An art series by
Sylvia Eckermann and Gerald Nestler
The Future of Demonstration is an art series that explores the aesthetic, technological, pedagogical, and political potentials offered by the term demonstration. Artists, activists, architects, philosophers, scientists and contributors from other fields jointly explore new forms, intensities and consequences of collective practice and activate sensing and sense-making as modes of resolution. With this postdisciplinary approach we aim to reimagine, weave, share and demonstrate narratives, techniques and affiliations of resistance.
To this end, we work with a novel techno-ecological format that speculatively reshapes the conception and aesthetics of virtual reality. We intertwine virtual and physical space and replace VR avatar representation with point cloud live-streaming. Thus, the art project is like a membrane through which human and non-human beings can interact and perform with each other from wherever they are.
Season 5 / 2025
A Renegade Lab for Democracy against Technocapitalist Authoritarianism
Art, Tech, Ecology and Politics.
Collaborations and conversations with activists, practitioners and thinkers from around the world.
3D point cloud live sharing, installations, performances, sound, discourse, workshops.
On site and live-streamed.
September 12—October 4, 2025
Atelier Augarten, Scherzergasse 1A, 1020 Wien.
| HOTHOUSE. The Future of Demonstration. Season 5 A project by Sylvia Eckermann and Gerald Nestler in cooperation with  Heinrich Böll Foundation - Global Unit for Human Security The Lisbon Architecture Triennale Tactical Tech, Berlin Technopolitics, Vienna |
Season 4 / 2024
MAIN LINK«Like a Ray in Search of its Mirror», evokes the emergence of a new understanding of interconnectedness. What we call artist-as-collective is a more-than-human association to explore the resourceful potency of our myriad ecological, social, cultural, and technological relationships.
Immersed in planetary matter a new world is unfolding. Can you already feel the ecstatic sensation of alien copresence?
«Like a Ray in Search of its Mirror» brought together artists, scientists and philosophers to explore ecological futures, the role of AI and possible forms of resistance. To include contributors from around the world, we co-developed point cloud video sharing. This real-time medium allows us to replace conventional avatars and reimagine VR as a medium for planetary collaboration. Its unique aesthetic and discursive potentials allow participants to interact and perform live, both on-site and in VR, via holographic video and point cloud projection.
After the performance, the mixed reality art project was turned into an immersive installation and exhibited for the duration of donaufestival.
| Performance | April 19 2024, 18:00 | |
| Exhibition | April 20–28, 2024 | |
| Venue | Forum Frohner Krems, Austria donaufestival |
Season 3 / 2023
MAIN LINK«Planetary Skins», the third season of The Future of Demonstration, addressed the materiality of the real and the digital. Responding to interconnected phenomena – evoked by layers of technological advancements as well as social and ecological crises across the globe – tha art project was a laboratory for new forms of ecologically, socially, and artistically engaged collective practice.
| Performance | May 27 2023, 19:00 | |
| Exhibition | May 28–June 3, 2023 | |
| Venue | Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman Innsbruck, Austria HEART OF NOISE 2023 |
The first two seasons of The Future of Demonstration, conceived by Eckermann and Nestler in collaboration with Maximilian Thoman, were realised as the Media Art Festival of the City of Vienna in 2017 and 2018. Based on the leitmotifs VERMÖGEN and PASSION, its eight episodes engaged with today's massive transformations in the ecological, technopolitical, economic and cultural spheres.
Season 1 / 2017
| Date | October 31–November 11, 2018 | |
| Venue | REAKTOR Vienna, Austria MAIN LINK |
Episode 4
LIVERATION. PROMETHEUS DELIVERED
An Environment of Living Cells, Voices, Soundscapes, Text, Bodies and Distillation Processes giving birth to a Conceptual Narration on Biotechnological DivinationLINK