Medium Hot Images in The Age of Heat

The highly acclaimed video artist and author of Duty Free Art asks: What is the future of the image in the age of climate change and artificial technology?

Hito Steyerl was named #2 most influential person in the art world in Artforum. Her work has consistently challenged the relationship between art and technology in an age of climate change.

In this new collection of ground breaking essays, she explores how ChatGPT, the use of Large Language Models and the algorithmic creation of imagery impacts on our understanding of the world.

Steyerl argues that such practises can not be divorced from the economic and political conditions of the times: every image is a degraded version, the product of layers of exploitation, depleting ever more limited resources of energy. How should we look at such images and what would an image of liberation actually look like?

Hito Steyerl is one of the leading artists working in video today. Her work explores the divisions between art, philosophy, and politics. She has had solo exhibitions at, among others, MOCA, LA; the Reina Sofia, Madrid; and the ICA, London. She has participated in the Venice Biennale, Shanghai Biennale, Documenta, and Manifesta. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Tate Modern. She is the author of The Wretched of the Screen and writes in numerous periodicals. She is currently a Professor of New Media Art at the Berlin University of the Arts.