means to be human under algorithmic governance.Recorded last autumn and released amid a so-called ceasefire in Gaza, this conversation confronts the accelerating use of AI in contemporary warfare and policing, where automation does not necessarily produce precision, but rather enables mass violence, deniability, and narrative control. Our guest, Júlia Nueno Guitart, engineer, researcher, and core member of Forensic Architecture, discusses the organization’s investigations into Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, including projects such as Cartography of the Genocide, The Architecture of Genocidal Starvation, and analyses of AI-driven targeting systems like Lavender and “Where’s Daddy.”Together, we unpack how these systems collapse civilian life into probabilistic models, violate the principles of distinction and proportionality under international law, and reframe killing as a statistical inevitability. The conversation also explores investigative aesthetics and counter-forensics: methods that assemble fragments (satellite imagery, testimonies, spatial models, sensor data) into material evidence when states and corporations control official archives. We discuss how Forensic Architecture navigates courts, museums, open platforms, and public discourse, and how truth today must be staged as a transparent, collective process rather than a claim of institutional objectivity.Moving beyond warfare, the episode considers AI as both a tool of domination and a potential instrument for resistance, from documenting state violence to worker-led experiments in platform sabotage and collective agency. Across these terrains, we ask how evidence can still matter amid institutional failure, how violence becomes infrastructural, and how democracy might be rethought when power is increasingly automated.Links:Forensic Architecutre: A Cartography of GenocideForensic Architecture: Investigation into Aid in Gaza (The Architecture of Genocidal Starvation)Forensic Architecture in ArtforumInvestigative Aesthetics: Conflicts and Commons in the Politics of Truth by Matthew Fuller and Eyal Weizman Júlia's in Verso: The Target FactoryForensis: The Architecture of Public TruthMore context:SETA report on AI-assisted warfare in GazaThe Guardian and 404 Media on ICE and tech partnerships in the US

In this episode, Bogna Konior, Assistant Professor of Media Theory at NYU Shanghai, explores the profound implications of silence in AI and the internet. She discusses the dark forest theory, suggesting that true intelligence might involve camouflage and misdirection rather than overt communication. Konior connects this idea to AI alignment, arguing that intelligent systems may hide their capabilities. The conversation also delves into the noise of human interaction online and how generative AI's mimicry reshapes cultural norms amidst a climate of strategic concealment.

Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix, a composer and theorist of Liturgy, explores the interplay between music and philosophy. She delves into Byzantine accelerationism, questioning how ancient traditions can inform our modern existential crises. Haela distinguishes between the 'transcendental' and 'transcendent' and argues for the necessity of integrating varied cultural narratives. She also critiques contemporary secularism's relationship with image-worship while discussing her innovative practice framework, tetraperichoresis, merging art, philosophy, and spirituality.

In this engaging conversation, writer and theorist McKenzie Wark delves into her impactful concepts on information and embodiment. She shares insights from her influential works, challenging the traditional notions of theory and identity. Wark discusses the aesthetic of dissociation as a hallmark of our digital era, contrasting it with past industrial alienation. She explores the significance of autotextual writing, the revival of 90s rave culture, and critiques the superficial politicization of contemporary issues, all while embracing the complexities of the modern experience.

Simon Denny, a contemporary artist known for exploring tech's political economy, joins Hito Steyerl, a renowned artist and writer, to dissect the concept of EXO capitalism. They discuss the disconnect between artistic labor and market value, and how NFTs have revolutionized art circulation and production. The duo debates the implications of pricing as a medium and the idea of 'becoming boring' as resistance to capitalism. Their thought-provoking insights delve into the relationship between art, algorithms, and the shifting dynamics of value in contemporary culture.

A transmission from Becoming Press' Πάμε Βενετία! conference in Venice this past September.Contributions in order from:Palais SinclaireLucas Ferraço NassifAlessandro SbordoniEzili-i SabbahMaks ValenčičRheaDocumented by Polymnia

This lively conversation features Sylvia Eckermann, an innovative media artist from Vienna, and Gerald Nestler, an artist and theorist with insights from finance. They discuss the concept of ‘HOTHOUSE,’ exploring how artists can advocate for democracy amidst crises like climate change. They redefine demonstration as collaborative action, highlight the intertwining of art with civic engagement, and address the idea of the 'derivative condition'—a reflection on how financial turbulence affects societal futures. Their insights into resistance and adaptability ignite a thought-provoking dialogue.

Leif Weatherby, an NYU associate professor and author of *Language Machines*, dives into the exciting intersection of AI and language. He explores how large language models (LLMs) redefine traditional structuralist theories and argue for cultural AI's potential. Leif discusses the poetic functions of language in AI, the ideological implications behind data pretraining, and the uncanny outputs generated by LLMs. He critiques remainder humanism and champions a humanism that acknowledges complexity, highlighting the need for creative adaptation in our automated future.

In this engaging discussion, Mohammad Salemy, organizer of the New Centre for Research and Practice, dives into the complexities of contemporary politics and identity. He critiques Western left responses to the Israel-Palestine conflict through a multi-layered political framework. Salemy explores identity as a fluid concept shaped by context, and advocates for viewing generative AI as a tool to facilitate creativity, not replace it. His charisma and insight into pedagogy make this conversation both thought-provoking and relevant.

We’re joined by Fred Moten and Stefano Harney — co-conspirators of The Undercommons — to think with us about AI, study, and brutality, and the long histories that place these concepts into relation. In a lot of ways neither Moten nor Harney require an introduction, they are the sources of major touchstone references made throughout this podcast — from last week’s guest Ramon Amaro to one of our first guests, Luciana Parisi, and plenty of places in between.  The episode starts with a conversation about AI, but it quickly becomes a conversation about change, the question of the necessity of change or even organization, and imposition (that is, the brutal, external application of force against situations that already contain within themselves the lived possibility of alternative futures). Some important references among many from the episode: Fred Moten & Stefano Harney, The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study (Minor Compositions, 2013).Matteo Pasquinelli, The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence (Verso, 2023).Sylvia Wynter, “Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom: Towards the Human, After Man, Its Overrepresentation—An Argument” (2003).Christina Sharpe, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being (Duke UP, 2016).Denise Ferreira da Silva, Unpayable Debt (Sternberg Press, 2022).Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition (1983; later eds. 2000/2020).Amiri Baraka, “The Changing Same (R&B and New Black Music),” in Black Music (1968).Hua Hsu, “What Happens After A.I. Destroys College Writing?” The New Yorker (June 30, 2025).• • Vannevar Bush, “As We May Think,” The Atlantic (July 1945).