Claudia Larcher: AI and the Art of Historical Reinterpretation

The Culture & Technology podcast 027 | April 09, 2025

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Claudia Larcher: AI and the Art of Historical Reinterpretation

Claudia Larcher is an artist, filmmaker, and AI researcher based in Vienna. Severin met with Claudia in her studio to dive into her most recent work: AI and the Art of Historical Reinterpretation, a growing fictional image archive that injects inclusive and diverse representations into historic images and manipulates future AI training data as a form of activism.

Claudia Larcher is an artist exploring AI bias and representation through her work "AI and the Art of Historical Reinterpretation," a growing fictional image archive of history, reinterpreting the past with inclusivity and diversity.

In this conversation, Severin is joined with Claudia to discuss the history behind AI and discrimination bias, and how this has shaped our world today. From male-dominated physical architecture and AI systems, to AI image generation. Claudia shares her artistic approach of injecting diverse representations into AI training data as a form of activism to highlight opportunities in an era of rapid technological change.

GUESTS

Claudia Larcher is an artist, filmmaker, and AI researcher based in Vienna. Her work spans video animation, collage, photography, and installation, with a focus on the impacts and experimental uses of artificial intelligence.

HOST

Severin Matusek is a cultural theorist and founder of co—matter, a creative studio exploring the cultural and societal impact of new technologies.

IDEAS AND PEOPLE IN CONTEXT

AI and Art of Historical Reinterpretation
https://www.claudialarcher.com/work/theartofhistoricalreinterpretation
Still Life 3000 by Claudia Larcher https://www.claudialarcher.com/work/stilllife3000
Atlas of AI by Kate Crawford uncovers the infrastructure that makes AI possible https://katecrawford.net/atlas
Spawning AI helps artists opt out of training large AI models https://spawning.ai/
Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger: A trip into a mirror world https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelganger:_A_Trip_into_the_Mirror_World

CREDITS

The Vienna Business Agency supports new companies, projects and products that develop Vienna's creative industries further. Find out more at viennabusinessagency.at.

Editorial & Production Team (in alphabetical order): Carina Dala, Mike Evans, Nick Houde, Kesia Inkersole, Severin Matusek, Elisabeth Noever-Ginthör, Alice Smith, Heinz Wolf

Theme Music by Hell Mutang.

S5E3 is now out and available wherever you listen to podcasts.