Hito Steyerl: Medium Hot – Images in the Age of Heat

Publication Year: 2025
Pages: 178 pages
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 978-1-80429-802-2
Dimensions: 14,1 × 21,2 cm
Language: English

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF THE IMAGE IN THE AGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE?

Hito Steyerl is one of the most celebrated artists of our time. Her work, both as an artist and a writer, has consistently challenged the political boundaries between art and technol­ogy. In this new collection of groundbreaking essays, she explores how AI, the use of large language models and the algorithmic creation of imagery transform our understanding of the world. She argues that such practices cannot be divorced from the economic and political conditions of the times.

Medium Hot is a collection of scintillating meditations on the limits of art and technol­ogy: the essential handbook for the present conjuncture. The pieces here probe the man­ufacture and distribution of images in the age of AI and climate change. She asks whether art can be made not only by machines but for machines. She argues against the production of images that heat up the planet, disfranchise workers and fuel the arms trade, and questions whether such creations can even be called art.

In an era of such rapid change, Steyerl does vital work investigating whether machine learning will infiltrate every aspect of our lives and what that means for the future.