This live-video essay was developed in the context of the 16th edition of the Tactics and Practice conference "Are you a Software Update?". The conference was organized by Aksioma, Institute for Contemporary Art and took place in Ljubljana on February 25th, 2025. The video is the outcome of a live streaming performance by Donatella della Ratta and THE VOID.
Written and performed by Donatella della Ratta
Visual Research, Editing and Live Stream by Tommaso Cammpagna and Jordi Viader Guerrero
Production Assistant and Live References by Giulia Timis
Music by Daniel Leix Palumbo
Generative AI-powered media create speculative visuals that, while not based on factual events, remain plausible, constructing realities that have yet to unfold. Situated within the domain of possibility rather than empirical certainty, these visuals introduce a new form of synthetic realism. By reshaping both past and present through their world-building potential, these seemingly innocuous images—detached from tangible references, historical ties, lineage, or context—wield a quiet yet profound violence against history and factuality.
The lecture performance explores this emerging mode of the image’s existence, spanning from overt destruction to subtle, almost imperceptible impact, and traces how it gives rise to novel expressions of violence. Focusing on their deployment in the ongoing war on Palestine, it reveals how speculative gen AI visuals extend violence into the not-yet-realized, challenging a traditional understanding of fact and evidence.
This video is part of Donatella Della Ratta’s research project Intelligenza Artificiale e Nuove Forme di Violenza: Etica, Estetica, e Politica nell’Epoca del Realismo Sintetico granted by the Italian Council program(2024).
This event is additionally supported by the Italian Cultural Institute in Ljubljana.
