© 2025 AIxDesign
© 2025 AIxDesign
© 2025 AIxDesign
Esoteric AI
Esoteric AI
Introduction
Esoteric AI challenges mainstream perceptions of AI as either disenchanted or enchanted, proposing alternative ways of seeing, sensing, and knowing AI that blur the seeming binary of magic and technology.
Timeline
March 2024 - February 2025
Team
Research Lead
Natalia Stanusch
Artist
Gaston Welisch
Communications
Dominika Čupková
Elena Zaghis
Communications Support
Shweta Bindu Allam
Calligramme Artist
Ana Marques
Team
Nadia Piet
Ploipailin Flynn
Sofia Vieira
Zine Partner
Internet Teapot
Graphic Designer
Kaashvi Kothari
Funding
Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie
Introduction
Esoteric AI challenges mainstream perceptions of AI as either disenchanted or enchanted, proposing alternative ways of seeing, sensing, and knowing AI that blur the seeming binary of magic and technology.
Timeline
March 2024 - February 2025
Team
Research Lead
Natalia Stanusch
Artist
Gaston Welisch
Communications
Dominika Čupková
Elena Zaghis
Communications Support
Shweta Bindu Allam
Calligramme Artist
Ana Marques
Team
Nadia Piet
Ploipailin Flynn
Sofia Vieira
Zine Partner
Internet Teapot
Graphic Designer
Kaashvi Kothari
Funding
Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie
What we made
To disenchant the enchanted, and enchant the disenchanted
“Esoteric AI: To disenchant the enchanted, and enchant the disenchanted” chapter is out now!
In this Slow AI Chapter, we explore how AI predictions occupy a fascinating space between the rational and the inexplicable—inviting us to re-enchant our relationship with algorithmic systems.
This chapter is the manifestation of Natalia and the team’s past 12 months of research into Esoteric AI ⏳ A labour of love, we’d love to hear your thoughts!
(Dis)enchantment - A zine about Esoteric AI made in collaboration with Internet Teapot
This zine compiles the creative contributions, exchanges, and discussions from the Esoteric AI Zine-making Workshop held on July 6, 2024, in Rotterdam. Together, we explored notions of Esoteric AI, taking inspiration from magic, divination, folklore, and other types of seemingly “illegitimate” or arcane ways of knowing.
BIRD by Gaston Welisch
BIRD: Bird Informed Remote Divination by Gaston Welisch is an interactive, web-based artwork investigating the ways AI-driven pattern recognition mirrors and diverges from historical predictive practices, like Roman augury.
Through BIRD, users collaborate with AI to interpret bird patterns in a live webcam feed, challenging the “black-box” quality of AI—the hidden processes behind its outputs. Looking at AI through the lens of divination, the work questions how patterns are assigned meanings and how these meanings shape our actions.
Conversation on Esoteric AI
As part of the Esoteric AI research led by Natalia Stanusch, we turned to the design and research practice of David Benqué. Together, we explored the connections between divination, chicanery, prediction, data, and algorithms.
