Artificial Territories

[FUTURE] TERRITORIES

Remembering the Future

[FUTURE] TERRITORIES is the 2026 edition of [...]TERRITORIES, Das LOT’s transmedia exhibition dedicated to interactive, performative and digital artistic practices. Following [LUDIC] TERRITORIES (2024) and [ARTIFICIAL] TERRITORIES (2025), this edition does not aim to predict the future, but to question how it is imagined, designed, governed and inhabited now.

The exhibition approaches the future as already present, embedded in infrastructures, encoded in technologies, rehearsed through speculative systems and experienced through bodies, environments and emotions.

Curatorial Focus
Territory today extends far beyond land and borders. It emerges through Post-geographical territories, data flows, virtual commons, algorithmic borders and AI-driven governance, ecological and beyond-human thresholds, speculative infrastructures and embodied interaction. These territories are unstable, porous and often invisible.

Rather than treating the future as a distant or dystopian horizon, the exhibition approaches it as a memory in formation in the here and now. Interaction not only as a playful gadget but as a political and emancipatory act in the face of big tech: a way of entering territory, crossing thresholds and regaining agency in times of passive consumption.

What We Are Looking For
For [FUTURE] TERRITORIES, ECHOLOT and NODE Media Lab conceive the exhibition as a shared experimental ground rather than a static display. The exhibition space itself becomes a living territory, one that is entered, navigated, activated and continuously reshaped by its visitors.

We invite artists working with interactive, performative, and transmedia practices to submit works that actively engage audiences through participation, physical interaction, and responsive systems.

We are particularly interested in works that:

Treat technology as a cultural and social condition, not just a tool
Embrace speculation, uncertainty, and experimentation
Activate the body, senses, and emotions
Invite audiences to feel and inhabit future scenarios, rather than observe them.

Submissions may include physical, digital, hybrid, performative, or generative works. Completed works and site-responsive proposals are welcome.

HARDFACTS

Deadline for Application: 15.03.2026

Applications via Google Form: Link

Public Kick-Off Meeting incl. Q&A:

Exhibition: 07.05. - 10.05.2026

OPENCALL

THE FORMAT

[FUTURE] TERRITORIES

Connect and Play

“It’s like a mini Ars Electronica,
just a little cozier and here in Vienna.”

- Visitor of Ludic Territories

//WHAT:

In contrast to our ARTWALK, a transdisciplinary project outside, we curate a transmedia group exhibition inside of Das LOT, featuring exclusively interactive artworks blending art and science. [...] TERRITORIES retains its first editions concept of "ludic art," emphasizing playfulness, interactivity, and audience engagement. In this form, the lines between artist, artwork, and audience blur, encouraging participation and exploration. The last edition focused on Artificial Intelligence.

//WHY:

As Big Tech and established mass media significantly control the aesthetic flow of information, we are increasingly moving away from the true emotional effect of the content we encounter. These “intermediaries”, driven by algorithms, marketing strategies, and commercial interests, often dictate what we see, hear, and experience. [...] TERRITORIES represents the bold attempt to bypass these intermediaries and restore a direct connection between the audience and the medium. In doing so, we encourage visitors to explore, experiment, and marvel - an effective antidote to the passive consumption of information and art characteristic of the digital age. Last but not least [...] TERRITORIES is one of the rare spaces showcasing new media works in Vienna.

//HOW:

Most of the exhibited pieces come to life only through active audience interaction. For the duration of the exhibition Das LOT completely transforms into a dark labyrinth to be explored: reminiscent of a computer's main board, creating as many differing corners, and angles and perspectives for experiencing the artworks.

//LUDIC, ARTIFICIAL & FUTURE:
Each issue has its own focus. Last year's issues concentrated on ludic art: “[LUDIC] TERRITORIES,” and artificial intelligence: “[ARTIFICIAL] TERRITORIES.” This year's issue focuses on the future with “[FUTURE] TERRITORIES.”

THE FORMAT

[ARTIFICIAL] TERRITORIES

Transmedia Exhibition - Connect and Play

“It's your fiction that interests me. Your studies of the interplay of human motives and emotion.” ― Isaac Asimov, I, Robot