Can Machines Imagine? Fabian Offert on AI, Images, and 'Vector Media'

Can machines imagine, or do they merely recombine the vast archive of images and language we have already produced? In this episode of LEPHT HAND, Emma Stamm and Sereptie speak with Fabian Offert about his forthcoming book Vector Media and the philosophical stakes of machine learning. Together they explore machine vision, the politics of images, and the strange epistemology of vector space, where culture, language, and visual media are flattened into new regimes of abstraction. Along the way, the conversation touches on critical technical practice, AI art, and whether these systems reveal something about human perception or instead confront us with an alien form of thought.

Buy Fabian's book: https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517921675/vector-media/

Fabian's website: https://zentralwerkstatt.org/

“The Method of Critical AI Studies, A Propaedeutic,” Fabian Offert and Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.18833

"Generative Digital Humanities," Fabian Offert and Peter Bell: https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2723/short23.pdf

Support LEPHT HAND:

Join the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LEPHTHAND

Merch and Design Shop: crit-drip.com

Acid Horizon Links: https://linktr.ee/acidhorizon

Emma's Substack: https://elftheory.substack.com/

Sereptie (ambient project): https://sereptie.bandcamp.com/

Acid Horizon Research Commons is now live: https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/ahrc-main