Selected Talks
Planetary Portals at The Photographers' Gallery
On generative AI, imperial archives and extractive methods. Gain more insight into the our interdisciplinary approach to visualising memory and time within the AI archive, and the works from the recent exhibition

Language: violence and repair
Digital Innovation Season 2025, at Central Saint Martins was under the theme ‘Earthsuits’. ‘Earthsuits’ explores the history and future of wearables, from augmentations, devices, materials, to sensors and beyond.

My talk explores the relationship between language and climate damage (from 1:04:55).
Games and Gaming in Life and Literature
I joined Graywolf Lab by Graywolf Press for a roundtable discussion about games and gaming in life and art. The episode also gathers extracts from our writing and features Stephanie Burt, Tracy O'Neill, Elissa Washuta. Have a read and listen here.
image: MirrorStage © Vestibule
Geared to Machine as Metaphor and Driver
An in-depth conversation with writer and educator Zach Peckham for Full-Stop Mag, about my trans-disciplinary artistic practice driven by literature, which attempts to explore what the cybernetics field of thought means in today's technological moment. The interview is framed around my recent books Cybernetics, or Ghosts? and Red Earth, and is published in two parts. Here they are: Part 1 Part 2
Listen to some Cybernetic Reflections
James Ginzburg of Subtext, and I discuss the new book and companion album with Lina Martin-Chan of Trust Support, at CTM Festival in Berlin. Have a listen to the lively and lucid conversation, reflecting on our relationship with technology, and technology as a metaphor.
A Plunge into Calvino
I joined this podcast devoted to the works of novelist and essayist Italo Calvino to discuss my anthology Cybernetics, or Ghosts? and how Calvino's 1967 essay of a similar name, inspired the volume and how his expansive and playful approach to writing, has inspired me more broadly.
Document
Beyond the Zero & Red Earth
An enjoyable exploratory chat with the literary podcast Beyond the Zero, discussing the themes of my book Red Earth and much more.
Document
Planetary Portals at Transmediale, Berlin
Mapping how ‘diabolical architectures’ of colonial materialism hold open Africa as a continent for extraction, Kathryn Yusoff, Kerry Holden, Casper Laing Ebbensgaard, and Michael Salu explore how this legacy of infrastructural space and imaginary practices continues today.

The lecture-performance accompanied by an early version of my film D.A.O.C. and is followed by a moderated conversation between the group and Helen Pritchard.

The panel is a collaboration with Institute of Experimental Design and Media Cultures (IXDM), Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW, and transmediale.
Red Earth at Princeton University
The Red Earth Project is my ongoing artistic, interdisciplinary study by Michael Salu, centred on prose reflections and machine translation, drawing attention to the precarious status of non-western cultural heritage, knowledge systems and practices in the increasingly dominant Western systems of data, virtual architectures and AI technologies. This research asks how alternative cosmologies can be better represented within virtual architectures powered by AI innovation.
Language and Technology
"Is there a case to suggest that language as we know it doesn't actually belong to us anymore?"5x15Amsterdam third speaker Michael Salu explores how technology impacts languages, social behaviour and ultimately, alters our ability to perceive.

5x15 Amsterdam brings together 5 outstanding speakers, who each have 15 minutes to share their lives, dreams and passions.
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