AT A GLANCE
Manuel Beltrán
Area of Practice:
OVERVIEW
Manuel Beltrán is an artist and researcher. Through investigating the socio-political, cultural and economic contestations of technology, his projects expose hidden mechanisms and complexities of how technologies operate, and focus on addressing and intervening the power relations that emerge from technology’s intertwined relationship with society.
His works primarily take the form of art installations, conceptual frameworks, interventions, networked infrastructure and experimental media. Manuel’s recent works involve the creation of technological artefacts that deconstruct and recontextualise material and social relations of human-machine dynamics.
In 2015 he founded the Institute of Human Obsolescence, a project through which he explores the future of labor in the context of advances around artificial intelligence and automation, the economic and governance systems surrounding the production of data. In 2019 he co-founded Persuasion Lab (ad.watch), a project exploring methodological, aesthetic and discursive responses to understand the informational turn in propaganda and influence online.
Manuel’s work has been exhibited internationally in venues like CMU Art Center, esc medien kunst labor, Centro Cultural El Rojas, Khoj International Artists’ Association, TodaysArt International Festival for Digital Art, EAC Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo, S.a.L.E. Docks, NRW Forum Wirtschaft und Kultur Museum and BAK Basis voor Actuele Kunst.
Manuel regularly contributes to discourses about art, technology and media, and his projects have been featured in a wide range of international press. His work has been awarded with an Honorary Mention at the prestigious Prix Ars Electronica, and has been nominated for several awards, including The Index Project Award, Icarus Award, Young Masters Award Media Art Festival Leeuwarden, Young Talent Dutch Design Week and Blink Youngblood Award.
EDUCATION
MA at the ArtScience Interfaculty of the Royal Academy of Art and Royal Conservatoire of Music, University of the Arts, The Hague
BA at the ArtScience Interfaculty of the Royal Academy of Art and Royal Conservatoire of Music, University of the Arts, The Hague
WORK EXPERIENCE
– Studio practice, creating, researching and presenting art that investigates the socio-political, cultural and economic implications of technology, and the power relations emerging from its construction.
– Founder of Institute of Human Obsolescence, organisation exploring humans’ relationship with technology, the future of labor in the context of technological developments around AI, and the governance systems surrounding the production of data.
– Co-founder of Persuasion Lab, organisation exploring methodological, aesthetic and discursive responses to understand the informational turn in propaganda and influence.
– Lecturer at the Man & Communication department of Design Academy Eindhoven.
– Lecturer at the I/M/D department of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague.
– Developer and contributor to free and libre technologies.
INTEREST AREAS
Experimental media arts; philosophy of technology; artscience; community art; organizational art; visual arts; tactical media; activism; network and algorithmic cultures.
CURRENT PRACTICE AT SRISHTI
At SMI, Manuel conducts research using a cross-disciplinary methodology that engages artistic practice and theoretical frameworks. Blending artistic experimentation with analytical inquiry is one of the centrepieces of his ongoing PhD at SMI, in which he investigates computational infrastructures of advertising and its relationship with the public sphere. This approach to research feeds into the studios and workshops he facilitates for master and undergraduate students, in which he fosters practice-led approaches to create knowledge that emerges through the process of making and doing. Some of his courses are focused on developing critical understandings about the socio-political, cultural and economic implications of technology. Others focus on the role of art and media in society, and on network and algorithmic cultures.
TEACHING PORTFOLIO
Recent courses facilitated:
- Thinking Through Technological Things
- By Any Media Necessary
- Critical Approaches to Generative AI
- Documentation and the Gaze
- Material Experiments for Probing
- Tangible Computing
- Making with Algorithms
CREATIVE PRACTICE & OUTREACH
Selected recent exhibitions, presentations:
Exhibition ‘Persuasion Lab: FYEO’, presented at CMU Art Center,
Chiang Mai.
Exhibition ‘Un Día en Anuncios: América del Sur’, presented at Espacio de Arte
Contemporáneo, Montevideo.
Keynote at ‘Seminar on Art and Artificial Intelligence’, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – Centre Internet et Société (CNRS-CIS), Paris.
Exhibition ‘Everything Will Be Fine’, curated by Tactical Tech, co-produced by HAU Hebbel am Ufer, presented at German Museum of Technology, Berlin.
Conference ‘Inflamed Publics: Social Media, Violence and Resistance’. Organised by Columbia University, New York.
Digital Futures fellow at Khoj International Artists’ Association, Delhi.
ARTE.tv documentary about the Institute of Human Obsolescence, The Hague.
Prix Ars Electronica Honorary Mention at the Ars Electronica Festival, Linz.
Exhibition ‘Asuntos de Nuestro Espacio’, presented at Centro Cultural Rojas, Buenos Aires.
Exhibition ‘Persuasion Lab’, presented at esc medien kunst labor, co-produced with Elevate Festival, with the support of Re-imagine Europe, Graz.
Exhibition ‘The Glass Room’, curated by Tactical Tech, co-produced with Mozilla, presented at different venues including London, San Francisco, Berlin, Bangalore, Jakarta, Taipei, Chad.
Book contribution for ‘Future Publics (The Rest Can and Should Be Done by the People): A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art’, edited by Maria Hlavajova and Ranjit Hoskote. Published by BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht.
Contributor to Posthuman Glossary (Future Vocabularies), leading the program on Digital Activism, organised by Rosi Braidotti and Maria Hlavajova, hosted at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht.
