Politics of the Machines (POM) continues to grow as a distributed international platform for critical discourse and interdisciplinary collaboration across the sciences and the arts. As the POM conference expands to new geographies and editions, its organizing model is broadening to include a larger network of contributors responding to ongoing developments in technology, science, art, and society. We are happy to announce new board members and expanded boards that will support the platform’s editorial and research activities. To maintain a clear organizational structure and ensure effective collaboration, we keep the core organizing workforce relatively small. Additionally, we have included a group of experts who can advise the organizing boards and assist with specific tasks when needed..
Expansion of the General Board
The General Board, originally composed of Laura Beloff, Hassan Choubassi, and Joe Elias, now welcomes two new members: Hege Tapio and G Douglas Barrett.
Hege Tapio is a Norwegian artist, curator, and researcher whose work operates at the intersection of art, technology, biology, and the life sciences. Through speculative artistic research and transdisciplinary projects, her work examines the political, ethical, and affective dimensions of emerging techno-biological systems. As founder and artistic director of i/o/lab Center for Future Art, Tapio has played an important role in developing art and science collaborations and bioart discourse in Norway and across the Nordic region.
G Douglas Barrett is a media theorist, scholar, and artist whose research examines contemporary art and experimental music in relation to media technologies, political economy, and critical theory. Author of Experimenting the Human: Art, Music, and the Contemporary Posthuman and After Sound: Toward a Critical Music, Barrett brings a strong background in media theory, sound studies, and artistic research. He is currently Assistant Professor in the TV, Radio, and Film department at Syracuse University.
A Newly Formed Editorial Board
POM has also established a new Editorial Board responsible for coordinating the editorial direction of the platform and its conference editions.
The Editorial Board welcomes Cynthia Blanchette and Claudio Filho, and its work is coordinated by Hassan Choubassi, who continues to serve as a member of the General Board.
Cynthia Blanchette is a Canadian artist researcher based in Finland and a doctoral researcher at Aalto University. Her work explores the intersections of art, science, and technology through bioart, sculpture, and research driven artistic practice, often engaging craft traditions and healthcare contexts to examine human technological evolution.
Claudio Filho is an artist researcher working across art, ecology, and technology, with a particular focus on biological arts, artificial intelligence, and nonhuman agencies. His research proposes what he describes as an ecosystemic turn in artistic practice, examining how living and technological systems co compose artistic processes within broader ecological frameworks.
Editorial Deputies
To support the editorial work of each conference edition, POM has created a new extended board called Editorial Deputies.
This group assists the Editorial Board with editorial tasks and research challenges that emerge across different editions of the conference.
The Editorial Deputies include Alessio Chierico, Grégoire Rousseau, together with Laura Beloff and Joe Elias from the General Board.
Alessio Chierico is an interdisciplinary scholar and artist whose research focuses on digital culture, media aesthetics, and the critical study of technological media. Grégoire Rousseau is an artist and researcher exploring digital commoning practices and experimental radio cultures.
Expert Advisors
POM introduces an extended network of Expert Advisors, a group of artists, researchers, scientists and theorists who may be consulted depending on the thematic focus and needs of each conference edition.
The Expert Advisors include Adam Zaretsky, a bioartist working with biotechnology and experimental laboratory practices; Angela Ferraiolo, a computational artist exploring behavioral AI, adaptive systems, and emergent forms of intelligence; Barbara Gabriella Renzi, an interdisciplinary researcher examining philosophy, machine ethics, and technological imaginaries; Filippo Rosati, a researcher and curator working across art, science, and emerging technologies; Kanad Chakrabarti, an artist and AI researcher investigating the long term futures of biological life in worlds shaped by advanced artificial intelligence; Miguel Carvalhais, a professor and researcher in computational aesthetics and sound art; Renzo Filinich, a media artist investigating sound, perception, and cosmotechnics; Shintaro Miyazaki, a professor researching digital media and computation with a focus on the cultural and theoretical implications of algorithmic systems; Tomi Slotte Dufva, an artist and educator researching post digital art, culture, and education; and Yizhen Jia, a philosopher examining the attention economy and ecological relations between digital systems and society.
Continuing a Distributed Platform
With this expanded structure, POM is developing its worldwide network of collaborators across disciplines and geographies. By opening up and extending its boards and advisory networks, POM follows its commitment of fostering rigorous conversations on how technology shapes culture, politics, humans and the planet. We hope that the new structure keeps POM a space where artists, researchers, and thinkers can continue to explore and discuss how machines, living systems, and society evolve together.