What if?
A Speculative Prototyping
Session with Laura Cugusi and S()fia Braga
Everything is Computer c/o Laura Cugusi & machine yearning aka ncx3
A collaboration between Civa x transmediale festival Berlin, hosted
by Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab (AIL) and the Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures
Is there a difference
between speculative prototyping and AI forecasting? What temporalities and modes of relation open up when we engage these
technologies as collaborators rather than instruments? This session invites us to reflect on how we can engage with the tools
and narratives we work with, and how we might still use them to generate counter-speculations.
Everything is Computer - The Planned Obsolescence of the Future is an artistic-research project in
the form of a playable video game that interrogates how dominant narratives, AI models, and game engines encode the future
we are conditioned to imagine. Third Impact is a short film created in collaboration with AI systems, that
explores counter-futures of coexistence between humans and non-humans.
The artists Laura Cugusi
and S()fia Braga will be presenting their works and share insights into their general practice, followed
by a roundtable conversation. Nada Zanhour will be joining online for the practice sharing part.
Laura Cugusi's work has been nomadic across languages, disciplines and media. Her research focuses on mapping
media ecologies, tech literacies, governance infrastructures and institutional world-building strategies that shape and consolidate
the imagination (or lack thereof) about the future.
machine yearning aka Nada Zanhour works across
sound, video, 3D and interactive media. Her research focuses on online aesthetics, internet hyper-niches, meme culture and
digital militarism.
S()fia Braga is a New Media artist and pioneer in AI-driven cinematic storytelling
based in Vienna. Her artistic practice explores emerging technologies to create speculative fabulations about counter-futures,
engaging with themes such as human–machine collaboration, non-human agency, and transhumanism. In parallel, Braga’s research
examines the concepts of Interveillance and Platform Workshipping, uncovering the hidden power dynamics embedded in the operational
structures of centralized social media platforms and their sociological implications.
