Cool School

Cool School tours
Admission for the exhibition is free
Attendance: 1 € per person

Registration:
Caro Feistritzer
cf@​halle-​fuer-​kunst.​at
0316 740084 15

The exhibition A.rtificial I.ntrospection (A.I.O.) explores artificial intelligence and the question of how humans think, perceive, and understand themselves. Its starting point is the work of the influential Austrian artist and theorist Oswald Wiener, who has been critically engaging with these themes since the 1960s. He was active not only as an artist and writer, but also as a mathematician and computer scientist.

Wiener advocated the idea that human consciousness cannot be explained solely through language and therefore cannot be fully replicated by machines. A central concept in his work is self-observation — that is, reflecting on one’s own thinking. In his work, he also critiques the image of humans as completely autonomous subjects and describes them instead as automatons that are deeply connected to their environment. In doing so, he uses the so-called Turing Test, developed by Alan Turing, as an important point of reference, though he views it critically: It measures only the external behavior of humans but does not take consciousness or feelings into account.

The exhibition brings together works, archival material, and recordings by Oswald Wiener with artistic practices closely associated with him, as well as with contemporary artists who explore self-perception, data processing, artificial intelligence, and advancing technological development. Especially in the age of algorithms and language AI, Wiener’s ideas feel very relevant once again.

Ultimately, this is not just about technology, but about the question of how human identity and consciousness can be understood and protected under the influence of technology. For A.I.O., we are once again offering themed tours that can serve as a useful starting point.

Oswald Wiener & Introspection

Oswald Wiener was a central figure of the Neo-Avant-Garde and bridged the worlds of art, literature, philosophy, and science. He worked in Vienna, Berlin, and Canada and was particularly interested in how human thought arises and can be understood. While he initially believed that art could explain consciousness, he later changed his view. He emphasized that language influences thought but does not entirely determine it. Instead, he focused on self-observation: that is, the conscious reflection on one’s own experiences and thoughts. This tour aims to explore Wiener’s idea of self-observation and how it is carried forward in contemporary art.

Thinking, Language and Technical Systems

According to Wiener, language organizes our thinking, but it does not explain it. For him, introspection — that is, reflecting on one’s own consciousness — became more important. He also explored the connections between thought, language, and technology. In his writings, he demonstrated that language, perception, and reality are closely intertwined and influence one another. His concept of the so-called ​“bio-adapter,” for example, demonstrates that Wiener was asking questions very early on that are discussed today in the context of AI and virtual reality. In this tour, we will explore these questions and examine how they are also addressed by other artists in the exhibition.

Dandyism

Wiener does not view the dandy as a fashion figure, but rather as a spiritual attitude. The dandy rejects the idea that human beings can be fully explained by science or rules — an attitude that recurs repeatedly in Wiener’s thinking about technology. The dandy is a loner who thinks rather spontaneously and in brief flashes (here, too, there is a similarity to Wiener). At the same time, through self-observation, he recognizes that thoughts and feelings are often not free, but follow certain patterns. This raises the question of what actually defines a human being. For Wiener, it is important to continually question oneself and to resist the notion of being fully explainable. This tour is about exploring the idea of the dandy and, after the tour, discussing together how humanity can be preserved despite the rise of technology and AI.