 is professor of Digital Cultures and Mediation at the Open Arts Institute at Mozarteum University Salzburg, and guest professor at the Chair for Media Theory at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

 Paul Feigelfeld: Optimal Brain Damage. Technofascism, AI-thoritarianism & Countercultural Techniques

 for art, performance, and discourse on the cultural impact of digital technologies. Its first edition, “Model Collapse,” was curated by Nadim Samman and jointly organized by FOTO ARSENAL WIEN and Kunsthalle Wien in May 2025.

This video was produced by Autotelic Foundation, a key partner of VDC 2025.

Optimal Brain Damage. Technofascism, AI-thoritarianism & Countercultural Techniques

, 2025, video, 45 min. Performance documentation, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, as part of Vienna Digital Cultures, 2025. Courtesy: Autotelic Foundation

Situating machine-learning in its historical origins and political uses, a lecture at Vienna Digital Cultures cuts through the semantic fog of AI “optimization” to uncover a growing monopoly on power.

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