Perceiving Aliveness in Embodied AI — KEYNOTE
Jan Zuiderveld
Amsterdam-based artist and researcher (NL)
24 October 2025, 12:15, Sala Cinema UNATC (75-77 Matei Voievod Street)
Perceiving Aliveness in Embodied AI
In my artistic practice I create performative installations where AI is embodied in objects. A coffee vending machine with an existential crisis, a microwave that hosts a capitalist podcast, a moving camera narrating visitors as wildlife. When people encounter these machines, something shifts: they stop seeing the object as an object and start negotiating with it as a presence.
In this talk, I’ll reflect on my ongoing exploration toward understanding what makes us treat machines as someone rather than something. Drawing from recent artistic projects, experiments, and research into AI systems, I’ll share observations relating to our perception of aliveness and how AI can reveal interesting aspects of our relationship with technology and ourselves.
Jan Zuiderveld (1995, NL) is an Amsterdam-based artist and researcher whose background spans Physics, Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, and ArtScience. His interdisciplinary approach examines how algorithms mediate power, identity, and social relations. Drawing from philosophy and cognitive science, he creates work that challenges how we understand and relate to AI systems and ourselves, arguing that certain forms of knowledge emerge only through embodied encounters rather than explanation.
Selected presentations and exhibitions: NeurIPS (2021, CA), Het Nieuwe Instituut (2024–2026, NL), Prix Ars Electronica (2024, AT), USC Cinematic Arts (2024, US), The Media Majlis (2025, QA), ShanghaiTech University (2025, CN), Kumu kunstimuuseum (2026, EE).
The keynote is part of the the second edition of the AI in Art Practices and Research international conference, organized by UNATC in Bucharest from 23–26 October 2025. The event explores the impact of AI on artistic creation and research, as well as its broader applications in society, such as accessibility, healthcare and well-being.