Merz Akademie @ theGATE Festival

Never before has art been so close to science as it is now in the electronic age. Researchers at supercomputing centres, universities and companies alike have been collaborating with artists through programs like S+T+ARTS and reaping the rewards for many years now. This festival exhibition pulls back the curtains on this unique mode of collaboration and the art-driven innovation it contributes to.

The initiative theGATE is dedicated to the eCultures of the 21st. century aimed at exploring the convergence of Science, Technology, Arts and Society. Merz Akademie is part of the exhibition with two projects.

MIRROR MACHINE (interactive installation, 2026)

This work explores the fragile relationship between human identity and algorithmic systems. What appears to reflect us begins to reshape us. Through an immersive installation of AI-generated video, sound and interaction, the project stages a psychological space where humans and technologies dissolve into one another. By inviting visitors to submit their own image, the work turns participation into exposure. MIRROR MACHINE questions authorship, dependency and control; does the algorithm mirror us, or do we now mirror the algorithm without realizing it?

The project by Sofija Cvetkovic and Leni Aigner was created in the Emerging Media semester project Tomorrow’s Uploads under the direction of Prof. Danja Vasiliev.

THE CRITICAL ENGINEERING MANIFESTO (Print, 2011)

by Danja Vasiliev, professor for Emerging Media and co-authors.

The Critical Engineering Manifesto is a call to treat engineering as a site of political and ethical responsibility – arguing that every technology encodes ideology, and that the Critical Engineer’s task is not merely to build but to study, expose, and subvert the systems that shape human agency.