ZONE: SCREENS
The model is not neutral.Then build another one.
Models select, repeat, reject and render invisible. They do not produce truth. They produce probabilities with real consequences.
LUCID DREAMS · FESTIVAL FOR DIGITAL ART
EUTOPAI2027
EUTOPAI2027
4 & 5 JUNE 2027 BÜHNE IM HOF + LÖWINNENHOF* ST. PÖLTEN · AT
* Löwinnenhof requested
körperLand · tanzHaus · medienBoulevard — from the intermedia city installation of 2004 to the transnational festival and BIP laboratory of 2027.
CAMPAIGN CLAIM · COUNTER-MODELS FOR A PREDICTED WORLD
THE MODEL IS NOT NEUTRAL.BUILD COUNTER-MODELS.
EUTOPAI is not a festival about AI. It is a festival about the social power of models — and about art as the practice of building counter-models.
181
DAYS BETWEEN THE FIRST FESTIVAL DAY AND THE HIGH-RISK OBLIGATIONS OF THE EU AI ACT TAKING EFFECT ON 02.12.2027
The festival takes place inside that gap. This is not a metaphor. It is the calendar.
UNTIL THE FESTIVAL
–DAYS–HRS–MIN–SEC
UNTIL THE HIGH-RISK DEADLINE
–DAYS–HRS–MIN–SEC
Lucid Dreams EUTOPAI — festival for digital art. Free admission.
WHY THIS PAGE IS UNFINISHED
This page is unfinished. And it says so.
A model outputs probabilities and treats them as results. It states neither its assumptions nor its uncertainty. That is exactly this festival's charge.
So we do the opposite. Every item on this page carries its status: confirmed, requested, in progress or hypothesis. Nothing appears here as if it had already been decided.
Work in progress is not a defect we fix later. It is the form in which a festival about models has to be public. Whoever demands counter-models discloses their own.
STATUS ON THIS PAGE
CONFIRMED
sourced and dated
sourced and dated
REQUESTED
applied for, confirmation pending
applied for, confirmation pending
IN PROGRESS
in development, outcome open
in development, outcome open
HYPOTHESIS
assumption about the future, with stated confidence
assumption about the future, with stated confidence
00 / WHY EUTOPAI
The space of possibility becomes public again.
Eutopai is not a nostalgic motif but a method: city, body, media and future become readable as active, changeable spaces. Not the perfect utopia — an open, testable space of possibility.
Citywird →Interface
Bodywird →Sensor
Archivewird →Generator
Festivalwird →Learning space
What do places look like that do not yet exist, but become real for a short time through bodies, machines, images, sounds, data and collective imagination?
POETIC GUIDING QUESTION
01 / SIX THESES
Every finding gets its counter-move.
No motif is a diagnosis without an action. Line one states. Line two acts.
ZONE: BODIES
Your face is a border.Move it.
Between recognising, classifying and excluding lies a political threshold. It was made. So it can be moved.
ZONE: LAB
Every prompt has a supply chain.Ask who carries it.
No prompt begins with the prompt. It begins with data, classification and labour that rarely becomes visible.
ZONE: LAB
The future has terms of service.Terminate them.
Private rule sets structure public space. Not reading them still counts as agreeing to them.
ZONE: ARCHIVE
The rules arrive later.We are already here.
It is not regulation that is missing — the hard obligations take effect after us. The transparency rules already apply.
ZONE: STAGE
No utopia without counter-power.Build counter-models.
Models are vulnerable where they fail: at the deviation, the noise, the unreadable body.
02 / EVIDENCE CONFIRMED
No figure without a source.
Four figures carry the argument. Each with primary source and date. Re-verify before reuse.
jobs worldwide sit in occupations with some degree of GenAI exposure. In the highest tier, 4.7 % of female against 2.4 % of male employment.
ILO/NASK 2025 ↗data-centre electricity consumption in 2025. For AI-focused centres +50 %, against 3 % growth in global electricity demand.
IEA 2026 ↗Since this date, certain synthetic content must be marked in machine-readable form. Article 50 was not postponed.
EU AI Act Art. 50 ↗From this date the high-risk obligations apply to stand-alone systems under Annex III. For high-risk AI in regulated products, from 02.08.2028.
EU Digital Omnibus ↗03 / FORECAST // JUNE 2027
We output probabilities too.
Six assumptions about the state of the world at the festival date. Each states basis, source and confidence. None is a statement of fact.
P1 · HYPOTHESIS — NOT A STATEMENT OF FACT
On 4 June 2027 the high-risk obligations do not yet apply.
181days of gap
CONFIDENCE — 0.95
High — enacted law, not an estimate
BASIS
EU Digital Omnibus, in force 27.07.2026. Annex III applies from 02.12.2027, Annex I from 02.08.2028. Art. 50 transparency rules apply since 02.08.2026.
European Commission
P2 · HYPOTHESIS — NOT A STATEMENT OF FACT
Data-centre electricity demand keeps rising.
+50 %demand by 2027
CONFIDENCE — 0.70
Medium — scenario, not a measurement
BASIS
IEA 2026: +17 % data-centre electricity in 2025, AI data centres +50 %. Doubling expected by 2030. Goldman Sachs: +50 % global demand by 2027 versus 2023.
IEA · Goldman Sachs Research
P3 · HYPOTHESIS — NOT A STATEMENT OF FACT
Exposure persists. It is unevenly distributed.
4.7 / 2.4per cent women / men
CONFIDENCE — 0.80
Medium-high — index, not a forecast of outcomes
BASIS
ILO/NASK 2025: 1 in 4 jobs worldwide with GenAI exposure. Highest tier 4.7 % women versus 2.4 % men. High-income countries 34 %, low-income 11 %.
ILO/NASK 2025
P4 · HYPOTHESIS — NOT A STATEMENT OF FACT
Labelling is mandatory. Detectability is not.
Art. 50since 02.08.2026
CONFIDENCE — 0.55
Medium — law certain, effectiveness open
BASIS
Certain synthetic content must be marked in machine-readable form. Assumption: enforcement and perceptibility remain patchy in June 2027.
European Commission
P5 · HYPOTHESIS — NOT A STATEMENT OF FACT
One training run is measured in gigawatts.
5 GWone training run
CONFIDENCE — 0.40
Low-medium — single estimate, wide range
BASIS
Estimate: one frontier model training run needs roughly 5 GW in 2027. AI server power density up elevenfold 2020–2025, a further fourfold rise expected by 2027.
Anthropic estimate · Goldman Sachs
P6 · HYPOTHESIS — NOT A STATEMENT OF FACT
We output probabilities too.
P ≠ 1no forecast is certain
CONFIDENCE — 0.99
High — check us
BASIS
At least one of these forecasts will be wrong. We state assumption, source and confidence, because a model does not. If one is disproved, we show it during the festival as a correction.
EUTOPAI 2027 · own method
All figures as of 11.08.2026. The forecasts will be re-verified before the campaign launch. Disproved forecasts are not removed but shown as corrections.
12 / IMAGE SEQUENCE · TWO SERIES
The layering.
Twenty montages in a single pour. The upper layer is the archive of 2004, the lower one the counter-move of 2027. Scrolling raises the level: each image fills from below into the previous one until it has replaced it entirely. The dividing edge is not a line but the same water surface that lies between the sections.
Scrolling pours · Clicking sets the counter-mark · Arrow keys jump◆ Archive futures · 2004 → Counter-sujets · 2027
IMAGE BODIES CONFIRMED
Six counter-bodies.
Not a place but a constructed object made of evidence. The cell grid follows the confidence values of the six forecasts — uncertainty about June 2027 becomes the image structure. A continuous orange axis proves the parts are one body and not a collection.
JOIN IN
Build your counter-model.
The same grammar the campaign works with — only in your hands. Set the three interventions, roll the grid, take your image with you.
YOUR COUNTER-MODEL
- Redaction — what the model discards
- Inference — what it invents
- Halftone — what remains as print trace
Cells pull real crops from the campaign image world.
04 / REFERENCE 2004 CONFIRMED
EUTOPIA is not a retrospective. It is conflict material.
On 22 June 2004 the government quarter of St. Pölten became EUTOPIA for one night: körperLand, tanzHaus, medienBoulevard. A media scenography of performance, video installation and live sound.
In 2027 those images do not return as memory. They return as material — compressed, classified, read by algorithms, misread. What was a document is now input.
körperLandBody / Data Territory
tanzHausPerformative Interface
medienBoulevardNetworked Public Space
Concept, production, video: Markus Wintersberger · Concept, live/sound: Alois Huber (ILIEL) · Live/performance: Julia Mach, Stephanie Cumming · Video recording: Florian Knispel · Cooperation: publicart.at
View EUTOPIA 2004 in the archive ↗
05 / TRANSNATIONAL ARC IN PROGRESS
Warsaw → St. Pölten.
In April 2027, PJAIT Warsaw becomes a collaborative production space within an Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme.
Erasmus+ BIP Warsaw
IN PROGRESSInternational teams each develop one Eutopai cell — installative, performative, audiovisual, interactive or XR-based.
pja.edu.pl ↗Pre-festival Warsaw
IN PROGRESSThe week closes with a concentrated showing: no finished products, but installations in raw state, performative tests, artist talks, screening, AV set.
Cultural Forum Warsaw
REQUESTEDThe Austrian Cultural Forum as a resonance space for Austrian-Polish exchange — hosting, networking, discourse format.
austria.org.pl ↗06 / PROJECT LINES CONFIRMED
Six lines. Six zones.
Scalable experimental settings — presentable as prototypes in Warsaw, realisable as condensed festival versions in St. Pölten.
01
Eutopai Maps
AI and XR-based cartographies of imaginary places from St. Pölten, Warsaw, body data, movement traces and archive material.
02
Embodied Eutopias
Performative works in which bodies act as sensor, projection surface, interface or disturbance.
03
Data Rituals
Installations that treat data not as information but as material, rhythm, light, voice, pattern or ritual.
04
Public Ghosts
AR and video interventions that make historical, political and imaginary layers visible in urban space.
05
Eutopai Archive
Documentation and re-staging of EUTOPIA 2004: poster series, sound, video traces, text, image archives.
06
Precarious Futures
Utopia not as affirmation but as ambivalence: fragile futures, ecological ruptures, loss and repair.
StagePerformances & live AV
LabPrototypes & open experimental settings
BodiesPerformative body spaces
ScreensProjection, video & AI image fields
TalksArtist talks & open critique
ArchiveEUTOPIA 2004, retranslated
CURATORIAL IDEA
Eutopai as a plural spatial form.
The title shifts the classical promise of utopia into a topographic practice: Eutopai are places that are constructed, tested, inhabited, abandoned again and documented — settings, prototypes, scores, interfaces, stages, atmospheres.
Between dark stage intensity, lucid interface aesthetics, performative physicality, speculative cartography and urban media ritual. Not a technology fair — a radical, poetic laboratory for digital art.
digital spaces of desire
speculative body landscapes
AI-generated city fragments
performative shelters
collective experimental settings
01
Immersive installations
Walkable image and sound zones between architecture, projection and perception.
02
Performative body spaces
The body as sensor and interface — movement, presence, resonance.
03
AI / XR / Sound
Speculative tools: artificial intelligence, extended reality, generative sound.
04
Student prototypes
Modules from the Experimental Media master class as a public experimental setting.
05
Artistic research
Procedures, errors and insight made visible — process instead of product.
07 / MAIN FESTIVAL
Bühne im Hof & Löwinnenhof*
* Löwinnenhof requested
The venue is part of the argument. Bühne im Hof was rebuilt in 2017 following a principle of the imperfect and unfinished: visible cable runs, patched flooring, furniture made from transport crates, stencil graphics on the walls.
A building that does not hide its own infrastructure is already a counter-model.
Rebuilt 2017: goebl architecture with architect Max Eisenköck
08 / STATUS
What stands, what is open.
This register is the core of the page. It is continued, not tidied away.
| ITEM | STATUS | NOTE |
|---|---|---|
| Date 4–5 June 2027 | CONFIRMED | Fixed and communicated. |
| Bühne im Hof as main venue | CONFIRMED | Confirmed. |
| Löwinnenhof as second venue | REQUESTED | Requested. Confirmation pending. The asterisk remains in all materials until it arrives. |
| Erasmus+ BIP at PJAIT Warsaw | IN PROGRESS | In preparation for April 2027. |
| Austrian Cultural Forum Warsaw | REQUESTED | Requested as a resonance space. |
| Programme and artists | IN PROGRESS | Selection under way. No names while no confirmations exist. |
| Six project lines | CONFIRMED | Curatorially fixed. |
| Six zones | CONFIRMED | Dramaturgically fixed. |
| Ticketing and accessibility | IN PROGRESS | Not yet decided. |
| Accessible versions, subtitles | IN PROGRESS | In progress for all moving-image formats. |
| Rights to archive, persons, architecture | IN PROGRESS | Clearance under way. Until then no publication of the affected materials. |
| Forecasts about June 2027 | HYPOTHESIS | Six cards with stated confidence. At least one will be wrong. |
| Figures on the evidence cards | CONFIRMED | Primary sources, as of 11.08.2026. To be re-verified before campaign launch. |
| Campaign images and sound | CONFIRMED | AI-assisted and labelled as such. |
09 / TIMELINE
One year as an artistic movement.
Clear phases, visible results, reliable communication moments. Every phase carries its status.
AUTUMN 2026
Concept & partnersIN PROGRESS
Concept finalisation, partner outreach, funding logic, visual line and master visual.
JAN–MAR 2027
Online preparation BIPIN PROGRESS
Topic, international teams, first ideas, technical setups, selection of project groups.
APRIL 2027
Workshop week PJAITIN PROGRESS
Production of prototypes, performative tests, closing as a pre-festival.
MAY 2027
Further developmentIN PROGRESS
Technical planning, rehearsals, final dramaturgy, transport and build planning.
4–5 JUNE 2027
Main festivalCONFIRMED
Bühne im Hof & Löwinnenhof*, St. Pölten.
JUNE–JULY 2027
Documentation & transferIN PROGRESS
Documentation, portfolio, video, web publication as a basis for follow-up cooperations.
THE SERIES SINCE 2023
Five editions. One procedure.
Lucid Dreams is not a one-off festival but a continuing experimental setting. Each edition tests a different question in the same place.
-
2023
[ai] Pilot
The opening: artificial intelligence as a stage tool.
Watch video ↗ -
2024
[digital] fungi
Networks, growth and distribution as artistic form.
Bühne im Hof ↗ -
2025
STONEAGE
Material, tool and origin — digital art read against its own notion of progress.
Projects 2025 ↗ -
2026
happy Palace
“The happy Palace is not a place but a state.” 22 & 23 May 2026, Bühne im Hof & Löwinnenhof*.
lucid-dreams.at ↗ -
2027
EutopAI
The model is not neutral. Build counter-models. 4 & 5 June 2027, Bühne im Hof + Löwinnenhof*.
CURRENT EDITION
10 / LOOKING BACK CONFIRMED
Lucid Dreams happy Palace 2026.
22 & 23 May 2026, Bühne im Hof & Löwinnenhof*. “The happy Palace is not a place but a state.” A palace of sound, code, body, memory, projection and collective imagination.
The series since 2023: [ai] Pilot · [digital] fungi · STONEAGE · happy Palace · EutopAI
IMPACT & PARTNERSHIP
One project, many outputs.
Make artistic research visible
Internationalise student projects
Strengthen Austrian-Polish cooperation
Position the festival as a public laboratory
BIP mobility · Warsaw showing · festival contributions · documentation · partner communication · international portfolio · follow-up cooperations
11 / TAKE PART IN PROGRESS
We are not looking for finished works. We are looking for counter-models.
Make artistic research visible. Internationalise student projects. Strengthen Austrian-Polish cooperation. Position the festival as a public laboratory.
Get in touch →
