Extreme Presence: a weekend on technology, consciousness and devotion

Hartwig Art Foundation, 23-25 October 2026.
Curated by Lucia Pietroiusti in collaboration with Memory Gems (Leonardo Dellanoce, Arthur Steiner)
More info / tickets →

With Christopher Kulendran Thomas, Lukáš Likavčan, Mark Leckey, Lawrence Lek, Taylor Le Melle, Prathima Muniyappa, Holly Pester, Ariana Reines, Marilou Schultz, Jeremy Shaw and more. Scroll down for the schedule.

Courtesy of Mark Leckey

Extreme Presence gathers artists, thinkers and technologists to ask: what forms does presence take when the world and its technologies exceed what can be explained, known, or felt? Following the Art in the Metaverse and Digital Cosmos conferences (2024–2025), Extreme Presence continues and expands the research and development activities of the future Hartwig Museum, investigating the influence of theology in contemporary art and digital technology, alongside ecological practices that have long centred presence and relation. 

Extreme Presence responds to a current ‘devotional turn’: a renewed engagement with forms of mysticism and contemplative traditions in the face of planetary complexity and technological acceleration. How are these frameworks shaping the technologies we build and inhabit today, and what futures do they make intelligible, or imaginable?  

 Sessions will explore questions including: 

- The influence of mystical and spiritual traditions on contemporary practices in advanced computing and artificial intelligence; 
- Philosophies and ethics of interrelation, and what kinds of technologies can be built on different foundations; 
- Contemplative practices and non-human consciousness; 
- Technologies of cultivation: artistic Research and Development across education, incubation and museum infrastructures. 

Participants include researcher Haley Albert, curator and writer Daniel Blanga Gubbay, Analogue founder Aishwarya Khanduja, artist Christopher Kulendran Thomas, philosopher Lukáš Likavčan, artist Mark Leckey, artist Sammy Lee, artist Lawrence Lek, writer Taylor Le Melle, artist Xin Liu, philosopher Fainos Mangena, Restless Egg co-founder William Morgan, conservationist and designer Prathima Muniyappa, poet Holly Pester, poet Ariana Reines, writer Aliya Say, artist Marilou Schultz, artist Jeremy Shaw, publisher and writer Sarah Shin, curator and writer Lua Vollaard, alongside online and film contributions by artist Liu Chuang, scholar Bogna Konior, games designer Elizabeth LaPensée, artist Tabita Rezaire, writer Sumana Roy, and more.  

"Extreme Presence marks a significant moment in the development of Hartwig Museum's future research capabilities, ahead of our opening in 2028. It strengthens our commitment to working with artists and practitioners beyond disciplines as research partners. As such, it continues Hartwig Art Foundation’s multi-year investigation into the intersections of art and advanced technology and what museum infrastructures can meaningfully sustain them." –Beatrix Ruf, Director Hartwig Art Foundation 

Spread across three locations in Amsterdam Zuid—Hartwig Proxy (Parnassusweg 213), Cinema The Pulse, (Hildegard Von Bingenstraat 4) and the newly opened pop-up space Parnassus212 (Parnassusweg 212)—the programme combines plenary talks, performances, screenings and workshops. Programme components can be attended individually.

Programme

Friday 23 October

• 4 – 5 p.m. at Cinema The Pulse
  Screening: Liu Chuang, Wet Metal and Cotton Dance (2025), 45 minutes. Commissioned by the Uzbekistan Arts and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF) for the 2025 Bukhara Biennial. In collaboration with the Bakhor State Dance Ensemble named after MukarramTurgunbaeva and the Memorial House Museum of Tamara Khanum. Two analysts diagnose embodied AI suffering breakdown from interstellar mining, healing them through the 1933 Cotton Dance. Cold War cotton harvesters, boll weevils, and Aral Sea ecology fuse into a speculative creation myth where ritual meets technology. 

• 6 – 9 p.m. at Hartwig Proxy
  Welcome by Beatrix Ruf and introduction to Extreme Presence by Lucia Pietroiusti
  Book launch & lecture-performance: Mirror Tarot: A Machine for Constructing Stories (Silver Press) with Sarah Shin and Sammy Lee. Spanning game, ritual and performance, Mirror Tarot is a tool for play, divination and worldmaking.
  Devotional Technologies, with Bogna Konior*, Lawrence Lek and Lukáš Likavčan. A series of presentations and conversations on theology, mysticism and Artificial Intelligence: is there a devotional turn in art and technology?  

Saturday 24 October

• 11 a.m. – 12.30 p.m. at Hartwig Proxy
  Welcome by Beatrix Ruf
  Presentations and conversation: Technologies of Being, with Prathima Muniyappa, Sumana Roy*, Jeremy Shaw and Aliya Say, moderated by Lucia Pietroiusti.  
  On contemplative practices and non-human consciousness in plant worlds and cosmic space.  

• 2 – 3.30 p.m. at Hartwig Proxy
  Presentations and conversation: Technologies of Interrelation, with Elizabeth LaPensée*, Fainos Mangena, Marilou Schultz and Lua Vollaard, moderated by Diana Campbell.
  On philosophies and ethics of interrelation, and what kinds of technologies can be built on different foundations.

• 4 – 6 p.m. at Cinema The Pulse
  Screening: Jeremy Shaw, Quantification Trilogy (Quickeners, 2014; Liminals, 2017; I Can See Forever, 2018), total running time 1 hr 52 minutes. Introduced by the artist.  

  Three parafictional short films set at in the future. Set 500 years from now, Quickeners presents the activities and testimonies of a small group of “Quantum Humans,” exhibiting symptoms of “Human Atavism Syndrome”, which awakens desire in the affected to seek out the abandoned spiritual meaning of their human predecessors. Liminals is presented as a recovered episode of a documentary series on marginal societies who respond to a widespread loss of ability for faith that threatens the extinction of the human species. I Can See Forever is conceived as a television documentary series about “The Singularity Project,” a failed government experiment that aimed to create a harmonious synthesis of human and machine. 

• 7 – 8 p.m. at Cinema The Pulse
  Lecture-performance: Mark Leckey, Batter My ❤️ 3-Personed G0D.
  Leckey’s performance-lecture begins with a Medieval prophesy and ends with the high dimensional realm we are about to enter. It threads together apocalyptic visions, the 20th century counterculture, Y2K and the singularity.

Sunday 25 October

• 11 a.m. – 12.30 p.m. at Hartwig Proxy
  Welcome by Beatrix Ruf. Presentations and conversation: Prophetic Technologies, with Daniel Blanga Gubbay, Mark Leckey and Christopher Kulendran Thomas, moderated by Ivan Cheng.
  On art, medieval entities and autonomous technologies.

• 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. and 3 – 5 p.m. at Parnassus 212
  Weaving workshop with Marilou Schultz.
  For participants 13 years and older. Booking required.
  This hands-on weaving workshop brings together centuries-old weaving techniques with contemporary technology and formal experimentation.

• 2 – 3.30 p.m. at Hartwig Proxy
  Presentations and conversation: Technologies of Cultivation, with Haley Albert, Xin Liu, William Morgan and Aishwarya Khanduja, moderated by Leonardo Dellanoce and Arthur Steiner.
  On what it takes to grow and sustain flourishing ecosystems for artistic R&D.

• 4 – 5 p.m. at Cinema The Pulse
  Screening: Tabita Rezaire, Mamelles Ancestrales (2019), 61 minutes, with an artist introduction*
  Megaliths are ancient stone monuments, often in the form of a circle, and are found all over the world. In The Gambia and Senegal, they are seen as shrines, reminding the locals of the rich cultures that existed in the region before it was colonised. Mamelles Ancestrales takes us to the core of the debate about the search for knowledge about these structures. Should scientific explanations get priority over spiritual or cultural interpretations? 

• 6 – 9 p.m. at Hartwig Proxy
  An Evening of Extreme Presence, with Taylor Le Melle, Holly Pester and Ariana Reines. Live readings of poetry and fiction on technology, health, sensuality and devotion  

Wednesday 14 – Sunday 25 October

During public opening hours at Hartwig Proxy (free)
Extreme Presence short films programme: a selection of films and videos by artists.

* Denotes online participation