Welcome to FeralAIR
Feral Labs Artist in Residence Program at Schmiede Hallein (AT)FeralAIR 2025
Welcome to Rewilding Culture's residency program at Schmiede Hallein. Please scroll through the documentation to learn more about Rewilding Cultures, FeralAIR and its participants.
What is FeralAIR?
FeralAIR is the annual Rewilding Cultures' Artist in Residence Program at Schmiede Hallein.
Rewilding Cultures is a European collective of temporary dislocated hubs for research in art, technology and communities. Activities include various Camps, Artist-In-Residence programs (AIR), conferences, workshops and festivals. In September 2025, FeralAIR took place in Hallein, in close cooperation with the international Schmiede Hallein program.
Rewilding Cultures is co-funded by Creative Europe (European Union), which aims to support European projects in the field of cultural production and innovation and by the Austrian ministry BMKÖS.
Rewilding Cultures is a European collective of temporary dislocated hubs for research in art, technology and communities. Activities include various Camps, Artist-In-Residence programs (AIR), conferences, workshops and festivals. In September 2025, FeralAIR took place in Hallein, in close cooperation with the international Schmiede Hallein program.
Rewilding Cultures is co-funded by Creative Europe (European Union), which aims to support European projects in the field of cultural production and innovation and by the Austrian ministry BMKÖS.
FeralAIR 2025Meet the Artists
Please click on the photos below to learn more about the artists and their projects or continue scrolling.
Julia Vollmer
Artist portraitJulia Vollmer
Julia Vollmer is a media artist currently based in Bremen. In her work, she explores artificial intelligence from multiple perspectives. Combining digital technologies with physical materials, she creates situations in which abstract technological processes become sensorially tangible. Her projects move between research, experimentation, and artistic intervention.
https://juliavollmer.de/
https://juliavollmer.de/
Julia's approach
Julia’s starting point is the observation that AI often appears intangible in everyday life - like a distant, almost immaterial system. At the same time, it has very concrete consequences, such as the globally rising energy consumption it requires. How can this invisible infrastructure be made visible and tangible? How can the material impact of digital processes be translated into physical space? These questions form the core of her current artistic approach.
The project
At Schmiede, Julia is working on a project that makes the energy consumption of AI directly tangible. The waste heat generated by running an AI model is deliberately used - for example, to melt a candle. The seemingly abstract computational process thus leaves a visible, physical trace. In previous works, she has experimented with similar strategies, including building her own heater to artistically transform energy into heat and make it sensorially perceptible.
The residency
For Julia, Schmiede is her first residency. She especially values the diversity of people and ideas that come together here, as well as the intense conversations that emerge from this encounter. The open exchange creates new perspectives and impulses for her work. In the interview, she explains why she wishes the residency lasted longer than just one week.
Paul Takunda Chiwona
Artist portraitPaul Takunda Chiwona
Paul Takunda Chiwona was born in Zimbabwe and grew up in Germany. Working at the intersection of art and science, he engages with questions of colonialism, power, and digital participation. His projects combine artistic practice with analytical reflection, examining how historical and contemporary power structures shape our understanding of knowledge, public space, and technology.
https://paultakundachiwona.de/
https://paultakundachiwona.de/
Paul's approach
In both his artistic and academic work, Paul explores the production of knowledge within the dynamics of power and capitalism. A central concern is how the internet - currently undergoing profound transformation - can become a space that enables genuine participation. What power structures shape the digital public sphere? And how can it be designed in ways that allow access, visibility, and agency for everyone?
The project
The starting point of Paul’s work at Schmiede is an online archive that glorifies the colonial history of present-day Zimbabwe in an almost grotesque manner. His project critically engages with the archive as an interface of knowledge and power, making its implicit ideologies visible. Paul prints selected materials from the archive onto thermal paper and deliberately exposes them to heat and fire. Through this physical intervention, the images and texts are distorted and transformed, becoming newly legible - an artistic gesture that questions the supposed objectivity of the archive.
The residency
What Paul values most about Schmiede is the deliberate break from everyday routines - a working environment free from external pressure and fixed expectations. At the same time, the intensive exchange with other artists is a defining aspect of the residency. The result is an atmosphere that is both open and focused, shaped by playful freedom as well as seriousness and professionalism - a true playground of ideas.
Saskia Freeke
Artist portraitSaskia Freeke
Saskia Freeke is an artist and designer from Amsterdam. She works with interactive installations, generative art, and live coding. In her projects, she combines visual aesthetics with technological precision, creating works that unfold between code, movement, and perception. Her practice operates at the intersection of design, digital culture, and experimental art.
https://sasj.nl/portfolio/
https://sasj.nl/portfolio/
Saskia's approach
In her artistic practice, Saskia engages creatively with technology - particularly with the ways we use it in everyday life. Her approach is often playful and interactive. In recent works, she has focused on the phenomenon of scrolling - a seemingly casual gesture that has become culturally defining in our time.
The project
At Schmiede, Saskia once again explores scrolling as a contemporary cultural technique. A hand movement is captured and mechanically translated by a self-built machine. This movement influences a colorful generative pattern that changes its form in real time. The work makes an everyday digital gesture visible and tangible - evoking curiosity and a sense of wonder in viewers and users alike.
The residency
At Schmiede, Saskia particularly appreciates the creative energy, the shared sense of fun, and the immediate feedback from fellow participants. For her interactive approach, this exchange is especially valuable. In contrast to working alone in the studio - where feedback usually comes only after a project is finished - here a dialogue emerges during the process itself, creating a space of resonance that directly influences the work.
Thank You
Partners & Network
feralAIR is part of Rewilding Cultures. Partners are ART2M / Makery (FR), Bioart Society (FI), Catch (Helsingør Kommune) Centre for Art, Technology and Design (DK), Cultivamos Cultura (PT), Ionian University (GR), Radiona (HR) Schmiede Hallein (AT) und Projekt Atol (SI). The project is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.
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FeralAIR 2025
What is FeralAIR?
Meet the Artists
Julia Vollmer
Julia's approach
The project
The residency
Paul Takunda Chiwona
Paul's approach
The project
The residency
Saskia Freeke
Saskia's approach
The project
The residency