Issue No.  2

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What happens when machines not only create images, but shape realities? When they generate in real time what we see, hear, and perhaps even feel? Under the title CRITICAL INTELLIGENCE—narratives under the machine, the magazine explores the invisible narratives behind AI-generated imagery.
This second edition does not seek smooth answers but looks for cracks and contradictions in the system, bringing together artists who use AI not only asa tool, but as a method of analysis and resistance to expose structures, shift perspectives, and renegotiate the visible. It is a space for friction, an archive of the collective moment, and an invitation to question the narratives “under the machine” before they shape us.
The cover is shaped by Irish conceptual artist Kevin Abosch with an image from his series Civics (2023), synthetic photographs of protests that never took place, suspended between document and fiction, authenticity and manipulation. His manifesto “Neue Realität” echoes through the issue, calling for a radical redefinition of authorship and creativity in the age of AI.
"The idea of critical intelligence is important to me. Not as a fixed skill set, but as a posture—a kind of inner friction. It’s not enough to know how things work; you have to remain alert to how they shape you in return.”—Kevin Abosch
Video: Christoph Grünberger, Sound: Detroit Underground, 2025.
The tools don't care what, who, or why.
Affairs of creation and reception are no longer separate things. They mingle now. Liquid. Unstable. The machine doesn’t wait. It doesn’t sleep. It generates as you watch, as you ask, as you dream. Art isn‘t a static anymore. It’s a current. A process. Sometimes a mistake. Sometimes a surprise. The line between human and tool? Gone. Between creator and viewer? Blurred. Between original and copy? Forgotten. No canvas. No end. Just movement. Just creation. With these thoughts, Christoph Grünberger opens his editorial, welcoming the reader.
"What is real? What is generated? Where is the mask? Where is the face? Look closer, and it shifts again. Truth used to be a question. Now it’s a style."—Christoph Grünberger
Opening contribution by Studio u2p050
The opening contribution
Studio u2p050’s opening contribution situates AI art within the wider genealogy of computational art, highlighting the ambivalence of critique within the very infrastructures it questions. Studio u2p050 first argues that “AI Art” is not an independent, clearly definable category, but must be understood within a longer genealogy of computational art. Artists working with AI today inevitably operate within the same technological, economic, and political infrastructures they critique. This dual embeddedness produces structural ambivalence: one uses and reproduces the very tools, platforms, and systems one seeks to question. As a result, morally “pure” or unequivocal positions are hardly sustainable in this field; instead, critique must learn to navigate a “political latent space” in which complicity and resistance coexist.
A light-hearted quiz by u2p050 invites readers to ask themselves: "What kind of AI art critic am I, really?"
Some call AI the end of art. Others say it’s the beginning of something sublime. But behind every hot take is a hidden archetype. This quiz won’t fix anything, but it might help you notice the lens you’re looking through. And maybe—just maybe—you’ll be able to laugh at it.—Studio u2p050
You can take the quiz here:
Which AI ARt Critic type are you?
Left: Interview with Kevin Abosch, Right: Angela Ferraiolo: Narrative under the machine
What unfolds when meaning ends?
Angela Ferraiolo contributes a narrative theory essay on storytelling in AI film, ranging from database logic to experimental image-making.
Anika Meier speaks with Mario Klingemann and the duo Malpractice about practice, critique, and the generative tension between artist and machine.
An essay by Pau Aleikum, Domestic Data Streamers, Phantom Cartography, explores how AI reshapes our understanding of space: geopolitically, emotionally, and infrastructurally.
Catherine Mason writes about the past and present of women in digital art, and the blind spots in our cultural memory.
Jason Scuderi’s Rose-Colored Hologram warns of the need for a ‘digital immune defense’ in an age of fluid truths, accompanied by a hand-inserted red foil sheet inspired by a Japanese memorization kit that trains memory by making blue-marked words disappear.
This edition also features two beautiful galleries.
Grida (Artverse Paris) asked nine leading AI artists—including aurèce vettier, Benjamin Bardou, Genesis Kai, Ivona Tau, Jenni Pasanen, Melody ‘LeMoon’ Bossan, Marco Conti Šikić, OBVIOUS, and Primavera De Filippi—about essential questions of creation, memory, identity, emotion, and collaboration, offering diverse perspectives on AI art today.
Boris Eldagsen introduces PSYCHOPOMP!—ten artistic positions—including Alsoguppyme, Arminda da Silva, Crudguts, Ian Haig, Infrarouge, monstrwithin, Placenta Shake, Rashed Haq, Rosemberg, and Snadwich—that use AI to confront the unconscious, visualize the shadow, and turn inner depths into haunting images.
This issue also spotlights the Human AI Art Award 2025 (Art Collection Telekom) for Nicolas Gourault’s “Unknown Label” and introduces Istanbul’s dynamic digital art scene, written by Esra Özkan and Dr. Nabat Garakhanova.
Alongside essays, interviews, and curated sections, Issue Nº2 also features the takeovers: invited artists who reimagine their digital residencies for print. First conceived as social media interventions on @the.ai.art.magazine, these pages open intimate windows into diverse artistic practices: Merzmensch, Mano Martinez, Lyna Bennani, Katrin Lange, adios from everywhere, Paul Hansen x ailleurs.studio, Objektpermanenz, Julia Hermine Ulmer, Systaime, Louve, Vibeke Bertelsen and Greg McMaster.
Jason Scuderi, A Rose Colored Hologram

In this Issue

Christoph Grünberger, Editorial

Studio u2p050, Manifesto + Quiz

Mike Brauner, Interview with Kevin Abosch, Unsettling the Real

Grida, Grida Asks AI Artists
aurèce vettier, Benjamin Bardou, Genesis Kai, Ivona Tau, Jenni Pasanen, Melody“LeMoon” Bossan, Marco Conti Šikić, OBVIOUS, Primavera De Filippi

Pau Aleikum, Domestic Data Streamers, Phantom Cartography

Jason Scuderi, A Rose Colored Hologram

Angela Ferraiolo, Narrative under the machine

Anika Meier, “BecomingBetter Together with AI”
Mario Klingemann and Malpractice Discuss TheirAI Agents Botto and Flynn Growing Up

Catherine Mason, Telling Herstory—Women Pioneers of Digital Art

Art Collection Telekom, Human AI Art Award 2025 for Unknown Label by Nicolas Gourault

Boris Eldagsen, PSYCHOPOMP! Follow the Unconscious
Alsoguppyme, Arminda da Silva, Crudguts, Ian Haig, Infrarouge, monstrwithin, Placenta Shake, Rashed Haq, Rosemberg, and Snadwich

Esra Ozkan & Dr.Nabat Garakhanova, When Istanbul Meets AI

Tito Melega, Art-ificial Cities

Words by Kevin Abosch, Typography by Jan Wölfel
Une déclaration d’amour
The AI Art Magazine is designed to contrast with the speed and disposability of digital media. It invites slower reading, closer looking, and deeper engagement. Not a catalogue. Not a prediction. A curated record of this moment. Designed as both archive and artifact, the magazine is printed with multiple paper stocks, transforming reading into an act of perception. At its core, Issue Nº2 is une déclaration d’amour to art, to life, and to the endless possibilities of imagination that unfolds between humans and machines.
The AI Art Magazine is for anyone working with, thinking about, or simply curious about machine-assisted creativity. It offers a space to see, read, and reflect with the attention the work deserves.

Golden Tickets

_By the jury

Golden Tickets, Number 2 (Black series), Sep 2025

Selected by

Götz Ulmer

446f6d / Dom Ho, Ornamental Fish, AI-generated image, 2025.

Selected by

Liri Argov

Allan Pichardo, Machine Gaze, generative AI self-portrait, 2023.

Selected by

Vivien Schulze

cviAI, Chasing meaning (at full speed), AI-generated image, 2025.

Selected by

Sara Giusto

Daniel Weiss, Kabuki Frame, AI-generated image, 2025.

Selected by

Wolf Ingormar Faecks

A Human in the Loop, Grieving on the Dance Floor, AI-generated image, 2024/2025.

Selected by

Boris Eldagsen

Ivona Tau, Apparitions of the Psychiatric Ward, AI-generated image, 2025.

Selected by

Xiaomi

Jon Uriarte, A Neighbourhood, AI-generated image; from a series of the same title, 2025.

Selected by

Grit Wolany

Michele Rinaldi, Latent Xylella, AI-generated triptych, 2025.

Selected by

Adriana Mora

PJ, Tulip, AI-generated image, 2025.

Selected by

Hannah Johnson

Sarah Leidig / digitaldrapery ai, Exporting Freedom, AI-generated image, 2025.

Selected by

Auronda Scalera + Dr. Alfredo Cramerotti

Weidi Zhang, Rodger Luo, A Walled City, interactive AI art installation, 2025.

CATALOGUE OF WORKS (Open Call, A-Z)

446f6d / Dom Ho, Ornamental Fish, AI-generated image, 2025.

Adam Chin, Irene, AI-generated image from a database of self-portraits, 2025.

Alfonso de Gregorio, Retained Reports, AI-generated portraits displayed on e-ink screens, 2019.

Alizée Armet, Fungical Language, interactive bio-electronic installation with AI-generated text, 2024.

Allan Pichardo, Machine Gaze, generative AI self-portrait, 2023.

Andrés Arizmendy Benavides, El loco (The Fool), AI-assisted self-portrait, 2025.

Chris May, Blush, AI-generated image, 2025.

CNDSD / Malitzin Cortés, FURBOT: Soft Tech for Sad Futures, AI, machine learning, 2025.

cviAI, Chasing meaning (at full speed), AI-generated image, 2025.

Daniel Weiss, Kabuki Frame, AI-generated image, 2025.

Esther Hunziker, Screen Test #S32, AI-generated portrait, 2025.

Fernando Velázquez, A Photogrammetric Self-Portrait Entangled with the Logic of a Large Language Model, AI-generated image, 2025.

Gal Shahar, The Quiet Recognition, AI-generated image, 2025.

hugo oguh, Delicacies, AI-generated image; from the series Refusion, 2024.

A Human in the Loop, Grieving on the Dance Floor, AI-generated image, 2024/2025.

Irem Bugdayci, Priors: Latent Composite, AI-generated moving image, 2025.

Ivona Tau, Apparitions of the Psychiatric Ward (from the series My Grandmother’s Memories), AI-generated image, 2025.

Jakub Koźniewski, MODELS OF CRISIS: Embodiments of a Mental Struggle, generative kinetic installation with AI-generated text, 2025.

Jon Uriarte, A Neighbourhood, AI-generated image; from a series of the same title, 2025.

Julien Bonet, Zone Sensible, AI-generated image; from a photographic series, 2025.

kennedy+swan, Lung Portrait #G, watercolor on glass in lightbox; from The Neverending Cure, 2025.

Kevin Esherick, El Paso, TX, AI-generated image; from the series Sky World, 2025.

Laura Buechner, Cyber Softness, AI-generated image, 2025.

Laura Rautjoki, Airy, AI-generated image; from the series The Image of a Woman, 2024.

Louis-Paul Caron, The Meeting, AI-generated video; from the series Incendies, 2025.

love0destroy, SMILEIN XX, AI-generated image, 2025.

Maciej Miliszkiewicz, ADD LEMON TO GIVE IT SOME FLAVOR, AI-generated image; from a series of the same title, 2024.

Marine Bléhaut, Anna#2, AI-generated image; from the series Anna’s Dream, 2025.

Michele Rinaldi, Latent Xylella, AI-generated triptych, 2025.

Mihai Grecu, Local Dystopia, AI-generated image, 2025.

Mirage Bureau, The Noise Between Us, AI-generated image, 2025.

Monica Menez, Multimess, AI-assisted photographic image with augmented reality, 2025.

Nada Pleskonjić / Aibynada, We Train Them to Stand Still, AI-generated image, 2025.

Nastagorai, The Soulmate, AI-generated image, 2025.

Nygilia, Archetype, AI-generated image; from the series Echoes of Eden, 2024.

PJ, Tulip, AI-generated image, 2025.

Samar Younes / SAMARITUAL, Future Ancestor: Reverse Archaeology #1, AI-generated digital portrait (quantum craft methodology), 2025.

Santiago Sares, Admirari #070710, GEN + AI (customized model generation), 2024.

Sarah Leidig / digitaldrapery.ai, Exporting Freedom, AI-generated image, 2025.

SeeThrough, Now That I've Got Your Attention, Economy, AI-generated image, 2025.

Shirley Cao, Second Self, AI-assisted sculpture in marble, 2024.

Snadwich, Sunday Morning, AI-generated image, 2025.

Sonia Gil, Erosion, AI-assisted image; from the series Lithium Landscapes, 2025.

Stella Particula, Je me souviens de Damas, un jour de neige, AI-generated image, 2024.

Takafumi Tsuji, Unspoken Image #1, AI-generated portrait with hand-painted intervention, 2025.

Travis LeRoy Southworth, Beauty in the Breakdown, AI-generated image; from the series Omnia Ludens, 2024.

Uglyy Fruuit, I Saw No Rush, AI-generated image, 2025.

Ümüt Yildiz, Free Speech Liar, AI-generated image, 2025.

Weidi Zhang, Rodger Luo, A Walled City, interactive AI art installation, 2025.

Wide Open, The Modern Lovers, AI-generated image, 2025.

Wuh.ey, But You Don’t See Me, AI-generated image, 2025.

Ziyao Lin, Love Letters Without the Recipient, installation with AI-generated text and imagery, 2024.

Images by Verena, F&W Mediencenter, August 22, 2025.

Responsibilities

Concept + Editorial Direction: Christoph Grünberger

Creative Direction: Jason Scuderi

Editorial Design: Christoph Grünberger, Franziska Meier, Jason Scuderi, Katrin Lange, Simone Brauner

Typography Art: Jan Wölfel, Jens Uwe Meyer

Proofreading: Margaret Hiley

Publisher: Simone & Mike Brauner, Wolf Ingomar Faecks

Printed by: F&W Mediencenter, Kienberg, Germany

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WHY?
The magazine reveals what happens when humans and machines get creative together. We’re throwing the doors wide open believe it's going to be a big party—come in and let’s dance.
Media coverage
WHO?
Christoph, Franziska, Ingo, Jason, Jan, Jens, Katrin, Mike, Simone, Tito
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