Hacking the Body as a Black Box: From the Odalisque to Sexbots and Beyond

Presented in the context of The Artistic Research Lecture Series — PhD in Practice programme.

Venue: UMAK (Universität Mozarteum am Kurgarten)
Schwarzstraße 36
Seminar Room 2.18

How can we reclaim the body in a landscape increasingly contaminated by AI hype? Can technology still become an ally in bringing us back in touch with each other and ourselves, beyond predictability and disembodied interaction? From the Orientalist fantasies embodied by the Odalisque to contemporary AI-driven sexbots, this lecture traces how colonial and patriarchal imaginaries continue to shape representations of the female body through what I refer to as probabilistic intimacy: systems that simulate desire, consent, and care through prediction rather than embodied experience. Grounded in extractivism, invisible labour, embedded biases, surveillance, and governance, these representations increasingly affect perception, intimacy, agency, and consent while reducing experience to probabilistic simulation. In response, I propose the body as a “black box”—both an artistic strategy and a critical lens—working with its indeterminacy to reclaim embodied perception and situated experience.

The Artistic Research Lecture Series explores diverse perspectives and methodologies within the field of artistic research. Invited speakers—artist-researchers and scholars from adjacent fields—present their work and engage in discussions on how artistic processes generate knowledge. The series serves as a forum for critical discourse on artistic research, both within and beyond the university.