Inversive Experiences with Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

​About

​In this Futurespaces session, Mexican-Canadian Rafael Lozano-Hemmer will cover a panorama of artworks made with AI, robotics, telepresence, and computerized surveillance. The emphasis on the artwork as “incomplete and out of control” will be discussed as an essential strategy in opposition to a dominant techno-optimist approach.

​Drawing inspiration from phantasmagoria, carnival, and animatronics, Lozano-Hemmer proposes “Inversive” rather than “Immersive” experiences: interdisciplinary artworks that operate between the seduction of public participation and the violence of widespread Orwellian technology controlled by the few. His work asks if an artwork can become a critical switchboard for the interconnection of disparate realities, in an embodied, tangible, poetic and radically empirical approach.

​Join us for this presentation, followed by a Q+A.

​Vocal Folds, 2019.

​About Rafael

​Rafael Lozano-Hemmer was born in Mexico City in 1967. He received a Bachelor of Science in Physical Chemistry from Concordia University in Montréal in 1989, and, in 2025, was awarded an honorary doctorate in fine arts from the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) in Toronto.

​Lozano-Hemmer is a media artist working at the intersection of architecture and performance art. He creates platforms for public participation using technologies such as robotic lights, digital fountains, computerized surveillance, and telematic networks. Inspired by phantasmagoria, carnival, and animatronics, his light and shadow works are anti-monuments for people to self-represent.

​About Futurespaces

​Founded and led by Josh Goldblum (Bluecadet) ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Futurespaces offers live webinars and in-person tours that provide valuable insights into the creative process of creating contemporary experiences.