Asker Bryld Staunæs

Profile

I am a practice-based philosopher and artistic researcher whose work operates at the limits of algorithmic democracy, political aesthetics, speculative computation, and techno-social critique. Currently, I am conducting a PhD project titled Automatic Uprisings: The Synthetic Party as Techno-Social Sculpture at Aarhus University and Kunsthal Aarhus, generously supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation (2023–2026).

My practice speculatively unravels the implications of automation for political democracy by operationalizing "The Synthetic Party"—officially the world's first AI-driven political party—as both a theoretical apparatus and a "live" techno-social experiment. Framed within the Fluxus tradition of political art, particularly Joseph Beuys and Henning Christiansen, the project reconceptualizes party politics and democratic representation through algorithmic spectacle, antipolitical practices, digital desertion, and an exploration of the all-encompassing ecology of "techno-social sculpture".

Central to this inquiry is a notion of "algorithmic representation," an alternative model of democratic articulation emerging from the systematic training of The Synthetic Party on the discourses of marginalized microparties and non-voters. By foregrounding political abstention and the dynamics of non-participation (ademia vs. demos, following Giorgio Agamben's interpretation), my work articulates a cosmo-computational critique of representational politics and articulates the ideological potential of synthetic subjectivities.

In 2025, I curated and executed the Synthetic Summit exhibition-event at Kunsthal Aarhus, assembling an international constellation of virtual politicians and synthetic parties. This global gathering explored AI-led political practices through immersive installations, performative deliberation, and computer sculptures, engaging with contemporary forms of algorithmic democracy. The Synthetic Summit positioned itself explicitly against prevailing corporate and singulitarian AI narratives (such as Alignment Assemblies and Global AI Safety Summits), proposing instead an open-ended speculation grounded in fringe solidarity and techno-social relations.

As a founding member of the artist collective Computer Lars, my collaborative practices combines AI-driven aesthetic research with antipolitical experimentation, having received extensive international attention from platforms like VICE, Le Figaro, Al Jazeera, and TRT World. My recent theoretical contributions appear in peer-reviewed venues such as AI & Society, APRJA, Concreta, and Nordic Journal of Aesthetics. Additionally, I actively engage with the local research centres AIIM, CLAI, DARC and SHAPE,  and extradisciplinary groups such as "The Organ of Autonomous Sciences", contributing to interdisciplinary hands-on work around cultural and philosophical dimensions of synthetic intelligence and techno-social sculpture.

See more of my practice at e.g. Arkivaristerne°, Computer Lars, The Synthetic Party or Syntheticism.org.

Further inquiries, collaborations, or engagements related to this research are welcomed via email: [email protected].