visUAL CULTURE MODULE

SPECTRAL VISUALITIES: NEKROAESTHETICS AND THE POWER OF IMAGES IN THE AGE OF AI

Architecture often reveals itself to us most clearly through its visible materiality. Yet everything we see before us is also interwoven with invisible structures. In particular, advancing digitalisation has set in motion a multitude of inscrutable processes that determine what we get to see and whose existence is negated, if not outright erased. Hidden within this technologically driven shaping of the visible lies a ghostly presence of all that is denied the right to a real existence. The Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe coined the term “necropolitics” to describe the exercise of this political power. The brutal power of necropolitics decides who or what is expendable; what is disregarded; and what may be devalued to such an extent that it is ultimately condemned to die: human life, non-human nature, ecosystems, spaces, and geographies.

In light of the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, global climate concerns, and a fundamental restructuring of institutional power, this semester we will explore the spectral aspects of visuality. We will investigate the spectral dimensions embedded in the design of living spaces today – the haunting of the annihilated, the destroyed, and the erased, which emerges in the present in an unsettling way, even though it has long since been deprived of the resources it needs to exist. What is the relationship between this “hauntological” (Derrida) non-being, which nevertheless exerts an influence, and the spread of AI-driven visual power? What kind of haunting lurks within public opinion dictated by algorithmic recommendation feeds? How is visual sovereignty haunted by the ghosts, monsters, and vampires of the past that it seeks to rid itself of? And what spaces and aesthetics does this confrontation generate?

Situated between the discursive fields of architecture, contemporary art and theory, the module will create a structure for critical reflection, collaborative discussion and material practice through lectures, seminars, reading groups, public lectures, workshops and screenings. Using examples from art, architecture and activism, we will discuss how forms of critical practice manifest themselves, what challenges they face and how they can be initiated.

Students will be required to work both independently and collaboratively in an active and discursive atmosphere. With the support of departmental lecturers and tutors, each student will be asked to produce creative individual and group projects conceived throughout the course, which demonstrate practice-based interpretations and reflections on the ideas raised throughout the module’s duration. The module programme takes place every Monday. In addition, workshops with international guests, reading groups and project support as well as supplementary courses are scheduled on several Tuesdays. Building on the individual case studies, this module concludes with a jointly organised public exhibition.

Lecturers:

▶ PETER MÖRTENBÖCK
▶ HELGE MOOSHAMMER
▶ LYNN TURNER
▶ ANNA RESCH & SEBASTIAN JOBST (KONNEKTOM)
▶ N.N.
▶ BILAL ALAME

For further details, please see TISS and the page TEACHING

Kick-off: Monday, 5 October 2026, 12:00-14:00
Location: Seminarraum AC0440

ENROLMENT VIA TISS-POOL