Tommaso Callarco (physicist), Dietmar Dath (author), Eveliina Domnitch (artist) and Dmitry Gelfand (artist), Libby Heaney (artist), Elham Kashefi (physicist), Armin Linke (artist), Volker Möllenhoff (artist), Tomás Saraceno (artist), Tamiko Thiel (artist), Carly Whitefield (curator), Günseli Yalcinkaya (artist).
Decoherence is the process where a quantum system loses its superposition, often due to interaction with the surrounding environment for instance through measurement. It is the moment after quantum superposition, when a multi-state system settles into a single, definite state. Following the collapse, the system exists in an eigenstate.
Current digital art’s aesthetical program refers to a structural, databased, and Boolean operationalization of reality. Slightly different, artificial ‘intelligence’ art emerges from the statistical and derivative response to an underlying example-based data set. Which of these conditions inform quantum computing art, if any at all?
As a technology in the making, quantum computing is in its infancy. What can we learn from the recent experiences with AI based technologies in order to prevent the same monopolisation of ressources within a few corporations? How can artists respond to Quantum hype differently from how they responded to AI hype? How does quantum computing’s current configuration as experimental setup with a need for immense resources allow for access and exploration, if at all? Is the solution more access and to what exactly?
Quantum vocabulary is also increasingly used as buzzword for military start-ups, which simultaneously lean into pseudo-Eastern new age vibe and promise to defend “Western civilisation”. Military interests are inextricably linked to quantum R&D, when it comes to encryption and sensor technology. How are quantum technologies embedded into a transformation to a multipolar global power system and the “Zeitenwende” that this entails? How again does this link back to contemporary art production?
Schedule
Wed July 1, 2026, 17–20, AdBK extension building, Foyer, Akademiestraße 4
17.00 Welcome Andrea Lissoni
17.10 Introduction: “Undulatory and Corpuscular motions” Hito Steyerl
17.30 Keynote: “The Entangled Entrepreneur. On the material implications of quantum tech business ideologies” Dietmar Dath
18.30 Keynote: “Paradoxical Unfoldings” Libby Heaney
Thu July 2, 2027, 14–19, AdBK main building, Aula, Akademiestraße 2
14.00 Introduction Francis Hunger
14.20 How-To: “Quantum Filters for Foundation AI models” Volker Möllenhoff, Hito Steyerl
14.40 Insert: “Quantum Computing, Quantum Simulation, Quantum Experiments” students of the Emergent Digital Media class
15.20 Panel: “Space Time Foam. On spatial strategies” Carly Whitefield, Tomás Saraceno, Tamiko Thiel, Moderation: Günseli Yalcinkaya
16.20 Pause
16.40 Panel: “Quantum for all? Questions of access” Elham Kashefi, Armin Linke, Günseli Yalcinkaya, Moderation: Hito Steyerl
17.40 Panel: “Hilbert Hotels and Ion Holes. How to make physics sensible” Tommaso Callarco, Eveliina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand, Moderation: Boris Cuckovic
18.40 Wrap-Up: Boris Cuckovic, Hito Steyerl, Francis Hunger
Convened by Emergent Digital Media class, Hito Steyerl, Francis Hunger
In collaboration with Haus der Kunst, Andrea Lissoni
https://generativemedia.net/event/decoherence-the-aesthetics-and-politics-of-quantum-technologies/