@ HCI – Division for Human-Computer Interaction,
Techno-Z Salzburg Bauteil V, Jakob-Haringer-Straße 8, 5020 Salzburg
TALK:
„We Are Haunted by Ourselves: Ambivalent Media and the Ghosts in Our Machines“ explores the ambivalence inherent in contemporary media—where empowerment and exploitation coexist—through the lens of the artist’s own practice, research, and ambivalent relationship to the technology she employs and explores in her work. Drawing from a multi-disciplinary artistic practice that spans robotic painting, textiles and embroidery, and digital media installation, Gretta Louw examines the ghostly presences in mediated environments, questioning agency, identity, and narratives for understanding our place in the world.
What does it mean to be haunted by our own reflections in the machines we create? And how can artists engage with technology without becoming fodder for the tech hype machine?
SPEAKER:
Gretta Louw is a South African-born Australian artist, writer, and curator. She received her BA with Honours from the University of Western Australia in 2002, subsequently living in Japan and New Zealand before moving to Germany in 2007. Her work has been exhibited widely in public institutions and galleries such as the Wro Art Center (PL), Honor Fraser Gallery (US), Kunstmuseum Solothurn (CH), Münchner Stadtmuseum (DE), bitforms (US), UNSW Galleries (AUS), LABoral (ESP), and Galeri Nasional Indonesia (IDN). She has received numerous awards including an Australia Council Career Development Grant (2019), a Visual Art Prize from the Cultural Department of the City of Munich (2019), the Bahnwärter Stipendium by the City of Esslingen am Neckar (2017), and the Heinrich Vetter Preis of the City of Mannheim (2014), amongst others.
Louw has curated thematic exhibitions at museums including the Villa Merkel (DE), Furtherfield Gallery (UK), and Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery (US) and contributed essays to numerous catalogues and publications. Her artwork and curatorial projects have been covered by press outlets including Hyperallergic, Kunstforum, Motherboard, AQNB Magazine, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and others.
Louw’s studio in Starnberg, near Munich, Germany is supported by the Curt Wills-Stiftung, where in addition to her own practice, the artist also mentors emerging artists.
Language: EN
Picture credit: Verena Haegler
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subnetTALK 2025 on the topic of „vision“.
Insight and dialogue in the field of tension: art, research, technology. www.subnet.at
subnetTALK is a cooperation between the Division for Human-Computer Interaction (University of Salzburg) and subnet.