From Craft to Code and Back Again: Rethinking Art, Materiality and Exhibition Practices in the 21st Century

A special issue of Arts (ISSN 2076-0752).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2026) | Viewed by 12222

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Design and Creative Industries, University of Greenwich, London SE10 9LS, UK
Interests: time-based media; curatorial discourse; spatial politics; symbiotic systems; interdisciplinary collaboration

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Guest Editor
Cambridge Digital Humanities, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1TN, UK
Interests: computational technologies; digital arts; AI forensics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue invites contributions that critically examine how exhibition practices are navigating the shifting space of materiality in an age defined by digital technology, algorithmic culture, and increasing socio-political instability. As immersive environments, machine learning, and generative AI become increasingly embedded in artistic and curatorial processes, we ask: what does it mean to create with and through matter today? How does this converse and critically interact with tools and platforms that are deeply entangled with extractive, corporate-military infrastructures and ideologies? Can the resurgence of craft, with its emphasis on process and embodied friction, be seen as an antipode to the automated solutions offered by machine-learning tools?

We are particularly interested in scholarship and practice-based research that interrogates the ethics of working with digital technologies at a time when major tech corporations (often aligned with authoritarian, anti-democratic ideologies) continue to abandon commitments to equality, diversity, and social justice. In the wake of increasing far-right influence within AI development and the growing militarisation of digital infrastructures, this Special Issue calls for contributions that do not treat technologies as neutral tools, but as politically charged agents with real-world implications for labour, the environment, and human rights.

Moving beyond simplistic binaries of digital versus physical, virtual versus real, or code versus craft, we invite authors to explore the creative possibilities and responsibilities that emerge in this complex territory. What forms of resistance, renewal, or reinvention are possible within the curatorial field when technological tools are themselves implicated in canonical structures of oppression? How might the act of creation and exhibition become a space to critically reclaim, reimagine, or subvert technological engagement through materiality and care?

We seek contributions that may address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

  • Curatorial methodologies that foreground material engagement and embodied knowledge;
  • Hybrid exhibition formats that negotiate the tensions between virtual tools and physical practices;
  • Critical responses to the politics of AI, generative media, and data extraction in creative practices;
  • Case studies of exhibitions and/or artworks (such as sketches, drawings, comic strips, prints, and other material forms) that interrogate or reimagine the aesthetics and politics of algorithmic culture;
  • Theoretical reflections on the entanglements of craft, code, and curatorial labour;
  • New readings of materiality in response to ecological degradation, political violence, or social precarity;
  • Curatorial strategies that engage with DIY, speculative design, or anti-corporate approaches to technology.

By foregrounding the renewed urgency of material practices and the ethics of technological engagement, this Special Issue offers a platform for reflecting on how exhibition practices are evolving at the intersection of matter, machine, and critical resistance.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200 words summarising their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editors ( and ) by 15th July 2025. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue.

The abstract submission deadline for this special issue has expired. Full manuscripts are due on 30 October 2025 and will undergo double-blind peer review.

Dr. Elena Papadaki
Dr. Eleanor Dare
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Arts is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • exhibition practices
  • materiality
  • physical/virtual environments
  • curating
  • symbiotic networks
  • contemporary creative practices
  • new technologies
  • curating
  • visual communication

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Published Papers (13 papers)

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12 pages, 217 KB  
Article
In the Texture of Things: Collage as a Site of Material Constraint and Possibility
by molly rosabelle ackhurst
Arts 2026, 15(4), 79; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15040079 - 14 Apr 2026
Viewed by 393
Abstract
This article explores the affective and material complexities of creating arts-based artefacts to explore and represent sexual violence. It does so through attending to both the materials used and the embodied practices of those making them. Focusing on collage, it examines how the [...] Read more.
This article explores the affective and material complexities of creating arts-based artefacts to explore and represent sexual violence. It does so through attending to both the materials used and the embodied practices of those making them. Focusing on collage, it examines how the physical properties of materials mediate what can be imagined, simultaneously enabling expression and constraining it within familiar visual vocabularies often shaped by state, security, and punitive logics. I argue that materiality operates not only through objects but through the bodies, gestures, and decisions of makers, shaping what can be imagined. Through engagement with Nancy Naples’ (2003) formative work on survivor discourse alongside novel empirical data and cultural texts, the article makes the subtle yet significant contention that attending to these entangled materialities—of both maker and medium—reveals how friction between imaginative intent and material affordances can generate methodological insights, open alternative futures, and disrupt dominant discourses. Full article
25 pages, 32705 KB  
Article
Controlling the Art School: Ideologies of Materials and a Speculative Vision for Hybrid Arts Education
by Dylan Yamada-Rice
Arts 2026, 15(4), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15040073 - 8 Apr 2026
Viewed by 537
Abstract
In responding to the special issue’s call to examine the shifting space of materiality, this article uses creative writing, hand-drawn comics, and speculative fiction/design as a form of research by practice to critique changes in UK Higher Arts Education in relation to art [...] Read more.
In responding to the special issue’s call to examine the shifting space of materiality, this article uses creative writing, hand-drawn comics, and speculative fiction/design as a form of research by practice to critique changes in UK Higher Arts Education in relation to art materials. It shows how embedded neoliberal structures that have been documented to negatively impact HE staff and the arts in general, also now extend to prioritising and excluding some art materials over others. A speculative vision is offered as an alternative in which a nomadic higher arts education is put forward, one that encourages the use of hybrid art materials. The means chosen to make the arguments presented are analogue methods of drawing, cutting, printing, sewing and writing to strengthen the point that digital materials are currently prioritised in UK arts education due to HE’s entanglement with agendas entwinned with Big Tech and most recently the military. The format is also deliberately experimental to move away from common ways of presenting research and theory that have become formulaic as academics are pushed to meet the ideals of the Research Excellence Framework, another neoliberal rubric. Full article
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23 pages, 1581 KB  
Article
Symbiotic Intelligence: Rethinking AI with Mycelium
by John Wild and Shira Wachsmann
Arts 2026, 15(4), 69; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15040069 - 1 Apr 2026
Viewed by 848
Abstract
Symbiotic Intelligence (SI) rethinks dominant evolutionary narratives within Western artificial intelligence (AI) development through a practice-led research methodology centred on co-creating with mycelium. This research investigates how living mycelium can inform and reframe prevailing AI narratives, particularly those shaped by evolutionary logics. These [...] Read more.
Symbiotic Intelligence (SI) rethinks dominant evolutionary narratives within Western artificial intelligence (AI) development through a practice-led research methodology centred on co-creating with mycelium. This research investigates how living mycelium can inform and reframe prevailing AI narratives, particularly those shaped by evolutionary logics. These narratives, found in developer manifestoes and futurological discourse, often frame intelligence within competitive, deterministic paradigms rooted in social Darwinism and invoke eugenicist ideas such as the g-factor in intelligence. Through the creation of responsive art installations, the project positions mycelium as a material and conceptual collaborator, opening new spaces for dialogue. This article inverts the curatorial strategy of incorporating AI technology into artistic practices. Instead, we show how arts-led ‘making’ practices can generate new narratives that propose alternative ethical frameworks and sustainable directions for technological development. We argue that a direct, generative but non-deterministic relationship exists between AI narratives and the technical actualisation of AI. Specifically, SI contends that: (i) evolutionary narratives underpin Western AI imaginaries; (ii) these often reflect reductive social Darwinist models; (iii) counter-narratives grounded in collective assemblage and symbiotic intelligence are essential for shaping more complex and sustainable AI futures. Full article
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27 pages, 7416 KB  
Article
Activating Embodied Memory Through a Fusion of Clay and Augmented Reality
by Svetlana Atlavina
Arts 2026, 15(3), 55; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030055 - 16 Mar 2026
Viewed by 806
Abstract
The ACE-funded project Clay and Augmented Reality (CAR) explored how the combination of tactile and digital media might activate embodied memory, foster art expression, and stimulate new forms of creative learning. The project investigated memory recollection by integrating clay sculpting with [...] Read more.
The ACE-funded project Clay and Augmented Reality (CAR) explored how the combination of tactile and digital media might activate embodied memory, foster art expression, and stimulate new forms of creative learning. The project investigated memory recollection by integrating clay sculpting with immersive Augmented Reality (AR), focusing on psychoanalysis and participatory art research. The created multisensory environment was a significant element in reconnection with early-life experiences. Six workshops engaged over 40 participants in memory-mapping through AR interfaces and tactile activities. Extensive theoretical and methodological research focuses on theories of Freud, Polanyi, Ettinger, and art practice of Hepworth, integrating embodied making with experimental technologies, including 3D scanning, ARvid/HoloLens experiences, and qualitative feedback analysis. The outcome is a hybrid repository of over 120 memory-informed artefacts titled My Mother and I, presented on the sketchfab platform. The collection showcases intergenerational memory, imprints of intangible and visual storytelling. During the research, the significance of slowness, play, and relational presence was underlined as conditions for memory activation. It concludes that memory lives in gesture, spatial perception and given care, and that hybrid arts-based methods offer new epistemologies of healing, creativity and pedagogical inquiry. CAR presents a model for participatory research that bridges physical and digital realms in deeply human ways. Full article
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17 pages, 6516 KB  
Article
Algorithmic Resistance Through Material Praxis: Exhibiting Post-Extractive Futures in Digital Capitalism’s Shadow
by Adina-Iuliana Deacu
Arts 2026, 15(3), 53; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030053 - 11 Mar 2026
Viewed by 521
Abstract
Digital capitalism has generated new forms of extractivism that extend beyond natural resources to encompass data, attention, affect, and planetary materials. This article examines how exhibition practices can function as forms of algorithmic resistance by foregrounding material praxis, embodied engagement, and curatorial strategies [...] Read more.
Digital capitalism has generated new forms of extractivism that extend beyond natural resources to encompass data, attention, affect, and planetary materials. This article examines how exhibition practices can function as forms of algorithmic resistance by foregrounding material praxis, embodied engagement, and curatorial strategies of care. Drawing on a practice-based research approach, the paper develops a theoretical framework around extractivism, materiality, and relational ethics, and applies it to two case studies: the author’s exhibition Nature Reclaims: Images of Healing, which cultivates regenerative imaginaries through urban rewilding photography, tactile installations, and trauma-informed reflective tools; and Fossil Fables, curated by the Global Extraction Observatory (GEO), which exposes the infrastructural, political, and ideological architectures sustaining extractive industries and digital technologies. Through comparative analysis, the article introduces the concept of symbiotic curation to describe a post-extractive curatorial method that holds critical exposure and regenerative proposition in sustained tension. The findings illustrate how exhibitions can reorganize perception, recalibrate temporality, and render hidden infrastructures visible, while also cultivating embodied relations of care, ecological attunement, and collective reflection. By positioning curatorial practice as an epistemic process in which theoretical propositions are tested through spatial, material, and affective decisions, the article identifies transferable principles for post-extractive cultural work. It argues that exhibitions can operate as laboratories for algorithmic resistance and as sites for rehearsing alternative relations between humans, technologies, and more-than-human worlds. Full article
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9 pages, 171 KB  
Article
Manifesting Mark Fisher: Instagram, Network Extension, and the Making of a Decapitalised Film
by Simon Poulter
Arts 2026, 15(3), 52; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030052 - 9 Mar 2026
Viewed by 493
Abstract
This article sets out an assertion that a mass art project can make a virtue of ‘network extension’ through an Instagram account, to build creative community, new connections, and physical artwork outcomes. We Are Making A Film About Mark Fisher is an example [...] Read more.
This article sets out an assertion that a mass art project can make a virtue of ‘network extension’ through an Instagram account, to build creative community, new connections, and physical artwork outcomes. We Are Making A Film About Mark Fisher is an example of a ‘manifested artwork’, where Fisher’s ideas on capitalism and community are explored through electronic media. We have taken the work of critical theorist, Mark Fisher, and subjected it to a process of détournement, alluding to the work of Guy de Bord and The Situationists. The thing in itself—Fisher’s processed ideas—are reprocessed and held up against the posthumous period between 2017 and now, since he died. The assertion in the work is that while the tools are circumscribed by a set of ‘standards’ and ‘production processes’, this does not delimit them from being employed towards the evolution of embodied and shared actions that develop a counter-narrative or something that eschews the methods of Hollywood or broadcast television documentaries. We just have to learn ways to do this. ‘Decapitalising’ a process, working with human agency and good will, turns the platform of Instagram into a tool of empowerment—reappropriating the algorithm and capturing the collective back from the closed corporate system of control. We see that a form of value is pulled back out of the machinic effects of a proprietary platform. Full article
11 pages, 176 KB  
Article
Digitality and the African Photographic Archive: Towards a Practice of Futurity
by Emmanuel Iduma
Arts 2026, 15(3), 48; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15030048 - 3 Mar 2026
Viewed by 541
Abstract
In this paper, I examine ways in which a digital photographic archive might be instantiated or instigated, how that instantiation contributes to discourse on the localization of archives, and how the imbrication of an archive with the knowledge it produces requires new ways [...] Read more.
In this paper, I examine ways in which a digital photographic archive might be instantiated or instigated, how that instantiation contributes to discourse on the localization of archives, and how the imbrication of an archive with the knowledge it produces requires new ways of knowing. I argue that the key responses to that imbrication, broadly conceptualized as an ‘ethics of care’, should be expanded into an ‘ethics of futurity’, given the affordances of the networked image. I conclude by pointing to how a practice of futurity for digital photographic archives is concerned not just with domiciliation but with the archival imaginary of a post-digital era. Full article
20 pages, 3074 KB  
Article
From Craft to Code and Back: Biodegradable Polyester, Institutional Co-Design, and Garment Practice in Nishijin Weaving
by Kaori Ueda
Arts 2026, 15(2), 34; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15020034 - 5 Feb 2026
Viewed by 445
Abstract
Nishijin weaving in Kyoto developed as a luxury textile for kimono, yet sustaining the district requires expansion toward contemporary apparel and markets. Within a silk-centred culture and quality regime, polyester has been adopted as a versatile option, and its use has increased, especially [...] Read more.
Nishijin weaving in Kyoto developed as a luxury textile for kimono, yet sustaining the district requires expansion toward contemporary apparel and markets. Within a silk-centred culture and quality regime, polyester has been adopted as a versatile option, and its use has increased, especially for kimono-related products, partly because its filament form can substitute for silk and fit existing processes. From this trajectory, we explore a craft–code–craft pathway by integrating a biodegradable polyester grade into Nishijin’s code-based Jacquard production (CGS). Through practice-based research, we trace how design intent is encoded (Houdini → CGS → Jacquard) and how shop-floor constraints reconfigure design (Jacquard → CGS → Houdini), revealing institutional constraints that shape which materials become usable. We report three case studies: (A) 3D woven structures informed by pleat parameterisation, (B) a zero-waste garment using a 25 cm repeat logic, and (C) a fashion show that makes translation processes legible to the public in an exhibition context. While biodegradable polyester can fit existing infrastructure, apparel-grade warp use remains under development due to warping and warp-joining requirements; yarn specifications and design parameters are being revised. By foregrounding translation across tools, roles, and standards, the study proposes pathways for material transition and circularity within a craft system. Full article
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17 pages, 1065 KB  
Article
It’s a Toyland!: Examining the Science Experience in Interactive Science Galleries
by Akvile Terminaite
Arts 2026, 15(1), 24; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15010024 - 21 Jan 2026
Viewed by 858
Abstract
Interactive science galleries have transformed how the public engages with science, shifting from object-centred displays to immersive, design-led experiences. This study situates these changes within broader cultural and economic contexts, exploring how design mediates our understanding of science and reflects neoliberal and experiential [...] Read more.
Interactive science galleries have transformed how the public engages with science, shifting from object-centred displays to immersive, design-led experiences. This study situates these changes within broader cultural and economic contexts, exploring how design mediates our understanding of science and reflects neoliberal and experiential values. Using archival research, qualitative interviews with museum professionals, and reflective practice, the research examines the evolution of interactive science spaces at the Science Museum in London—The Children’s Gallery, Launch Pad, and Wonderlab. The findings reveal that exhibition design increasingly prioritises entertainment, immersion, and pleasure, aligning with the rise in the experience economy and the influence of corporate models such as Disneyland. While such strategies enhance visitor engagement and accessibility, they risk simplifying complex scientific narratives and reducing learning to consumption. The study concludes that effective science communication design should balance enjoyment with critical inquiry, using both comfort and discomfort to foster curiosity, reflection, and ethical awareness. By analysing design’s role in shaping the “science experience”, this research contributes to understanding how cultural institutions can create more nuanced, thought-provoking encounters between audiences, knowledge, and space. Full article
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15 pages, 5093 KB  
Article
Presencing Echoes in the Archive: Material Voices Through Space and Time
by Linh S. Nguyen and Elena Russo
Arts 2026, 15(1), 15; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15010015 - 12 Jan 2026
Viewed by 615
Abstract
This article presences the material entanglements of analog and digital archives through a workshop-based inquiry titled “Collaging Echoes and Resonances Across Space/Time”, which applied Annie Goh’s question of whether echoes can claim a voice of their own to objects. In this session, participants [...] Read more.
This article presences the material entanglements of analog and digital archives through a workshop-based inquiry titled “Collaging Echoes and Resonances Across Space/Time”, which applied Annie Goh’s question of whether echoes can claim a voice of their own to objects. In this session, participants collectively collaged with imprints of meaningful objects diffracted through materials like paint, tape, etc., and with the objects themselves. Group discussions yielded key considerations that we examine in the context of archiving. These include understanding materials in relation to the structures that shape the formation of their echoes; tracing how echoes may evolve into unrecognizable forms; and how iterative threads of meaning across ongoing interactions act upon each other in non-linear time. As the digital archive becomes increasingly prominent, these questions help to frame implications across archival formats to better understand the relationships between iterations of an item and the containers in which it is held, furthering the conceptualization of a posthuman archive. This paper applies new materialist perspectives of knowledge to history and archiving through an arts-based approach, offering a novel entry point to understanding archival echoes. It will interest scholars and/or practitioners in history, curation, and museum studies, enriching criticality in how knowledge is enacted in the material. Full article
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12 pages, 2357 KB  
Article
Holy AI? Unveiling Magical Images via Photogrammetry
by Katerina Athanasopoulou
Arts 2026, 15(1), 5; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15010005 - 1 Jan 2026
Viewed by 1497
Abstract
Recent text-to-image AI systems have revived the long-standing fantasy of the image that appears to generate itself. Building on Chesher and Albarrán-Torres’s concept of ‘autolography’, this article situates contemporary AI-generated imagery within a longer lineage of self-generating images that extends from religious acheiropoieta [...] Read more.
Recent text-to-image AI systems have revived the long-standing fantasy of the image that appears to generate itself. Building on Chesher and Albarrán-Torres’s concept of ‘autolography’, this article situates contemporary AI-generated imagery within a longer lineage of self-generating images that extends from religious acheiropoieta (‘not made by hand’) through photography to computational image-making. Through the lens of Practice-as-Research (PaR), it positions digital photogrammetry as a knowledge ground in which the fantasy of the self-generating image continues to perform the faith structures of earlier visual cultures. Drawing on photogrammetric experiments originating within Lisbon’s Church of São Domingos in 2018, this article examines unexpected artifacts—ghosts, smears, and fragmentations—that emerge from movement, and reveal the body of the researcher in the centre. It argues that such digital ‘miracle’ images function as contingent, embodied events, and renders visible the labour, presence, and gestures typically erased by automated systems. It playfully proposes the ‘cheiropoieton’ (‘made by hand’) as an embodied counter-ethics to autolography, insisting on friction, care, and accountability in contemporary image-making. Full article
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14 pages, 3096 KB  
Article
Reimagining Aesthetics and Labor in the Japanese Manga Industry: A Case Study of Arts-Based Research at Artist Village Aso 096k
by Anju Kinoshita
Arts 2025, 14(6), 171; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts14060171 - 10 Dec 2025
Viewed by 1143
Abstract
This study examines how hand-drawn comics became a site of critical and creative resistance during fieldwork at Artist Village Aso 096k in rural Japan. The international artists in residence initially came to learn about the professional environment of the Japanese manga (comics) industry [...] Read more.
This study examines how hand-drawn comics became a site of critical and creative resistance during fieldwork at Artist Village Aso 096k in rural Japan. The international artists in residence initially came to learn about the professional environment of the Japanese manga (comics) industry and to publish original works. However, the corporate-led system revealed barriers that constrained their early careers. In response, I employed Arts-Based Research (ABR) to invite the artists to create comics by hand, in contrast to the digital tools central to their daily workflow. This shift from digital to material practice foregrounded the affective and epistemological potentials of slowness, irrevocability, and embodied storytelling. The analog process functioned not only as an introspective tool for artists but also as a form of care that resisted the restrictive logic of Japan’s immigration policy. I argue that reflective drawing, as a situated and material practice, provides new ways of navigating social precarity. By centering comics as a research method, this study calls for renewed attention to the ethics and politics of artistic labor—particularly for international artists whose social and economic stability is increasingly threatened by xenophobic discourse. Full article
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17 pages, 3683 KB  
Essay
Worldbuilding with Drawing and Words, an ‘Unproductive’ Counter to the Consumer-Driven, Extractive Models in Higher Education and the Cultural and Creative Industries
by Alexandra Antonopoulou and Eleanor Dare
Arts 2026, 15(2), 27; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15020027 - 2 Feb 2026
Viewed by 848
Abstract
Antonopoulou and Dare’s ongoing collaborative projects (Phi Books 2008: ongoing; Digital Dreamhacker 2013: ongoing) enact an open-ended, experimental set of slow ‘Fictioning’ practices and actions that involve performing, diagramming, or assembling to create or anticipate new modes of existence. In this paper, the [...] Read more.
Antonopoulou and Dare’s ongoing collaborative projects (Phi Books 2008: ongoing; Digital Dreamhacker 2013: ongoing) enact an open-ended, experimental set of slow ‘Fictioning’ practices and actions that involve performing, diagramming, or assembling to create or anticipate new modes of existence. In this paper, the authors use the visual essay form to evidence how their daily practices of drawing, writing, and exchanging, position art and the artist. These practices unfold without, in this case, the utilitarian, economic, and epistemic priorities and systems of reductive representation which underpin the extractive models of Generative AI and other ‘innovative’ intermediaries, systems which expedite content and regulate consumption in the cultural and creative industries and in ‘arts and humanities’ education. Focusing on their creative practices, Antonopoulou and Dare reposition commodified notions of productivity, creativity, and innovation, seeking what Haraway describes as a way ‘of making, thinking and worlding’ beyond the neoliberal imperatives of extracting profit from labour. Positioned within an era of escalating precarity combined with ecological and political instability driven by extractive colonialism, the temporality of collaboration and drawing over decades is proposed as an act of material resistance to art’s subsumption into the venture capitalist hype cycles. Such cycles are associated with an accelerating array of crises, discussed here. Full article
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