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ACV (Algorithmic Cultural Vandalism) is an ongoing research project that explores the relationship between symbolic language and algorithmic manipulation. It reflects on how cultural symbols interact with technical systems, mapping out the mental differences between sign and meaning. Visitors are invited to interact with a robotic arm powered by an archive-trained Artificial Intelligence (AI), where they collaboratively create prototypes of symbols, steering the research towards an aesthetic immanence.

The project takes the form of an interactive installation where human visitors and the machine generate pseudo-symbols in a continuous back-and-forth. The boundary between meaningful signs and mere doodles is constantly at play. Drawing in turn with another intelligence introduces the risk of misunderstanding, but this ambiguity is central to the experience. The construction of the archive and algorithm specifically avoids interpretation, focusing purely on the morphological aspects of signs, without attributing meaning.

This work critiques how symbolic systems—and reality itself—are reduced to data, mirroring colonial processes of extraction. It questions how technological methods in cultural research reflect hierarchies of exploitation, like those established through conquest, war, and apartheid. The project also investigates the core structures of morphological language, seeking to isolate it from cultural contexts.

For further information, visit acvproject.xyz