weak signals

Art and technology know lots of tricks. They can spot little signs in different parts of society. These weak signals might show us new trends or big changes coming up. They enable us to consider the unknown future not as a threat, but as a resource of new narratives.

This little pocket book, designed by Studio Yukiko, and published by Spector Books, playfully identifies some of these weak signals.

As a glossary of new terminologies and neologisms, it curates, archives, copies, combines, and compiles ideas, texts, and images in a cut-up technique.

It brings together human-written and AI-generated text in a flat-hierarchical manner and provides a plethora of hyperlinks, forming an intricate web of endless references.

This publication is the result of the exploratory seminars Art and Technology: A Research Network and Weak Signals: New Narratives in Art and Technology, which were conducted by visiting professors Prof. Lukas Feireiss and Prof. Dr. Florian Hadler at the Berlin University of the Arts in 2022–2023.

Powered by Deutsche Telekom AG, the seminars and the resulting publication at hand are a unique Third Mission case, strengthening the permeability and the societal impact of the university through dialogues, exchange, and the development of shared vocabularies.

Check out our podcast, where we explore the manifold relationships between arts, science, and technology together with our guests - always on the lookout for weak signals, identifying cracks in the present time, revealing possible futures, indicating shifts in culture and society, and envisioning alternate worlds to come.

Check out all podcast episodes that explore the project:

Here are some impressions from our booklaunches in Berlin and Bonn: