Published in Arts (2026), Special Issue: Presence and Media, the article “Know Thy Other: Dialogic Encounter and the Presence of Self and Other in Technoetic and AI-Mediated New Media Art” is an original piece of art-historical and theoretical research. It brings together art philosophy, art history, contemporary art criticism, and new media in a way that is both ambitious and timely.

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Its main contribution is to demonstrate how Martin Buber's philosophy of art and dialogue can illuminate technoetic and AI-mediated art forms and practices as sites of dialogic encounter with both the Other and the Self. The article makes an important intervention in current discussions of art and technology by arguing that new media and AI-mediated practices may carry not only aesthetic or technological significance, but also an ethical and relational dimension.

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Abstract

This article examines dialogic presence as articulated by Martin Buber and explores its continued relevance within contemporary technoetic and AI-mediated new media art. Drawing on Buber’s early writings on art, theatre, and dance—particularly Daniel (1913)—the article first analyses the dialogic relations between artist, art form, and viewer, with attention to the aesthetic principles of distance, unity, and presence that structure the I–Thou encounter.

 

The second part explores the correlation between Buber’s dialogic philosophy and the principles of technoetic art as theorised by Roy Ascott, focusing on the telematic installation Aspects of Gaia: Digital Pathways across the Whole Earth (1989) as a paradigmatic example of dialogic encounter within technologically mediated environments.

 

The third part examines seven artworks from the Infinite Self Pavilion, curated for The Wrong Biennale (2025–2026), as illustrative examples. These works engage AI-mediated aesthetics to interrogate the relation between Self and Other through modes of dialogic encounter and presence induced by orbital apparatus, installation, and screen practices, positioning the viewer at the centre of the encounter while challenging the limits of human consciousness. The article concludes by foregrounding Buber’s ethical stance toward advanced technologies, emphasising relational responsibility and humility in dialogue with Ascott’s technoetic ethics.

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Keywords:

 dialogue; presence; martin buber; I and thou; otherness; technoetic art; AI-mediated new media art; ethics

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Read the article online 

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Arts 2026, 15(6), 127;
https://doi.org/10.3390/arts15060127

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Download the pdf

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