subnetAIR 2025

Niloufar Shirani works at the intersection of art, science, and materiality. She combines ancient Persian mythology with contemporary media such as video, sound, and digital data. Craft materials like porcelain become carriers of memory, knowledge, and biological impermanence.

The starting point of Niloufar Shirani’s residency was her project Sahoog/Rudiment, which deals with decay and stillness – a dark, weighty work. For subnetAIR, she aimed to create a counterpoint exploring movement, sunlight, collaboration, and networks.

SubnetAIR was Niloufar Shirani’s first touchpoint with the Center for Human Computer Interaction (HCI). For several weeks, she traveled between Munich and Salzburg. For her, the journey was not a chore but an inspiring part of the process, fostering creative exchange and the development of her multilayered work.

Since being diagnosed with a progressive neurological and a rare muscular disease, Bennetts has focused on topics such as  wellness, health, body data and emerging technologies. During her residency in Salzburg, Amanda explores traditional alpine cures such as Kneipp or Radon therapy and their transition into a modern age.

During her residency in Salzburg, Bennetts also created a video project centered on the exoskeleton she uses due to her diseases. Originally designed for elite athletes and marketed through hyper-masculine performance narratives, the device becomes in her work a tool for everyday mobility. The project critically examines biohacking and our urge to optimize the body, blurring boundaries between care, technology, and enhancement.

SubnetAIR is not Bennetts’ first residency in Austria. She values the opportunity to deeply engage with the place, meet other artists, and understand how different cultures interpret and experience health, care, and well-being.

Alexandra Reichart and Matthias Krauß understand their collaboration as something that exceeds their individual artistic practices. Together, they create a shared artistic language that neither would develop alone. Their immersive installations merge technical systems, craft, and performance, inviting audiences to rethink established perceptions of art, technology, and human interaction.

Luminous Touch explores human touch in novel ways. Two suits equipped with joysticks, LEDs, and vibration motors allow performers and audiences to control light, sound, and touch. Each contact is amplified, playfully exploring intimacy, boundaries, and shared sensory experiences.

Alexandra Reichart and Matthias Krauß value the residency format for giving them the time and space to focus deeply on a single theme. The experience is intensive and demanding, pushing them to experiment and collaborate in new ways, while also allowing encounters with fresh ideas, people, and perspectives that expand their artistic practice.

For years, Stefanie Schröder has explored precarious working conditions in the cultural sector and the societal impact of technological change. She also examines phenomena such as clickwork and digital micro-labour. Her projects combine documentary research with self-reflection and experimental uses of photography and film.

In Salzburg, Stefanie Schröder focuses on the precarious work of app-workers who are sent through the city to check supermarkets, billboards, or gas stations. Using low-tech mobile devices and augmented reality tools, she follows these routes and complements her recordings with interviews with other micro-workers.