EKA team at the Ars Electronica campus exhibition

House of Negotiated Selves
Estonian Academy of Arts (EE)
Ars Electronica campus exhibition
Linz University of the Arts, Hauptplatz 8 (West Building)

House of Negotiated Selves explores the boundary between human autonomy and machine representation. As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly prevalent in mediating and shaping our interactions, creation, and decision-making, there is a constant negotiation taking place.

In response to the 2026 theme “NEGOTIATING HUMANITY – THE FUTURE BEGINS”, House of Negotiated Selves frames this negotiation as an embodied experience. Through the metaphor of the distorted mirrors of an amusement park, our own reflections appear similar, but ultimately deceive us. The installation asks when our reflection becomes a substitute and when a machine begins to speak for us.

Visitors enter a world where their presence is perceived and interpreted. At first, the system seems to be a mirror of their true selves and presence. Gradually, the reflection begins to wander, predicting, distorting, and misrepresenting the visitor. What begins as recognition becomes ambiguity and displacement. Rather than correcting one form of distortion, the work allows it to emerge, revealing to the visitor a disturbing experience of representation that no longer belongs to them.

House of Negotiating Selves explores AI-mediated representation and the erosion of human agency. Situated at the intersection of interaction design, critical AI research, and sensory art, the project translates an abstract discussion into a tangible experience that is not about what AI is, but rather how it will come to represent us, whether we agree with it or not.

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DANUBEN TRIANGLE

This year’s Ars Electronica team (Product Design + ixd students):

Paula Jürgens
Martin Orav
Tõnis Bender (IXD)
Kulla Kangur
Anett Elis Männil
Carina Schipai
Hendra Raud (IXD)
Sara De Simone (IXD)
Paul Pank
Markus Hunt
Gustav Villem Kalberg

Supervisors: Carol Tikerperi and Bob Bicknell-Knight

Support and assistance: Björn Koop, Kätlin Leokin, Kaspar Pulk

Photos: Tõnis Bender