Artist Talk & Screening: Doireann O’Malley, Conversations on a Cross-Town Algorithm

Tue 9.12.2025 Kesselhaus

19.30 – 21.30

Screening: Conversations on a Cross-Town Algorithm, 56 min

After the screening there will be a conversation with the artist Doireann O’Malley who will be present on site.

Moderated by Annika Larsson

Conversations on a Cross-Town Algorithm is an immersive 3D-animation, which adopts the narrative structure of a three-act theatre play, centers around a conversation between two characters, Samantha & Olda Wiser performed by Mathea Hoffmann and Juan Carlos Cuadrado. The two, sheer strangers when the play starts, slowly but surely dive intoeachothers life stories, traumata,dreams, and nightmares, at times mirrored others counteracted by changing oneiric surroundings.

Drawing on psycho-analytical motives derived from collaborative character development workshops, the dialogue soon reveals itself as one part of a larger systemic virus. At a time of overlapping crises, Conversations on a Crosstown Algorithm invites to reconsider the relationship between nature and technology by looking into new forms of queer subjectivity and their entanglements with data economy, artificial intelligence, and identity politics.

With references to surveillance architectures and computational networks, the scene is predominantly set in a virtual chatroom, reminiscent of an abandoned data center, or an empty casino, in which the queer protagonists seem to find themselves trapped. Mimicking archetypical spaces for accumulation and reward through systems of conditioning and reinforcement, the setting calls into question psychological disorders and malfunctioning processes which the desiring machines of capitalism only accelerate. Where is the exit, what is waiting outside, if there is any?

Doireann O’Malley is an Irish artist based in Berlin. Their research-led practice explores the intersections of collaborative methodologies, meditative and visualization practices, writing, and auto-theory. Working primarily with film, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, 3D, and video installation, O’Malley’s work investigates the porous boundaries between technology, embodiment, and transformation.

O’Malley was shortlisted to represent Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 2024, longlisted for the Preis der Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 2021, and received the Berlin Art Prize in 2018. They have been awarded numerous grants and fellowships, including Künstlerische Forschung (Berlin Senate, 2020–2021), Stiftung Kunstfonds, the Edith-Russ-Haus Award for Media Art, and the Arts Council of Ireland’s Next Generation and Bursary Awards.

O’Malley has held teaching and mentoring positions including Guest Professor on the MFA at ZHdK, Zurich (2020–2024); Professor of Gender & Space at the Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna; and Guest Mentor for the Live Art MA at AdBK Nürnberg (2021). They were also a fellow of BPA // Berlin Program for Artists (2019–2020).

Their work has been exhibited and presented internationally at institutions including the Goethe-Institut Dublin; The Granary Theatre / National Sculpture Factory, Ireland; the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Dublin; Art Institute Basel, Switzerland; Biennale Zielona Góra, Poland; Goethe-Institut Montreal and New York; Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.), Berlin; Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Sweden; Mumok Kino, Vienna; Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; the Berlin Art Prize exhibition (2018); and the Edith-Russ-Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg.

Artist Talks and Screenings, is part of the Time Based Media Program in ZFM. Initiated by Prof Annika Larsson it takes place on Tuesday evenings in different Muthesius locations where we together and with invited guests, look at, listen to and discuss a selection of contemporary time based media works and practices. The series is part of the DLC Art Lab and open to the Public.