Lars Pinkwart

I am a doctoral student at the University of Zurich and a Research Associate at the Zurich University of the Arts in the context of the «Bridge Professorship Digital Cultures and Arts». In my PhD project, I consider the aesthetics and epistemology of generative AI, focussing in particular on so-called «world models» and the cross-integration of generative AI, 3D simulation and technical images. Further, I am interested in contemporary digital cultures, the political economy of AI and the history of computation.

I graduated with an interdisciplinary MA in Design and Computation from TU Berlin and the University of the Arts Berlin. Before, I studied media studies and visual culture at the University of Potsdam and Goldsmiths, UoL.
Bluesky Mail

PUBLICATIONS

Forthcoming, 2026

Roland Meyer, Lars Pinkwart (Eds.) «Latent Spaces» (Begriffe des digitalen Bildes), LMU Munich Publishing.

October 2026

«Worlds from Images: Generative World Models and the Becoming-Operative of Visual Culture», Preprint, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23596200.

October 2024

«Resilient Models. Training on Volatility», Umbau, Vol. 3.

PRESENTATIONS

September 2026

«Image and action. Generative world models as inverse media» – Symposium Dysphoria Mundi: Making and Breaking World Models, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

November 2025

«Content Maxxing. Generative AI and the Optimization of Culture» – Symposium From Hype to Reality: AI in the Study of Art and Culture, University of Zurich.

November 2025

«What Even is Design(ed) in Generative World Models? Extending The Interactive Paradigm of Computation» – Conference New Experimental Research in Design #7, TU Berlin.

May 2025

«The Adaptive Totalities of Generative AI Models», Conference Ethics and Aesthetics of Artificial Images, IUAV Venice.

January 2025

«Open-ended Encounters: Synthetischen Umwelten, Intelligente Agenten?», Workshop Künstliche Intelligenzen und ihre Umwelten, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.

November 2024

«Latent Spaces» (with Prof. Dr. Roland Meyer), Workshop Begriffe des digitalen Bildes, SPP Das digitale Bild, Marburg.

September 2024

«From The Postwar Period To The World Picture of AI?», Summer School Artificial Intelligence, Social Machines, and the Future of Democratic Societies, University of Bonn.

TEACHING

Spring 2027

«Generative AI: Histories, Theories, Aesthetics», HSLU Luzern.

Fall 2025

«Umkämpfte Archive: Zur Zukunft des Digitalen Gedächtnis» (Co-Teaching mit Prof. Dr. Roland Meyer), Universität Zürich.

EVENTS & ORGANISATION

2025

Conference «React & Respond. Image Cultures under Platform Capitalism» – Co-Organisation together with Prof. Dr. Roland Meyer, Zurich University of the Arts & University of Zurich in cooperation with Kino Xenix and Fotomuseum Winterthur.

2023–24

Event Series «Loops» — Co-Curation (2023-24) with guests Matteo Pasquinelli, Orit Halpern, Milagros Miceli, John-Dylan Haynes, Vladan Joler, AA Cavia and others, TU Berlin, prize winner of the Projekt Zukunft Berlin.

On Neural Rendering.