Art Is Not a Thing

Hosted by Ars Electronica

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Latest episode

Jul 2026

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EN-US

About the show

Art Is Not a Thing is a podcast series about art as a practice of critical inquiry, knowledge production and world-building. From media art, bio-art, sound art to digital activism, speculative design, or data storytelling, the series delves into artistic work that reflects on, questions, and reimagines our practices in and of the world. The series is developed in collaboration with Radio Ö1. Host: Hannah Balber Producers: Ana-Maria Carabelea, Christopher Sonnleitner, Marlene Grinner Editing: Hannah Balber, Ana-Maria Carabelea Music: Karl Julian Schmidinger Design: Jelena Mönch

Listen to episodes

28 recent

July 31, 2026Episode 226 min

Could Your Future Kin Be an Avatar?

In today’s episode, host Hannah Balber discusses digital doubles, identity and a new kind of technological theater with Finnish media artist Hanna Haaslahti. Her most recent work, Ancestors focuses on exploring the narrative possibilities of digital doubles. In an immersive room, AI-generated versions of the visitors begin to reproduce with one another. The work raises questions about identity, individualism, and kinship in the future.This episode of Art Is Not a Thing is produced by Ars Electronica and developed in collaboration with Radio Ö1.Host: Hannah BalberProducers: Ana-Maria Carabelea, Christopher Sonnleitner, Marlene Grinner Editing: Yazdan Zand Music: Karl Julian Schmidinger Ars Electronica:https://ars.electronica.art/https://www.instagram.com/arselectronica/https://www.linkedin.com/company/arselectronica Resources:Hanna Haaslahti

July 8, 2026Episode 135 min

Has the internet always been sexy?

This episode kicks off a new season, produced in cooperation with Radio Ö1–Austria’s leading cultural voice. Today, radio journalist Hannah Balber from Radio Ö1 talks to American artist and technologist Mindy Seu about sex and its influence on the internet. Mindy’s work combines archival research on cyberfeminism, online communities, and the histories embedded in the web with experimental forms of publishing and lecturing, questioning how digital infrastructures shape power, identity and knowledge. Art Is Not a Thing is produced by Ars Electronica and developed in collaboration with Radio Ö1.Host: Hannah BalberProducers: Ana-Maria Carabelea, Christopher Sonnleitner, Marlene Grinner Editing: Yazdan Zand Music: Karl Julian Schmidinger Ars Electronica:https://ars.electronica.art/https://www.instagram.com/arselectronica/https://www.linkedin.com/company/arselectronica Resources:A Sexual History of the Internet

June 9, 2026Episode 1223 min

Quantum Uncertainty in a Capitalist Reality

In this episode, host Ana-Maria Carabelea is joined by artist Libby Heaney. Libby’s work engages quantum processes as active constraints that undo linear causality, hierarchical relations, and the bounded subject. After a crash course into key concepts, they discuss the potential and limitations of quantum to challenge existing social and political paradigms by proposing new modes of knowledge production. Host: Ana-Maria Carabelea Producers: Ana-Maria Carabelea, Christopher Sonnleitner, Marlene Grinner Editing: Yazdan Zand Music: Karl Julian Schmidinger Ars Electronica: https://ars.electronica.art/ https://www.instagram.com/arselectronica/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/arselectronica Resources: https://libbyheaney.co.uk/

May 13, 2026Episode 1123 min

Succumbing to the Machine: Desire in the Age of AI

In this episode, host Ana-Maria Carabelea is joined by artist Erin Robinson. Her work, XXX Machina, operates as an autonomous desire machine that generates an endless stream of synthetic erotic imagery. They discuss desire, eroticism, human intimacy, and corporeality from Lacan and Bataille, all the way to today's shift brought by artificial intelligence.Host: Ana-Maria CarabeleaProducers: Ana-Maria Carabelea, Christopher Sonnleitner, Marlene GrinnerEditing: Yazdan ZandMusic: Karl Julian SchmidingerArs Electronica:https://ars.electronica.art/https://www.instagram.com/arselectronica/https://www.linkedin.com/company/arselectronicaResources:Erotics of the Synthetic Self: Fragmentation, Excess, and the Automation of Desire in XXX Machina

April 9, 2026Episode 1029 min

Challenging VR's Procrustean Bed: Disability, Tactile Epistemologies, Worldbuilding

In this episode, host Ana-Maria Carabelea is joined by artist Iz Paehr to talk about inherently ableist technologies. Their work Feeling Virtual: An Archive of Touch looks at how digital technologies can be used to make cultural heritage more accessible. Challenging the sensorial hierarchies and ableist assumptions built into XR technologies, Iz explores the potential of touch and disabled ways of knowing the world around. Host: Ana-Maria CarabeleaProducers: Ana-Maria Carabelea, Christopher Sonnleitner, Marlene GrinnerEditing: Yazdan Zand Music: Karl Julian SchmidingerArs Electronica:https://ars.electronica.art/https://www.instagram.com/arselectronica/https://www.linkedin.com/company/arselectronicaResources:Tactile Descriptions: A Workbook

March 7, 2026Episode 923 min

Anthropocene Oscillations

In this episode, host Ana-Maria Carabelea is joined by researcher and lecturer Alex Damianos and architect John Palmesino of Territorial Agency. Two years after the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy's decision to reject the proposal to recognise the Anthropocene as a geological unit, they discuss where the Anthropocene is today and where the debates are heading. Host: Ana-Maria CarabeleaProducers: Ana-Maria Carabelea, Christopher Sonnleitner, Marlene GrinnerEditing: Ana-Maria CarabeleaMusic: Karl Julian SchmidingerArs Electronica:https://ars.electronica.art/https://www.instagram.com/arselectronica/https://www.linkedin.com/company/arselectronicaTerritorial Agency Dr Alexander Damianos

January 31, 2026Episode 820 min

The Politics of Seeing and Being Seen

Using both the conditions and limitations of the photographic medium, Trevor Paglen's investigations into state surveillance, military operations, and data collection raise questions about truth, deception, and imagination. In this episode, Hannah Balber talks to the American photographer, author, and geographer about UFOs, psyops, the power of manipulation, and how seeing and being seen are deeply political.Art Is Not a Thing is produced by Ars Electronica and developed in collaboration with Radio Ö1.Host: Hannah BalberProducers: Ana-Maria Carabelea, Christopher Sonnleitner, Marlene GrinnerEditing: Hannah Balber, Ana-Maria CarabeleaMusic: Karl Julian SchmidingerArs Electronica:https://ars.electronica.art/https://www.instagram.com/arselectronica/https://www.linkedin.com/company/arselectronicaTrevor Paglen

December 29, 2025Episode 721 min

Computational Compost: Against the Resource Intensivity of Data Centers

In this episode, Hanna Balber talks with architect Marina Otero Verzier about the environmental cost of data centres. Challenging the image of the 'cloud' as an immaterial entity, her project, Computational Compost, uses heat from computer servers to power a vermi-composting machine, thus imagining a potential symbiotic relationship between digital technology and nature. Art Is Not a Thing is produced by Ars Electronica and developed in collaboration with Radio Ö1.Host: Hannah BalberProducers: Ana-Maria Carabelea, Christopher Sonnleitner, Marlene GrinnerEditing: Hannah Balber, Ana-Maria CarabeleaMusic: Karl Julian SchmidingerArs Electronica:https://ars.electronica.art/https://www.instagram.com/arselectronica/https://www.linkedin.com/company/arselectronicaMarina Otero Verzier

November 30, 2025Episode 617 min

System Vulnerability

In this episode, Hannah talks to German media artist Simon Weckert about the societal impacts of digitalisation and his artistic strategies to disrupt, redirect, or reduce the logic of systems to absurdity. His work points to the vulnerability of allegedly infallible digital systems and the risks of relying on them.Art Is Not a Thing is produced by Ars Electronica and developed in collaboration with Radio Ö1.Host: Hannah BalberProducers: Ana-Maria Carabelea, Christopher Sonnleitner, Marlene GrinnerEditing: Hannah Balber, Ana-Maria CarabeleaMusic: Karl Julian SchmidingerArs Electronica:https://ars.electronica.art/https://www.instagram.com/arselectronica/https://www.linkedin.com/company/arselectronicaSimon Weckert

October 31, 2025Episode 522 min

Post-truth Museums and Their Post-colonial Directors

In this episode, Hannah Balber talks to German-Iraqi artist Nora Al-Badri about the colonial inscriptions borne by Europe’s cultural heritage. Her work, The Post-truth Museum, reignites seemingly irresolvable debates about restitution. In glitchy deepfakes, the artist puts postcolonial theory in the mouths of former museum directors (rather than institutional discourse), in an attempt to signal where discussions of restitution need to start.Art Is Not a Thing is produced by Ars Electronica and developed in collaboration with Radio Ö1.Host: Hannah BalberProducers: Ana-Maria Carabelea, Christopher Sonnleitner, Marlene GrinnerEditing: Hannah Balber, Ana-Maria CarabeleaMusic: Karl Julian SchmidingerArs Electronica:https://ars.electronica.art/https://www.instagram.com/arselectronica/https://www.linkedin.com/company/arselectronicaNora Al-BadriThe Post-truth Museum