Simon Denny: Memories of the Future

Simon Denny is an artist living and working in Berlin, known for his conceptual work examining technology, power, and contemporary culture. His practice spans diverse media including paintings, sculptures, installations, and exhibition-making, often investigating the cultural footprint of influential technology figures and companies. Denny has exhibited internationally and gained recognition for works addressing tech industry aesthetics, from early pieces about Kim Dotcom and Peter Thiel to recent explorations of defense tech and AI. In this episode, Simon discusses his latest exhibition "Forces of the Unknown," which uses AI-generated imagery and plotter-painted canvases to draw connections between Italian Futurism and contemporary Silicon Valley ideology. The conversation explores how Marc Andreessen's "Techno-Optimist Manifesto" inspired the work, the shift from consumer tech to defense tech ("hard tech"), and Silicon Valley's evolving relationship with weapons manufacturing. Severin and Simon also examine AI as an artistic tool, the ethics of technological labor displacement, and the role of artists in capturing cultural moments without prescribing political solutions.