This presentation highlights recent work and looks at ongoing projects concerned with the materiality of abstraction. There is a particular focus on artificial neural networks and so-called latent spaces in AI. Latent spaces—high-dimensional representational manifolds learned during model training—encode properties that directly influence outputs and, by extension, shape what we experience as AI.
We ask whether these abstract configuration spaces can be read not merely as mathematical systems, but as complex sites or interiors. This direction is explored in “Latent Spacecraft: Brains, GANs, Finnegans” (2026), developed as a close collaboration with Nina Beguš, Gašper Beguš, and Riccardo Petrini for the Antikythera journal. The piece draws parallels between generative adversarial networks (GANs) and James Joyce’s novel Finnegans Wake.
Metahaven, The Feeling Sonnets (Transitional Object), 2024. Single-channel film work
Metahaven, The Feeling Sonnets (Transitional Object), 2024. Single-channel film work
Metahaven, The Feeling Sonnets (Transitional Object), 2024. Single-channel film work
Metahaven, The Feeling Sonnets (Transitional Object), 2024. Single-channel film work
Nina Beguš, Metahaven, and Gašper Beguš with Metahaven and Riccardo Petrini, Latent Spacecraft: Brains, GANs, Finnegans, 2026
Metahaven
Future Fragments
The event is supported by the Embassy of the Netherlands.