Art Is Not a Thing

Hosted by Ars Electronica

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Latest episode

Jun 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

26 recent

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

September 30, 2025Episode 420 min

Imaginative Futuring for Social Change

In this episode, Hannah talks to members of the Kairos Futura collective from Nairobi, Ajax Axe, Abdul Rop and Willie Ng'ang'a. Their project, The Wild Future Lab, won this year's S+T+ARTS Prize Africa, an initiative of the European Commission, recognising pioneering projects in Africa that catalyse social change by blending science, technology, and art. The Wild Future Lab not only creates a blueprint for the future but tries to build that future with resources available in the present.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/arselectronicaKairos Futurahttps://www.thefutureisonearth.org/

August 31, 2025Episode 320 min

Robotic Journeys through the Andes

In this episode, Hannah talks to Golden Nica winner Paula Gaetano Adi about Guanaquerx, the first robot in history to cross the Andes Mountains. More than a technical object, Guanaquerx is a poetic, political, and collective operation that was two years in the making, involved a transdisciplinary team and fused ancestral knowledge with contemporary robotic technologies. Its symbolic crossing of the Andes hints at a new kind of revolution, one that brings about alternative technological futures.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/arselectronicaPaula Gaetano Adihttps://www.paulagaetanoadi.com/