The Culture & Technology Podcast

Designing a better future through regeneration. GUESTS Tega Brain (she/her) is an artist and environmental engineer exploring issues of ecology, data, automation, and infrastructure. She is an Industry Associate Professor of integrated Design and Media at New York University and co-author of ‘Code as Creative Medium’ (2021). You can find more information on Tega and her work here https://tegabrain.com/about Sam Lavigne (he/him) is an artist and educator whose work deals with data, surveillance, cops, natural language processing, and automation. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Design at UT Austin. You can learn about his work here https://lav.io/about/ HOST Severin Matusek is a cultural theorist and founder of co—matter, a creative studio exploring the cultural and societal impact of new technologies. IDEAS AND PEOPLE IN CONTEXT The Intergovernmental Panel on Capitalism (IPC) recognizes the problem of adequately addressing climate change as the problem of addressing deregulated capitalism. https://tegabrain.com/Intergovernmental-Panel-on-Capitalism Smell Dating is the world’s first smell based dating service that invites people to find new connections using only their noses. https://tegabrain.com/Smell-Dating Solar Protocol is a network of solar-powered servers that collectively host a web platform. The platform is then served from wherever there is the most sunshine in the network. http://solarprotocol.net/ Synthetic Messenger is a botnet that attempts to artificially inflate the value of climate change news. http://syntheticmessenger.labr.io/ Fragile States is a funding project and archive of interviews with former political prisoners who have been incarcerated for climate activism. https://fragilestates.labr.io/ Perfect Sleep investigates sleep and dreaming as a potential climate engineering technology. https://perfectsleep.labr.io/ Code as Creative Medium (2021) is an essential guide for teaching and learning computational art and design: exercises, assignments, interviews, and more than 170 illustrations of creative work. https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262542043/code-as-creative-medium/ CREDITS The Vienna Business Agency supports new companies, projects and products that develop Vienna's creative industries further. Find out more at viennabusinessagency.at. Editorial Team (in alphabetical order): Carina Dala, Kesia Inkersole, Severin Matusek, Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör, Theresa Reimann-Dubbers, Alice Smith, Heinz Wolf Theme Music by Hell Mutang.

AI and agency in the more-than-human world GUESTS James Bridle is a writer, artist and technologist. Their artworks have been commissioned by galleries and institutions and exhibited worldwide and on the internet. They are the author of 'New Dark Age' (2018) and 'Ways of Being' (2022). Their work can be found at http://jamesbridle.com. HOST Severin Matusek is a cultural theorist and founder of co—matter, a creative studio exploring the cultural and societal impact of new technologies. IDEAS AND PEOPLE IN CONTEXT Ways of Being, a book about AI, non-human intelligence, ecology, biological computing, more-than-human relations, and much else. New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future was published by Verso in the UK in June 2018, and the US in July. It can be also be ordered from Amazon (UK/US/DE) and all good bookstores. It has been translated into more than a dozen languages. CREDITS The Vienna Business Agency supports new companies, projects and products that develop Vienna's creative industries further. Find out more at viennabusinessagency.at. Editorial Team (in alphabetical order): Carina Dala, Kesia Inkersole, Severin Matusek, Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör, Theresa Reimann-Dubbers, Heinz Wolf Theme Music by Hell Mutang.

World modeling for future scenarios. GUESTS Patricia Reed is an artist and writer based in Berlin. Her work concerns the entanglements between epistemology, modeling and politics adapted to planetary scales of cohabitation. She is also part of the Laboria Cuboniks ‘Xenofeminist’ working group. HOST Severin Matusek is a writer and founder of co—matter, a research & strategy studio exploring the cultural and societal impact of new technologies. IDEAS AND PEOPLE IN CONTEXT The End of a World is an essay by Patricia Reed that examines the distinction between the global and the planetary. You can read it here: https://makingandbreaking.org/article/the-end-of-a-world-and-its-pedagogies/ The Dawn of Everything is a book by David Graeber & David Wengrow that provides an alternative account of human history challenging fundamental assumptions about social evolution. You can find out more here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56269264-the-dawn-of-everything Federico Campagna is an Italian philosopher. His talk, “The End of the World(s)” can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxORkFUNpE8 -Denise Ferreira da Silva is Director and Professor at the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia. You can read more about her work, ‘Toward a Black Feminist Poethics: The Quest(ion) of Blackness Toward the End of the World’ here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5816/blackscholar.44.2.0081 CREDITS The Vienna Business Agency supports businesses, the economy and the city in developing the Austrian capital’s creative industries and shaping its future trajectory. viennabusinessagency.at Editorial Team: Mike Evans, Paul Feigelfeld, Severin Matusek, Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör, Theresa Reimann-Dubbers, Elisa Stockinger, Heinz Wolf Theme Music by Zanshin.

What does it mean to have a right to clean air? GUESTS Daniela Gandorfer is Assistant Professor at University of Westminster Law School, London, with a PhD from Princeton University. Her research focuses on law and emerging modes of normativity in scientific and technological frontier spaces - such as quantum physics, digital and crypto technologies and psychedelics. HOST Severin Matusek is a cultural theorist and founder of co—matter, a creative studio exploring the cultural and societal impact of new technologies. IDEAS AND PEOPLE IN CONTEXT The Logische Phantasie Lab (LoPh) is a non-profit organisation and investigative research agency. https://lo-ph.agency Gas Exchanges & the Right to Breathe is an initiative by LoPh that investigates breathing injustices across the globe and is developing a right to breathe that can live up to the challenges and potentials of new digital technologies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_PrIf1a3-Q CREDITS The Vienna Business Agency supports businesses, the economy and the city in developing the Austrian capital’s creative industries and shaping its future trajectory. viennabusinessagency.at Editorial Team: Mike Evans, Paul Feigelfeld, Severin Matusek, Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör, Theresa Reimann-Dubbers, Elisa Stockinger, Heinz Wolf Theme Music by Zanshin.

How can we design experiences beyond the screen? GUESTS Dan Koerner is the creative director at Sandpit, a creative digital studio based in Melbourne and Adelaide that specialises in immersive storytelling through new digital technologies. HOST Severin Matusek is a cultural theorist and founder of co—matter, a creative studio exploring the cultural and societal impact of new technologies. IDEAS AND PEOPLE IN CONTEXT Sandpit is a creative digital studio that creates physical, tactile projects that help people engage with the real world in different ways through technology. https://www.wearesandpit.com “Velvet, Iron, Ashes” was the inaugural exhibition in the new Victoria Gallery showcasing treasures from the State Library of Victoria’s collection and from other major institutions and private collections. https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/via Forced Entertainment is an experimental theatre company based in Sheffield, England, founded by Tim Etchells in 1984. https://www.forcedentertainment.com/ CREDITS The Vienna Business Agency supports businesses, the economy and the city in developing the Austrian capital’s creative industries and shaping its future trajectory. viennabusinessagency.at Editorial Team: Mike Evans, Paul Feigelfeld, Severin Matusek, Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör, Theresa Reimann-Dubbers, Elisa Stockinger, Heinz Wolf Theme Music by Zanshin.

A door to an alternate reality. GUESTS Space Popular is a research-driven architecture, design, and media studio that explores the future spirit of spatial experience through virtual reality, film, exhibitions, speculative writing, as well as buildings and objects. Space Popular is directed by Lara Lesmes & Fredrik Hellberg. HOST Severin Matusek is a writer, curator, strategist and founder of co—matter, a creative studio exploring the cultural and societal impact of new technologies. IDEAS AND PEOPLE IN CONTEXT The Portal Galleries is a research project creating an archive of portals in fiction and popular culture. https://www.soane.org/exhibitions/space-popular-portal-galleries Threaded Thresholds - The Fabric of Civic Teleporation is a proposal for a threaded portal infrastructure by Space Popular. https://designmanifestos.org/space-popular-threaded-thresholds-the-fabric-of-civic-teleportation/ TRANSCRIPT Click here to download the full transcript as PDF. CREDITS The Vienna Business Agency supports businesses, the economy and the city in developing the Austrian capital’s creative industries and shaping its future trajectory. viennabusinessagency.at Editorial Team: Mike Evans, Paul Feigelfeld, Severin Matusek, Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör, Theresa Reimann-Dubbers, Elisa Stockinger, Heinz Wolf Theme Music by Zanshin.

The changing role of cultural institutions. GUESTS Merel van Helsdingen founded Nxt Museum during the pandemic. It’s the first museum in the Netherlands dedicated to new media art. Tina Lorenz is the Project Manager for Digital Development at Staatstheater Augsburg. She grew up a member of the Chaos Computer Club and is a founding member of the hackspaces metalab Vienna and Binary Kitchen Regensburg. Since 2012, she has published and spoken on the possibilities of digital theatre. HOST Severin Matusek is a strategist and founder of co—matter, a creative studio exploring the cultural and societal impact of new technologies. IDEAS AND PEOPLE IN CONTEXT Nxt Museum is the first museum in the Netherlands dedicated to new media art. https://nxtmuseum.com/ Chaos Computer Club is Europe’s largest association of hackers. They provide information on issues such as surveillance, privacy and freedom of information. https://www.ccc.de/en/ TRANSCRIPT Click here to download the full transcript as PDF. CREDITS The Vienna Business Agency supports businesses, the economy and the city in developing the Austrian capital’s creative industries and shaping its future trajectory. viennabusinessagency.at Editorial Team: Mike Evans, Paul Feigelfeld, Severin Matusek, Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör, Theresa Reimann-Dubbers, Elisa Stockinger, Heinz Wolf Theme Music by Zanshin.\

World-building for an emancipatory future. GUESTS Keiken is an interdisciplinary artist collective co-founded by Isabel Ramos, Hana Omori and Tanya Cruz. Martina Menegon is an artist working predominantly with Interactive and Extended Reality Art and was co-curator at 2022’s CIVA festival. Eva Fischer is an independent curator, cultural manager and lecturer in the field of experimental media, immersive art and technology. Since 2021, she has been directing the new Viennese media art festival CIVA - Contemporary Immersive Visual Art. HOST Severin Matusek is a strategist and founder of co—matter, a creative studio exploring the cultural and societal impact of new technologies. IDEAS AND PEOPLE IN CONTEXT Bet(a) Bodies is an interactive installation centering a wearable haptic womb with sound. The meta-womb is an empathy and consciousness device. https://keiken.cloud/work/beta-bodies/ A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace is a early paper on the applicability of government on the Internet by the writer, activist Grateful Dead member John Perry Barlow. https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence CIVA Festival is a new media festival taking place each year in Vienna. https://www.civa.at/ TRANSCRIPT Click here to download the full transcript as PDF. CREDITS The Vienna Business Agency supports businesses, the economy and the city in developing the Austrian capital’s creative industries and shaping its future trajectory. viennabusinessagency.at Editorial Team: Mike Evans, Paul Feigelfeld, Severin Matusek, Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör, Theresa Reimann-Dubbers, Elisa Stockinger, Heinz Wolf Theme Music by Zanshin.

What does a European approach to innovation look like? When thinking about digital innovation and policy around technology we often view it either through the lens of Silicon Valley surveillance capitalism or Chinese digital authoritarianism. We don’t often think about what a European approach to innovation might look like. Francesca Bria on the other hand spends most of her time thinking about just that. In our conversation, Francesca offered insight on Europe’s role in digital innovation, how culture informs technology and how citizens can get active in the area of digital innovation and policy. GUEST Francesca Bria is the President of the Italian National Innovation Fund. She is an information technologist, innovation economist and digital policy expert, working at the intersection of technology, geopolitics, economics and society. HOST Severin Matusek is an editor and strategist who has spent the last decade researching how technology transforms culture, communities and society. IDEAS AND PEOPLE IN CONTEXT Nesta is an innovation foundation intended to promote innovation across a broad range of sectors through investment, policy and research. https://www.nesta.org.uk/ The Italian Innovation Fund is an initiative by the Italian government to help fund innovation within the country and boost the Italian start-up ecosystem. https://www.cdp.it/sitointernet/it/homepage.page The New European Bauhaus is a creative and interdisciplinary initiative, convening a space of encounter to design future ways of living, situated at the crossroads between art, culture, social inclusion, science and technology. https://europa.eu/new-european-bauhaus/index_en GAFAM is a name given to the four or five largest and most dominant companies in the tech industry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Tech D-CENT (Decentralised Citizens Engagement Technologies) was a Europe-wide project helping citizen-led organisations in developing the next generation of open source, distributed, and privacy-aware tools for direct democracy and economic empowerment. https://dcentproject.eu/ TRANSCRIPT Click here to download the full transcript as PDF. CREDITS The Vienna Business Agency supports businesses, the economy and the city in developing the Austrian capital’s creative industries and shaping its future trajectory. viennabusinessagency.at Editorial Team: Mike Evans, Paul Feigelfeld, Severin Matusek, Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör, Elisa Stockinger, Heinz Wolf. Theme Music by Zanshin.

Can 3D printing bring us closer to nature? 3D printing has reached a level of quality and complexity that the boundaries of what’s possible with the technology feel almost limitless. We can create entirely new shapes, geometries and materials that would be otherwise impossible to manufacture and in many industries, it’s helping to make processes more efficient and more sustainable. Julia Koerner is an innovator in the use of 3D printing in the fashion space and that’s why we took the time to sit down with her to better understand how these processes and her work are continuing to evolve. GUEST Julia Koerner is an award-winning Austrian designer working at the convergence of architecture, product and fashion design. She is internationally recognised for her innovations in 3D-Printing as well as her work on the Hollywood blockbuster, Black Panther. HOST Severin Matusek is an editor, producer and strategist who has spent the last decade researching how technology transforms culture, communities and society. IDEAS AND PEOPLE IN CONTEXT Archinect is a top online destination for progressive-design oriented students, architects, educators, and fans. https://archinect.com/ Ross Lovegrove is a designer and visionary whose work is considered to be at the very apex of stimulating a profound change in the physicality of our three dimensional world. http://www.rosslovegrove.com/ Artemide is one of the most known illumination brands in the world, synonymous with design, innovation and made in Italy. https://www.artemide.com/en/home Iris Van Herpen is a Dutch fashion designer. https://www.irisvanherpen.com Ruth E. Carter is an American costume designer who worked on Black Panther. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_E._Carter The Sporophyte Collection is a collection created by Julia Koerner. https://3dprintedart.stratasys.com/juliakoernersporophyte TRANSCRIPT Click here to download the full transcript as PDF. CREDITS The Vienna Business Agency supports businesses, the economy and the city in developing the Austrian capital’s creative industries and shaping its future trajectory. viennabusinessagency.at Editorial Team: Mike Evans, Paul Feigelfeld, Severin Matusek, Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör, Elisa Stockinger, Heinz Wolf. Theme Music by Zanshin.