Interactive AI installation Model Collapse travels from Tetem to Ars Electronica Festival 2025
Following a successful presentation at Tetem in Enschede, Model Collapse, the interactive installation by Cyanne van den Houten and Ymer Marinus, is traveling to the leading Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria. Model Collapse can be experienced from September 3 to 7 at POSTCITY Linz as part of the festival’s main program.
Cybersculptures and the landscape of AI
Model Collapse is an immersive installation in which visitors engage in conversation with a collection of cybersculptures, each with its own algorithmic character. By entering a question via a central interface, visitors activate a local AI that determines where they are in the digital landscape. A sculpture that matches the question awakens and shares its perspective.
The sculptures tell stories about the origins and impact of generative AI, offering a counterpoint to dominant computational ideologies. Themes such as gender bias, colonial structures, ecological impact, and non-Western knowledge are addressed. The installation poses questions rather than providing answers, inviting visitors to examine their own position within the system in which AI is created.
From Tetem to Europe
Model Collapse was developed in 2024–2025 as part of Tetem‘s Nexus program, where it was part of the Mediated Reality exhibition series. Creators Cyanne van den Houten and Ymer Marinus together form the media art collective Telemagic, which experiments with generative systems, speculative technology, and alternative interfaces.
The invitation to participate in Ars Electronica is an important step in their international practice, in which they view AI not as a neutral tool, but as a system full of choices, assumptions, and consequences. By combining interactive aesthetics and critical reflection, Model Collapse shows that technology can also confuse, alienate, and surprise.
Photography: Aysee Photography, Tessa Wiegerinck
