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Human Entities 2026: culture in the age of artificial intelligenceTenth edition Tue, 2 June 2026, 6.30pmPermacomputing: small entrances to a wide collectiveAna MeiselWeb developer and artistPermacomputing applies permaculture, a design for Earth care, people care and fair share, to computing. It focuses on repair and inspects the all-encompassing impacts of technology through trails of ecology, conviviality and anti-capitalist politics. Communities dedicated to these ethics continue to form around the world and exercise it with art, mutual aid and practical guides to technological degrowth and maintainable systems. The aim is to impair dominant tech powers that funnel our emotions into data with seamlessly blunt interactions that coast us into a world of alienation filled with environmental harm. This momentous friction creates a new politicisation due to tech’s ubiquity and polarisation. Permacomputing’s idiosyncratic and minimal computing practices require slowness, thoughtfulness and communal knowledge sharing. This deepens relationships and sociability, and subsequently opens gateways to politics and class consciousness from ecofeminist, decolonial and communal foundations. Ana MeiselAna Meisel is a Polish-German web developer and artist based in London, UK. Her focus is on historically-informed computing through the lens of critical theory, ecological responsibility, whole-systems thinking, and community organising. She is part of Superkilogirls, a collective that looks at feminist critiques of computing and automation, runs External Pages, an internet art gallery and co-organises London’s Permacomputing Club. Her work has been showcased in diverse contexts like the Cyberfeminism Index and San Jose Museum of Art. Her interests include tech resistance movements, DIY tech culture, and the Eastern Bloc.https://ana.help@dj_anickahttps://mastodon.social/@anmeisel This event is part ofHuman Entities 2026: culture in the age of artificial intelligenceTenth edition Public talks, May – June 2026

Human Entities 2026: culture in the age of artificial intelligenceTenth edition Wed 27 May 2026, 6.30pm Beyond the senses: science and the mystery of psychic phenomenaPeter BancelSenior Researcher at the Institut Métapsychique International, Paris (France) and Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, California (US) Anomalies – the things that don’t fit our view of the world – are often the starting point of discoveries. As physicist Richard Feynman put it, “It’s the thing that doesn’t fit that is the most interesting.” A major challenge for science today is to understand consciousness. Theories abound, progress is being made, yet there is no consensus or even a clear path forward. In situations like this, anomalies can provide crucial direction for research. In this talk, we will look at the anomaly of psi phenomena – apparent capacities of consciousness such as telepathy and precognition – and explore the scientific evidence. If the reality of psychic phenomena is established, it may serve as a signpost toward understanding how and why we experience experience at all – the core of human consciousness. We will also consider what this would imply for science more broadly and how it invites us to understand the world. Peter BancelPeter Bancel is a senior researcher at the Institut Métapsychique International (IMI) in Paris and a fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California. In the early 2000s, he collaborated with the Global Consciousness Project based in Princeton (US) before joining the IMI in 2010. Alongside his scientific work, he is a long-time Buddhist practitioner and meditation teacher, with a longstanding interest in consciousness that bridges contemplative traditions and empirical research. Since joining the IMI, he has focused on how psychic phenomena – often called “psi” – can be studied using the methods of mainstream science. His work explores precognition, experimental design in psi studies, and possible connections with quantum physics. He holds a PhD in Experimental Physics from the University of Pennsylvania. After postdoctoral research at IBM, he moved to France, where he worked at the CNRS in Paris and later at the Institut des Matériaux Jean Rouxel at the University of Nantes.https://www.imiresearch.fr This event is part ofHuman Entities 2026: culture in the age of artificial intelligenceTenth editionPublic talks, May – June 2026 Ficha Técnica/CreditsOrganised by CADA in partnership with Lisbon Architecture Triennale Programmed by Jared Hawkey/Sofia Oliveira with guest programmers: Andrea Pavoni, Kaitlyn Davies, Zagalo Pereira.CADA is funded by: República Portuguesa – Cultura, Juventude e Desporto / Direção-Geral das ArtesApoiosSupport: Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia – NOVA LINCS, Instituto Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa; DINAMIA’CET (ISCTE-IUL), Faculdade de Belas Artes, Universidade de Lisboa, Departamentos de Design de Comunicação e Arte MultimédiaArt direction + graphic design: Emir KaryoPhotography: Joana LindaSound: Diogo Melo, Fernando Fadigas

Human Entities 2026: culture in the age of artificial intelligenceTenth edition Wed 20 May 2026 Reclaiming Digital SovereigntyParis MarxTech critic For several decades, we’ve allowed ourselves to become deeply dependent on US technologies, platforms, and digital services. The alliance between Silicon Valley and the Trump administration has shown us how that choice hasn't just made us vulnerable; it’s now empowering anti-democratic and authoritarian forces. Paris Marx will discuss how we became so dependent on US tech and what it might look like to chart of different course. Getting off US tech won’t be easy, but it presents an opportunity to reimagine how we use digital technology for the better. Paris MarxParis Marx is a Canadian tech critic. He hosts the award-winning Tech Won’t Save Us podcast and speaks around the world about the politics of technology. Paris is the author of Road to Nowhere and his next book Hyperscale comes out later this year.https://parismarx.comhttps://techwontsave.ushttps://roadtonowherebook.com/ This event is part ofHuman Entities 2026: culture in the age of artificial intelligenceTenth editionPublic talks, May – June 2026 Ficha Técnica/CreditsOrganização CADA em parceria com a Trienal de Arquitectura de LisboaOrganised by CADA in partnership with Lisbon Architecture Triennale  Programado por Jared Hawkey/Sofia Oliveira com programadores convidados/ Programmed by Jared Hawkey/Sofia Oliveira with guest programmers: Andrea Pavoni, Kaitlyn Davies, Zagalo Pereira. O CADA é uma estrutura financiada por/CADA is funded by: República Portuguesa – Cultura, Juventude e Desporto / Direção-Geral das ArtesApoios/Support: Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, NOVA-LINCS, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia – NOVA LINCS; Instituto Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa, DINAMIA’CET (ISCTE-IUL) e/and Faculdade Belas Artes, Universidade de Lisboa, Departamentos de Design de Comunicação e Arte Multimédia.Direção de arte + design gráfico/ Art direction + graphic design: Emir KaryoFotografia/ Photography: Joana LindaSom/Sound: Diogo Melo, Fernando Fadigas Foto/Photo: Anne Barth/re:publica

Human Entities 2025: culture in the age of artificial intelligenceNinth edition Wed 14 May 2025, 6.30pm Artist Talk: Welcome to Jankspace, babesDaniel FelsteadContent producer Jankspace is the leaking residual of the stack as it metabolises meatspace into hallucinogenic sludge. It’s the Uberdriver’s chaotically impressive multi-display setup of knotted cables, flashing screens and beeping notifications. It’s literally us and our gorgeously f****d-up, uncomputable bodies that we know aren’t quite programmed right and no amount of optimization is going to fix. In this artist talk Daniel will use the concept of jankspace to explore some of the central themes of his practice, namely, the aesthetic derangement of everyday digital culture, our unhinged mediated bodies, and the idiotic delusions of transhumanism. Daniel FelsteadDaniel Felstead is an academic and content producer whose practice focuses on the relationship between the body, technology, and culture. e is the course leader of MA Fashion Media & Communication at the London College of Fashion (UAL). Daniel has spoken and exhibited internationally including Architectural Association, Berlin Critics Week, Die Angewandte, Fundació Foto Colectania, Global Art Forum, MAPS, ICA, PAF, RCA, RISD, Shedhalle, Transmediale and V&A Museum. His PhD explored speculative modes of production, complex systems and the platform in relation to participatory art. Most recently Daniel has produced a series of critically acclaimed short film commissions that explore the myths, ideologies and realities of the metaverse, AI, biotech and neural media.https://www.instagram.com/felstead.daniel CreditsOrganised by CADA in partnership with Lisbon Architecture Triennale and Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon Programmed by Jared Hawkey/Sofia Oliveira with guest programmers: Andrea Pavoni, Lavínia Pereira and Olivia Bina. CADA is funded by: República Portuguesa – Cultura / Direção-Geral das ArtesSupport: Câmara Municipal de Lisboa; Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia – NOVA LINCS; Instituto Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa; DINAMIA’CET (ISCTE-IUL) and Faculdade Belas Artes, Universidade de Lisboa, Departamentos de Design de Comunicação e Arte Multimédia.Art direction + graphic design: Emir KaryoPhotography: Renato Chorão Sound: Fernando Fadigas

Human Entities 2025: culture in the age of artificial intelligenceNinth edition Thur 5 June 2025, 6.30pm; book-signing session at 6pmPlanta Sapiens: Rethinking Intelligence in the Living WorldPaco CalvoProfessor of Philosophy of Science, Principal Investigator of the Minimal Intelligence Laboratory (MINT Lab) at the University of Murcia (Spain) Our conventional understanding of intelligence has long been shaped by human and animal models, leaving little room to consider the cognitive potential of plants. However, emerging research challenges this perspective, revealing that plants engage with their surroundings in ways that suggest problem-solving, flexible adaptation, and even anticipatory forms of behavior.In this talk, I will present key findings, exploring how plants process information, respond to stimuli, and coordinate their actions through sophisticated signaling mechanisms. Beyond the scientific discoveries, these insights prompt deeper philosophical questions. Why do we struggle to conceive of plants as more than passive organisms? What assumptions shape our tendency to separate the human from the nonhuman, intelligence from instinct, or agency from environment? Our conceptual and linguistic frameworks are often ill-equipped to accommodate the possibility that plants, too, participate in the web of cognition. By questioning these biases, we open the door to a more expansive and inclusive view of life; one that recognizes intelligence as a broader, more distributed phenomenon across biological systems. This shift in perspective not only deepens our understanding of plants but also challenges us to rethink fundamental ideas about mind, perception, and the interconnected nature of all living beings. Paco CalvoProfessor of Philosophy of Science, Principal Investigator of the Minimal Intelligence Laboratory (MINT Lab) at the University of Murcia (Spain). His research interests range broadly within the cognitive sciences, with special emphasis on plant intelligence, ecological psychology and embodied cognitive science, robotics and AI. He uses time-lapse photography to explore perception-action and learning in plants. His scientific articles have appeared in Annals of Botany, Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, Frontiers in Neurorobotics, Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Journal of the Royal Society, Plant, Cell & Environment, Plant Signaling & Behavior, Scientific Reports, and Trends in Plant Science, among other journals. He is author of the popular science book Planta Sapiens ( 2023; with Natalie Lawrence).https://www.um.es/mintlab/index.php/about/people/paco-calvo Credits Organised by ⁠CADA⁠ in partnership with ⁠Lisbon Architecture Triennale⁠ Programmed by Jared Hawkey/Sofia Oliveira with guest programmers: Andrea Pavoni, Lavínia Pereira and Olivia Bina. CADA is funded by: República Portuguesa – Cultura / ⁠Direção-Geral das Artes ⁠Support: ⁠Câmara Municipal de Lisboa⁠; Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia – ⁠NOVA LINCS⁠; ⁠Instituto Ciências Sociais⁠, Universidade de Lisboa; ⁠DINAMIA’CET⁠ (ISCTE-IUL) and ⁠Faculdade Belas Artes⁠, Universidade de Lisboa Art direction + graphic design: ⁠Emir Karyo⁠ Photography: ⁠Joana Linda⁠ Sound: ⁠Diogo Melo

Human Entities 2025: culture in the age of artificial intelligenceNinth edition Wed 28 May 2025, 6.30pmNotes on ‘Content’Caroline BustaWriter and editor As one-point perspective gives way to collective forms of knowing, media proliferates with no end, text is increasingly scanned and sensed more than read, and the myth of the individual-creative-genius is dissolved by the logic of swarm-trained LLMs, we are undergoing an epochal shift in human expression and reception. Surveying this communicational climate change, New Models co-founder Caroline Busta will examine the role of ‘content’ therein and some emergent frameworks of adaptation. Caroline BustaCaroline Busta is a co-founder of the critical media channel New Models. She was previously EIC of Texte zur Kunst, and an Assoc. Editor of Artforum. She co-edited Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst’s survey catalogue, All Media is Training Data (2024, Serpentine/König) and her recent essay ‘Hallucinating sense in the era of infinity-content’ appears in the SS24 issue of Document journal.https://studio.newmodels.io CreditsOrganised by CADA in partnership with Lisbon Architecture Triennale Programmed by Jared Hawkey/Sofia Oliveira with guest programmers: Andrea Pavoni, Lavínia Pereira and Olivia Bina. CADA is funded by: República Portuguesa – Cultura / Direção-Geral das ArtesSupport: Câmara Municipal de Lisboa; Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia – NOVA LINCS; Instituto Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa; DINAMIA’CET (ISCTE-IUL) and Faculdade Belas Artes, Universidade de LisboaArt direction + graphic design: Emir KaryoPhotography: Joana LindaSound: Diogo Melo

Human Entities 2023: culture in the age of artificial intelligence Seventh edition, Wednesday 19 April 2023 Artist talk Mark Leckey Mark Leckey is one of the most influential artists working today. Since the late 1990s, his work has looked at the relationship between popular culture and technology as well as exploring the subjects of youth, class and nostalgia. He works with sculpture, film, sound and performance⁠ – and sometimes all four at once. In particular, he is known for Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore (1999) and Industrial Light and Magic (2008), for which he won the Turner Prize. His work has been widely exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at Tate Britain, in 2019, Serpentine Gallery, in 2011, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, in 2008 and at Le Consortium, Dijon, in 2007. His performances have been presented in New York City at the Museum of Modern Art, Abrons Arts Center; at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, both in 2009; and at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, in 2008. His works are held in the collections of the Tate and the Centre Pompidou. https://markleckey.com https://www.cabinet.uk.com/mark-leckey https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/mark-leckey-6877/introducing-mark-leckey https://www.youtube.com/@MrLeckey https://www.instagram.com/mark.leckey https://twitter.com/MarkLeckey https://www.nts.live/shows/mark-leckey

Human Entities 2024: culture in the age of artificial intelligenceEighth edition, 15 May 2024 Plant consciousnessMonica GaglianoEvolutionary ecologist, Research Associate Professor (Adjunct) at Southern Cross University, Australia Monica Gagliano PhD is an internationally award-winning research scientist, selected by Biohabitats as one of the 24 most Inspiring Women of Ecology, together with Jane Goodall, Rachel Carson, Sylvia Earl, and Terry Tempest Williams. She has been an invited lecturer at the most prestigious universities, including UC Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, Dartmouth and Georgetown. Monica’s pioneering work has been widely featured by prominent media, such as The New York Times, Forbes, The New Yorker, The Guardian, National Geographic, and many others. Monica is Research Associate Professor (Adjunct) of evolutionary ecology based in Australia. She is currently Chief Scientist at Kaiāulu|Coherence Lab in Hawaii, and Research Associate at the Takiwasi Centre in Perú. Monica has pioneered the brand-new research field of plant bioacoustics, which for the first time, experimentally demonstrates that plants emit voices and detect and respond to the sounds of their environments. Her work has extended the concept of cognition in plants. By demonstrating experimentally that learning and memory are not the exclusive province of animals, Monica has reignited the discourse of plant subjectivity, as well as ethical and legal standing. Inspired by encounters with nature and indigenous elders from around the world, Monica applies an innovative and holistic approach to science, one that is comfortable engaging at the interface between areas as diverse as ecology, physics, law, anthropology, philosophy, literature, music, the arts, and spirituality. By re-kindling a sense of wonder for the beautiful place we call home, she is helping to create a new ecology of mind that inspires the emergence of revolutionary solutions toward human interactions with the world we co-inhabit. Monica’s studies have led her to author numerous ground-breaking scientific articles and books, including Thus Spoke the Plant (2018) and The Mind of Plants (2021). https://www.monicagagliano.comhttps://www.instagram.com/_monicagagliano_https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monica_Gaglianohttps://researchportal.scu.edu.au/esploro/profile/monica_gagliano/overview CreditsOrganised by CADA in partnership with Lisbon Architecture Triennale and Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon Programmed by Jared Hawkey/Sofia Oliveira with guest programmers: Andrea Pavoni, Justin Jaeckle, Lavínia Pereira and Olivia Bina. Funded by: República Portuguesa – Cultura / Direção-Geral das ArtesSupport: Câmara Municipal de Lisboa; Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia – NOVA LINCS; Instituto Ciências Sociais, Urban Transitions Hub, Universidade de Lisboa; DINAMIA’CET (ISCTE-IUL) and Faculdade Belas Artes, Universidade de Lisboa, Departamentos de Design de Comunicação e Arte MultimédiaDesign: Pedro LoureiroPhotography: Joana LindaSound: Diogo Melo

Human Entities 2024: culture in the age of artificial intelligenceEighth edition, 5 June 2024 Solarpunk means dreaming greenJay SpringettStrategist and writer Solarpunk is a movement in speculative fiction, art, fashion, and activism that seeks to answer and embody the question “what does a sustainable civilization look like, and how can we get there?” In our current age of popular dystopia, climate grief, and biosphere collapse, Solarpunk has become a ‘creative container‘ for more fertile futures. Not one future singular, but many. Solarpunk encourages everyone to re-imagine what life might be like en-route to a better world. Our collective future will not be imposed upon us from above, but instead created bottom up by individuals in polyphony. A texture consisting of multiple simultaneous lines of independent melody. The future never passively arrives fully formed, instead, it must be dreamed. Solarpunk is one such dream. In this talk Jay will cover the story of how solarpunk came to be and its attempts at inspiring people to ‘remake our present and future history’. Jay SpringettJay Springett is a strategist and writer from London. He is known as a leading voice in the speculative genre of Solarpunk, which described in 2019 as a ‘memetic engine’ – a tool to power the ‘refuturing’ of our collective imagination. In 2020 his Solarpunk short story ‘In The Storm, A Fire’ was long listed for the BSFA Award for Short Fiction.  Jay is a Fellow of Royal Society of Arts in London and was selected as one of WeAreEurope’s 64 Faces of Europe in 2019. He is currently an instructor at The New Centre and speaks regularly about the future, technology and culture at events around the world. He currently hosts two podcasts: PermanentlyMoved.Online, a 301 second long personal journal and Experience.Computer, an interview show about aphantasia, creativity, and the imagination. Jay has been writing online at http://www.thejaymo.net since 2010. Credits Organised by ⁠CADA⁠ in partnership with ⁠Lisbon Architecture Triennale ⁠and ⁠Faculty of Fine Arts⁠, University of Lisbon Programmed by Jared Hawkey/Sofia Oliveira with guest programmers: Andrea Pavoni, Justin Jaeckle, Lavínia Pereira and Olivia Bina. Funded by: República Portuguesa – Cultura / ⁠Direção-Geral das Artes⁠Support: ⁠Câmara Municipal de Lisboa⁠; Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia – ⁠NOVA LINCS⁠; Instituto Ciências Sociais, ⁠Urban Transitions Hub⁠, Universidade de Lisboa; ⁠DINAMIA’CET⁠ (ISCTE-IUL) and ⁠Faculdade Belas Artes⁠, Universidade de Lisboa, Departamentos de Design de Comunicação e Arte Multimédia Design: ⁠Pedro Loureiro⁠ Photography: ⁠Joana Linda⁠ Sound: ⁠Diogo Melo⁠

Human Entities 2024: culture in the age of artificial intelligenceEighth edition, 29 May 2024 Artificial Intelligence Design and the Logic of Social CooperationMatteo PasquinelliAssociate Professor in Philosophy of Science, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice A conversation around the book “The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence” with the author Matteo Pasquinelli. What is AI? A dominant view describes it as the quest “to solve intelligence” – a solution supposedly to be found in the secret logic of the mind or in the deep physiology of the brain, such as in its complex neural networks. Pasquinelli’s book The Eye of the Master argues, to the contrary, that the inner code of AI is shaped not by the imitation of biological intelligence, but the intelligence of labour and social relations, as it is found in Babbage’s “calculating engines” of the industrial age as well as in the recent Large Language Models such as ChatGPT. Matteo PasquinelliAssociate Professor in Philosophy of Science at the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage of Ca’ Foscari University in Venice where he is coordinating the ERC project AI MODELS. http://matteopasquinelli.comhttps://pric.unive.it/projects/ai-models/homehttps://www.versobooks.com/products/735-the-eye-of-the-master Credits Organised by ⁠CADA⁠ in partnership with ⁠Lisbon Architecture Triennale ⁠and ⁠Faculty of Fine Arts⁠, University of Lisbon Programmed by Jared Hawkey/Sofia Oliveira with guest programmers: Andrea Pavoni, Justin Jaeckle, Lavínia Pereira and Olivia Bina. Funded by: República Portuguesa – Cultura / ⁠Direção-Geral das Artes⁠ Support: ⁠Câmara Municipal de Lisboa⁠; Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia – ⁠NOVA LINCS⁠; Instituto Ciências Sociais, ⁠Urban Transitions Hub⁠, Universidade de Lisboa; ⁠DINAMIA’CET⁠ (ISCTE-IUL) and ⁠Faculdade Belas Artes⁠, Universidade de Lisboa, Departamentos de Design de Comunicação e Arte Multimédia Design: ⁠Pedro Loureiro⁠ Photography: ⁠Joana Linda⁠ Sound: ⁠Diogo Melo⁠

Human Entities 2024: culture in the age of artificial intelligenceEighth edition, 22 May 2024 Pluralizing psychedelic experiencesGiorgio GristinaPhD candidate, DANT (ICS-ULisboa), Systems Neuroscience Lab (Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown) Potential groundbreaking therapeutic applications are fuelling a resurgence of scientific and clinical interest towards psychedelic compounds. Growing media coverage is popularizing concepts such as “mystical experience” and “ego-dissolution”. Such terms are used in most scientific studies to describe the complex subjective experiences elicited by these substances, possibly playing a role in their therapeutic outcomes. But what’s the history behind these categories? And are there other ways of interpreting the peculiar effects of these substances? The mystical framework has been dominant in western scientific approaches to altered states of consciousness, and was thus adopted by psychedelic research since its inception. However, I argue that it is not the only possible interpretation of psychedelics’ effects. Ethnographic data and anecdotal evidence show that other communities have approached psychedelics through other epistemologies, and that their effects vary considerably across different settings. To widen our understanding of these substances’ effects and their therapeutic applications, scientific approaches to psychedelics should attempt to include a broader diversity of experiences, contexts and methods. Giorgio GristinaGiorgio Gristina holds a BA in Intercultural Communication and a MA in Social and Cultural Anthropology, both from the University of Torino (Italy). He also got a diploma in Sound Engineering from the school APM (Italy), having collaborated to numerous artistic / audiovisual projects along the years. He is currently PhD candidate in Medical Anthropology at the Institute of Social Sciences (ULisboa), with a research project co-hosted by the System Neuroscience Laboratory (Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown). His PhD investigation employs qualitative methods to unravel the historical and cultural frameworks underlying contemporary scientific research and clinical practice with psychedelic drugs, with focus on the Portuguese scenario and its role in the context of the “psychedelic renaissance”. His work explores the socialities emerging around the use and circulation of drugs, and the way scientific discourses shape western conceptions of self, mind and mental health. He has conducted fieldwork in Israel and in different sites in Europe. https://doutoramento.antropologia.ulisboa.pt/estudantes/giorgio-gristina Credits Organised by ⁠CADA⁠ in partnership with ⁠Lisbon Architecture Triennale ⁠and ⁠Faculty of Fine Arts⁠, University of Lisbon Programmed by Jared Hawkey/Sofia Oliveira with guest programmers: Andrea Pavoni, Justin Jaeckle, Lavínia Pereira and Olivia Bina. Funded by: República Portuguesa – Cultura / ⁠Direção-Geral das Artes⁠ Support: ⁠Câmara Municipal de Lisboa⁠; Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia – ⁠NOVA LINCS⁠; Instituto Ciências Sociais, ⁠Urban Transitions Hub⁠, Universidade de Lisboa; ⁠DINAMIA’CET⁠ (ISCTE-IUL) and ⁠Faculdade Belas Artes⁠, Universidade de Lisboa, Departamentos de Design de Comunicação e Arte Multimédia Design: ⁠Pedro Loureiro⁠ Photography: ⁠Joana Linda⁠ Sound: ⁠Diogo Melo⁠

Human Entities 2023: culture in the age of artificial intelligenceSeventh edition, Wednesday 17 May 2023 Authorship, Agency, and Moral ObligationJoanna BrysonProfessor of Ethics and Technology in the Centre for Digital Governance at Hertie School in Berlin How much of our individual human experience can we absorb into machine models when we use machine learning and a huge amount of data? Will AI become sentient? Sovereign? Ambitious? How will living with AI change our daily experience? This talk reflects natural, social, and computing sciences, describing both human and artificial intelligence, then governance, justice, and creativity. What we do matters, and we are obliged to ourselves and our planet to create and maintain good governance of all artefacts of our species. Joanna BrysonJoanna J Bryson, Professor of Ethics and Technology at Hertie School, is an academic recognised for broad expertise on intelligence, its nature, and its consequences. She advises governments, transnational agencies, and NGOs globally, particularly in AI policy. She holds two degrees each in psychology and AI (BA Chicago, MSc & MPhil Edinburgh, PhD MIT). Her work has appeared in venues ranging from reddit to the journal Science. She continues to research both the systems engineering of AI and the cognitive science of intelligence, with present focuses on the impact of technology on human cooperation, and new models of governance for AI and ICT. https://www.joannajbryson.orghttps://joanna-bryson.blogspot.comhttps://twitter.com/j2bryson Organised by ⁠CADA⁠ in partnership with ⁠Faculty of Fine Arts⁠, University of Lisbon

Human Entities 2023: culture in the age of artificial intelligenceSeventh edition, Wednesday 3 May 2023 Smart PowerOrit HalpernFull Professor and Chair of Digital Cultures and Societal Change at Technische Universität Dresden Today, growing concerns with climate change, energy scarcity, security, and economic volatility have turned the focus of urban planners, investors, scientists, and governments towards computational technologies as sites of potential salvation from a world consistently defined by catastrophes and ‘crisis’. From large scale computer simulations of the weather, to smart cities and infrastructures, to geo-engineering projects, to cryptocurrencies and blockchains, we have arguably transformed the planet into a test-bed and experiment for computational technologies. The penetration of almost every part of life by digital technologies has transformed how we understand nature, culture, and time. But what futures are we imagining, or foreclosing through these planetary ‘experiments’? How have we come to see human survival as fundamentally dependent on computational networks? This talk maps the rise of this ‘smartness mandate’. Tracing genealogies from artificial intelligence, finance, architecture, and art I will develop an account of how ubiquitous computing has become one of the dominant governing logics of our present (and possibly our future) and to what effects. Orit HalpernOrit Halpern is Full Professor and Chair of Digital Cultures and Societal Change at Technische Universität Dresden. Her work bridges the histories of science, computing, and cybernetics with design. She completed her Ph.D. at Harvard. She has held numerous visiting scholar positions including at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, IKKM Weimar, and at Duke University. She is currently working on two projects. The first is a history of intelligence and evolution; the second project examines extreme infrastructures and the history of experimentation at planetary scales in design, science, and engineering. She has also published widely in many venues including Critical Inquiry, Grey Room, Journal of Visual Culture, and E-Flux. Her first book Beautiful Data: A History of Vision and Reason (Duke UP 2015) investigates histories of big data, design, and governmentality. Her latest book with Robert Mitchell (MIT Press January 2023) The Smartness Mandate, is a theory and history of the concept of ‘smartness’, that interrogates the relationship between computation, population, economy, and governmentality. https://orithalpern.net https://governingthrough.design https://againstcatastrophe.net

Human Entities 2023: culture in the age of artificial intelligenceSeventh edition, Wednesday 26 April 2023 Rebooting democracyManuel Arriaga + Pedro MagalhãesManuel Arriaga is a university professor and one of the founders of the Fórum dos Cidadãos; Pedro Magalhães is a researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon Democracy is a technology of collective decision-making that aggregates intentions and defines a course of action. However, according to the diagnosis of many, it’s a technology ‘in crisis’. An important part of the contemporary experience of ‘democratic frustration’ seems to result from the contrast between the stagnation of ways of doing politics and the rapid evolution of digital technology. As consumers, we have long learned to expect – and demand – innovation. Yet, as citizens, we regularly confront ourselves with the immutability of mechanisms of governance. In representative democracy, who is effectively represented? How, and to what extent, are the interests and preferences of people – and different people – converted into policies? With regard to the issue of the environment and climate change, in every election cycle there seems to be a kind of myopia, or short-sightedness, which exclusively focuses on the articulation and resolution of (some) short-term problems. To what extent can forms of ‘democratic innovation’, especially those that serve to create greater opportunities for political participation, serve to address long-term problems, in particular the climate crisis? What is the potential of other forms of political organisation as a complement, or even alternative, to representative democracy? This discussion will be moderated by Catherine Moury, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the PhD programme, Political Studies Department, NOVA University of Lisbon. Manuel ArriagaManuel Arriaga is a university professor, author of Rebooting Democracy: A Citizen’s Guide to Reinventing Politics one of the founders of the Fórum dos Cidadãos and, more recently, one of the driving forces behind the political party (still non-existent) FUTURO. https://www.rebootdemocracy.orghttps://www.forumdoscidadaos.pthttps://www.futurodemocratico.pt Pedro MagalhãesPedro Magalhães is a researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon, where he develops research in the area of public opinion and political attitudes, in particular attitudes towards democracy. https://www.pedro-magalhaes.org/https://twitter.com/PCMagalhaes

Organized in partnership with  the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon, Communication Design and of Multimedia Arts departments Discriminating Data, a conversation with Wendy Hui Kyong Chun Wendy Hui Kyong Chun Canada 150 Chair in New Media, Director, Digital Democracies Institute In Discriminating Data [2021], Wendy Hui Kyong Chun reveals how polarization is a goal—not an error—within big data and machine learning. These methods, she argues, encode segregation, eugenics, and identity politics through their default assumptions and conditions. Correlation, which grounds big data’s predictive potential, stems from twentieth-century eugenic attempts to “breed” a better future. Recommender systems foster angry clusters of sameness through homophily. Users are “trained” to become authentically predictable via a politics and technology of recognition. Machine learning and data analytics thus seek to disrupt the future by making disruption impossible. In this conversation, Chun will discuss the themes of her book with Andrea Pavoni, assistant research professor at DINAMIA’CET and then take questions from the audience. Wendy Hui Kyong Chun Wendy Hui Kyong Chun is the Canada 150 Research Chair in New Media at Simon Fraser University, and leads the Digital Democracies Institute. She studied Systems Design Engineering and English Literature, which she combines in her current work on digital media, and is the author of Control and Freedom: Power and Paranoia in the Age of Fiber Optics (2006), Programmed Visions: Software and Memory (2011), Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New Media (2016) and, more recently, Discriminating Data (2021). https://www.sfu.ca/communication/team/faculty/wendy-chun.html https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/discriminating-data https://twitter.com/whkchun Human Entities is a public programme of talks organised by CADA.