42: Strange Rules and Protocol Art at the Venice Biennale—Trevor Paglen & Primavera De Filippi with Peter Bauman

In this episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random's editor in chief) speaks with Regina Harsanyi (Associate Curator of Media Arts at the Museum of the Moving Image), Michael Connor, Executive Director of Rhizome, and artist Karyn Nakamura about Frieze Week in New York. In particular the discussion focuses on the week's programs on May 16th, with Rhizome's 7 on 7 at New Museum, as well as MoMI's Open Worlds: An Afternoon of Digital Art Encounters.They cover an anatomy of Frieze Week itself, (art fair, satellite fairs, Whitney Biennial, and all) before zeroing in on what each guest is bringing to the table. Connor traces the sixteen-year arc of 7x7, this year organized around the theme of "Containment." Nakamura discusses her own 7x7 project with Lucas Gelfond, which probes the geometry of meaning inside language models and the possibilities of interpretability research as artistic material. Harsanyi walks through the museum programming in depth.See our "New York Digital Art Guide"Monday's Editorial this week is an essay by Bauman on the relationship between protocol art and worldbuilding: The Cerebral SambaChapters 📖:00:00:00 Intro00:02:18 Frieze Week: What It Is and Why It Matters00:07:20 The Saturday Battle Royale: 7x7 vs. MoMI00:08:52 7x7: The Commons Residency and the "Containment" Theme00:13:11 Karyn Nakamura: Interpretability as Artistic Material00:16:19 MoMI x Tezos: Digital Materiality and the Fellowship00:18:38 Edgar Fabian Frias and the Nureyka Performance00:20:17 Travess Smalley's Pixel Rug Book and OONA00:23:52 The Artist/Technologist Binary00:35:20 Corporate Sponsorship and Artistic Subversion00:38:27 The Josh Kline Essay: Real Estate and Art Quality00:42:10 Rhea Meyers & Linda Dounia collaboration

In this episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random's editor in chief) speaks with artists Trevor Paglen and Primavera De Filippi about Protocol art.The occasion is Strange Rules, the landmark group exhibition co-conceived by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Holly Herndon, and Mat Dryhurst, running at the Palazzo Diedo in Venice for the full duration of the Biennale. The show offers the most institutionally significant framing of protocol art to date, and Paglen and De Filippi represent two of its most distinct vantages.The conversation opens with the question of how each artist situates their practice within the protocol framework. Paglen, long known as a revealer of hidden infrastructures, reflects on a career built between systems observation and systems intervention. He and on how his new work Voyager marks a turn inward, toward consciousness rather than exposure. De Filippi, a longtime Protocol art theorist and one of the few artists to self-define as a protocol artist, walks through her Protocolism Manifesto and the decade-long Plantoid project that preceded it, sharpening a key distinction: the difference between making art on top of a protocol and making the protocol itself as the creative act.Meanwhile, our Monday Editorial with Shohei Fujimoto completes our Venice Biennale coverage for the week. (More to come!)00:04 Introduction & The Strange Rules Exhibition01:39 Trevor Paglen's Work: Voyager and the Pivot Inward02:49 Trevor Paglen on Protocol Art & Post-Minimal Influences04:57 Primavera De Filippi Defines Protocol Art & the Protocolism Manifesto08:13 Voyager Explained: AI That Hypnotizes You10:22 Plantoid: The Self-Replicating Blockchain Sculpture13:34 The Breadth of Protocol Art & the Venice Biennale as Platform17:43 Why Protocol Art Is Rising: Generative AI & the Meta-Layer20:57 Photography, Modernism & the Current AI Rupture23:35 Capital-A Algorithm: Fear, Critique & Alternatives26:36 Embracing the Algorithm: Open Source & Artistic Autonomy30:05 Consciousness, Entanglement & Voyager's Six Journeys33:41 Synthetic Life, Symbionts & Machine Qualia39:05 Protocol Art as a Lens for Economics, Politics & Technology42:34 Protocol vs. Instantiation, Copyright & Closing Thoughts

In this podcast episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random's editor in chief) speaks with artist and writer James Bridle about what we actually mean when we say "intelligence." They discuss whether building our most powerful technologies around such a narrow version of it is a fundamental mistake.They also unpack author Bridle's argument from Ways of Being that intelligence has always been a political construct, and that contemporary AI represents a reduction of a reduction. The conversation moves through the three effects Bridle sees AI concretely producing right now: consolidation of power, environmental destruction, and a spreading ontological crisis. They end by widening to consciousness, ecological thinking, and what a genuinely non-human intelligence might actually require.It is one of the more skeptical conversations Le Random has hosted on AI, and one of the most clarifying. Enjoy!Monday's Editorial: Keiken on the Worldbuilding LensChapters 📖:00:00:04 — Introduction: What Is Intelligence?00:02:01 — The Human Bias in How We Define Intelligence00:08:03 — Boosterism vs. Doomerism: Bridle's Dual Critique00:15:10 — Can Agentic AI Produce Ecological Intelligence?00:20:07 — Citizens' Assemblies and the Power of Diversity00:24:37 — Symbionts: A Third Way to Engage with AI?00:29:55 — AI Coding, Relationships, and What Actually Changes Us00:36:16— Three Real Effects of AI: Power, Environment, Uncertainty00:41:00 — Art, Ethics, and the Glitch Residency00:45:10 — Consciousness Beyond Language: Mountains, Machines, and Standing Waves

In this special episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random's editor in chief) speaks with Kayvon Tehranian (CEO and co-founder of Foundation and Rodeo) and Sebastian Sanchez (formerly Christie's Manager of Digital Art Sales, now independent advisor and curator) about the structural challenges of the digital art market following the 2021 NFT boom.They discuss Foundation's recent sale to Blackdove and how Christie's, Sotheby's, and Rodeo have had to dissolve departments or shut down entirely because growth models built on crypto speculation proved unsustainable. The conversation explores where growth actually stalled and why none of the business models worked. Tehranian and Sanchez discuss what their organizations achieved, what can endure, and the need to rebuild from scratch.In the end, this conversation moves into the lofty topics of digital art becoming independent of volatile crypto cycles, moving into physical displays, and developing self-sufficient institutions built through slow, intentional work by committed participants.Chapters 📖00:01:40 - Are These Isolated Incidents or Symptoms?00:09:52 - The Business Model Problem00:14:13 - Crypto Speculation vs. Art Collecting00:19:13 - Why Are Auction Houses Pulling Away?00:25:45 - The Role of Institutions00:30:56 - Anti-Establishment Energy and What Endures00:36:00 - The Physical Display Problem00:38:40 - What Will Endure: Rooted Practices00:43:55 - How Close Was It to Being Sustainable?00:48:02 - Leaner Models and the Future

In this special podcast episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random’s editor in chief) speaks with artist and filmmaker Lawrence Lek about NOX Pavilion at The Bass Museum of Art in Miami, an immersive installation centered on a self-driving car in a “therapy” program for malfunctioning AIs.They unpack Lek’s long-running NOX universe: a speculative rehab center where care can slide into control, and where machine interiority is treated as a technical defect. The conversation moves from the politics of nonhuman rights and legal gray zones (“it depends”) to Lek’s recurring fascination with autonomous creative agency and what it would mean for an AI to make art as a choice that conflicts with its intended function.In the second half, Lek and Bauman widen the lens to world-building: why a world isn’t one thing but multiple entry points, how ideas like Umwelt and worldview shape what any intelligence can perceive, and why Lek increasingly thinks of his simulations as “superficial models”—interfaces to reality rather than claims to foundational truth.Monday’s Le Random Editorial: "Embodying AI at NeurIPS 2025: Creative AI Track" by Luba Elliott and "Ian Cheng on Composing with Systems" by Peter BaumanChapters: 📖00:00:03 — Intro + Monday editorial highlights (NeurIPS / Luba Elliott)07:06:06 — From ecology to AI: nonhuman agency, rights, and “mature” discourse13:39:01 — Repairing AI interiority: Enigma’s “Revery” and malfunction-as-psychology19:58:05 — Legal personhood + Empty Rider: blame, responsibility, and the “it depends” machine27:35:09 — The crash test dummy: guide character, onboarding, and corporate voice32:11:06 — The empathy transition: why people resist empathizing with machines (for now)38:25:00 — Narratives vs “living code”: simulation stories and instantiated lifeforms44:21:06 — What counts as a world? Umwelt, worldview, and multiple entry points53:23:08 — Where immersive worlds may head: metaverse hangover, AI’s role, and formats shifting01:00:50 — Outro + goodbye

In this end-of-year episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random’s Editor-in-Chief) is joined by thefunnyguys (Le Random CEO) and Collection Lead Conrad House to look back on 2025: its biggest storylines, their favorites of the year and what they’re watching in 2026.They unpack a defining tension of the year: as crypto-native attention and prices stayed weak, institutional and traditional-art adoption of digital art kept accelerating. The conversation moves through platform and ecosystem shifts (VVV’s rise, Verse as gallery infrastructure, Art Blocks nearing the end of AB 500, Fxhash’s next chapter). Next is a discussion of “worlds”—protocol stacks getting richer, more modular, and increasingly entangled with AI, physical spaces and simulation.They close with Le Random highlights (including Raster and a more nimble publishing rhythm), personal favorites of the year, and a forward look at Node Foundation in Palo Alto, Canyon in New York, Colección Solo in Madrid, and Zero 10’s next iteration in Hong Kong.Mentioned:"Ian Goodfellow on Inventing GANs""THE PEOPLE ARE IN THE COMPUTER—PART I" on Alec Radford (most popular piece of 2025)"The Ultraintelligent Machine and Gaberbocchus Common Room" by Jasia Reichardt and Our 100th article"Drifella III: Room for Complexity" - 4,000+ word deep dive on Evil Biscuit's classic"Parker Ito and Evil Biscuit on Possessed Spirits""Standout Artwork of 2025"Chapters 📖:00:00 Intro + agenda01:29 Big takeaway: digital art’s institutionalization04:23 NFTs fade in crypto, rise in trad art (two camps)07:12 Capitulation vs institutional growth (NFT categories)09:53 Macro check: S&P vs ETH/BTC/XTZ13:30 What brings collectors back? (liquidity + catalysts)23:08 Fairs & infra: Art Basel, minting tech, new spaces26:00 Platforms reposition: Art Blocks + fxhash30:08 “Worlds” as the frame (protocol stacks + world models)42:07 AI art maturity: from hype to diffusion44:23 Le Random focus: Raster + collecting strategy49:30 Q4 editorial shift: Friday pods + agility50:45 Favorites of 2025: kickoff50:56 Favorite group shows58:56 Favorite releases: Claude/Gemini/Marble → vibe coding1:07:54 Favorite solo works1:17:46 Favorite artist picks1:27:23 Looking ahead to 20261:38:11 Outro

In this special episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random's editor in chief) speaks with Paul Seidler and Paul Kolling from art collective terra0 about their project Autonomous Forest (2025)⁠. They cover the nearly decade-long journey from ⁠white paper (2016)⁠ as university students to the project's NFT launch in December 2025.The collective shares how the original idea in the white paper mutated with projects like Flowertokens, Premna Deamon and now Autonomous Forest. They also cover why working through German law and smart contracts creates better frameworks than pure speculation, how the project evolved from startup pitches to nonprofit governance, and what it means to build living systems that exist outside economic (and human) exploitation.Monday's Le Random Editorial on "Standout Artwork of 2025"Thursday's Le Random Editorial: "Zero 10 Part 1: Beeple Casts a Spell" by Kevin BuistChapters: 📖00:00:00 Intro: terra0 + “Autonomous Forest” (what it is)00:10:01 The long arc: Flower Tokens, Premna Daemon, and the road to Autonomous Forest00:17:02 The pivot: from “forest as economic agent” to removing ecosystems from the market00:22:00 Why blockchain matters: voting, trust, governance, and accountability00:26:03 Repeatability + policy experiment vibes — and where AI fits (and doesn’t)00:29:01 Legal fictions: “corporations as slow AIs” and the problem of intention00:32:04 Personhood for nature: who can speak for rivers/forests/nonhuman interests?00:38:04 Protocol art roots: relational aesthetics, software art, and law as medium00:41:01 World-building + generative art lineage (instructions → systems → protocols)00:49:00 Guattari’s “Three Ecologies,” land art links, and closing reflections

In this episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random’s editor in chief) speaks with transdisciplinary artist Stephanie Dinkins about AI as a container for preserving oral history, tradition, and the kinds of community knowledge that rarely make it onto the internet.Dinkins shares how a chance encounter with Bina48 in 2014 reshaped her practice. They discuss how this connects to her push for small, community-driven data that protects nuance and self-definition, especially for Black and Brown communities, against the homogenizing pull of large corporate models.They also cover Not the Only One as a “living archive” of family memory, the politics of access, privacy, and consent, and why Dinkins treats imagination (and hyperstition) as a practical method for building the AI futures we actually want.Monday's editorial (Beeple on Robot Dogs as Canvas): https://www.lerandom.art/editorial/beeple-on-robot-dogs-as-canvasChapters 📖:[00:00:03]: Intro: Le Random podcast, Beeple, Stephanie Dinkins[00:03:40]: Play, exploration, and academic freedom[00:07:02]: Meeting Bina48 changes everything[00:12:31]: Small data versus homogenizing big data[00:18:35]: Worldbuilding, autonomy, and Not The Only One[00:24:57]: Using AI to preserve family ethos[00:31:53]: Prompting against algorithmic whitening[00:39:05]: Beyond fear: engagement and agency[00:45:42]: Students’ use, negotiation, and deep work[00:50:27]: Surfing change and lifelong learning

In this very special episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random's editor in chief) speaks with artist Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) about a busy year of institutional shows, studio experiments, and what it means for digital art to edge closer to the canon.The artist traces how works like Human One, Diffuse Control, and Transient Bloom at institutions like LACMA, The Shed, Mori Art Museum and Toledo Museum of Art have shifted his sense of digital art’s inevitability. They also discuss why he thinks IRL encounters with screens, robots and installations are “higher fidelity” than years of online discourse. They then cover how his Charleston studio has become a public lab by hosting CryptoPunks nights, video game tournaments, and a Synthetic Theater event.The second part of the conversation mostly covers REGULAR ANIMALS, Beeple's robotic, AI-mediated dog pack for Art Basel’s new Zero 10 digital section. They look at the work as a prototype for long-form generative systems that sense and interpret the world in real time, plus much more!A written version of the conversation now available on our Editorials: https://www.lerandom.art/editorial/beeple-on-robot-dogs-as-canvasChapters 📖: [00:00:04]: Introduction and context[00:01:47]: Year in review and institutional milestones[00:03:11]: Embracing digital art as its own medium[00:06:19]: Studio as public outreach platform[00:10:05]: IRL experiences versus online discourse[00:11:28]: Market vibes versus institutional progress[00:15:37]: Conceiving the Art Basel presentation[00:19:58]: Rethinking generative art with new systems[00:23:16]: Running the studio like a gallery[00:27:37]: Robots as living, intelligent sculptures[00:31:29]: Are technologists artists and curators?[00:33:50]: Why we are not prepared for the future[00:39:30]: Nuance of AI within artworks[00:41:30]: Human intention amid AI-assisted processes[00:45:02]: Closing thanks and sign-off

In this episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random's editor in chief) speaks with pioneering artist duo Anna Ridler and Sofia Crespo about their long-running collaboration bringing machine learning into dialogue with natural history.They trace their early encounters with deep learning—from memes, browser histories, and speech-to-text to data visualization, encyclopedias, and NeurIPS Creativity Workshops—and how both arrived at AI through questions of classification and what it means to “understand” the world.They also discuss fusing natural history and machine learning across their five collaborative projects (including Anna Atkins–inspired cyanotypes, Argentine “artificial memories” and the rain-marked Clematis tiles), working only with their own datasets in the middle of AI copyright debates, rethinking collage and photography in an era of generative models, and what might come next after winning Arab Bank Switzerland’s Artist of the Year prize.Monday's Editorial:Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst on Artificial Psychedelia: https://www.lerandom.art/editorial/holly-herndon-mat-dryhurst-on-artificial-psychedeliaChapters 📖:[00:00:03]: Introduction and episode overview[00:02:23]: Anna’s path to deep learning[00:03:32]: Sofia’s early AI explorations[00:07:36]: Natural history and machine learning parallels[00:10:30]: Posthuman ideas emerging in practice[00:12:34]: NeurIPS Creativity Workshop beginnings[00:13:34]: Artist versus technologist mindset[00:15:44]: Sofia’s nontraditional art journey[00:21:01]: Speaking to researchers during COVID[00:22:05]: Meeting and first encounters[00:26:11]: First Collaboration: Various and Casual Occursions[00:34:52]: Second project: 83 Seeds from a Vanishing Mountain[00:38:06]: Third project: Snapshots: Orchids[00:42:46]: Fourth project: Long Short Term Memories[00:47:15]: Fifth project: 3.31424e+126 : clematis armandii[00:52:05]: Looking ahead together[00:53:41]: Closing thanks and goodbyes