Docente
Alexander Matthias Gerner

Resume

Alexander Gerner (born 1970 in Friedrichshafen, Germany) is living since 2001 in Portugal and since 2020 resides in Santo Amaro de Oeiras. Gerner is a theater-maker, curator, dramaturg, lecturer, and since December 2023 Adjunct Professor and researcher at Universidade Lusófona/FilmEU. His aim is to rehearse/probe interdisciplines of aesthetics, arts, society and technology to rethink the social contract, creativity and the human with means of hacking and dramaturgies of becoming other in the digital AI/ML age. Gerner studied German Studies and protestant Theology at the LMU Munich between 1992-1997 with a Villigst e.V. grant. He holds a PhD in History and Philosophy of Science (Universidade de Lisboa, 29/5/2012) ¿Philosophical Investigations of Attention¿ and held two sucessive Post-Doc Fellowships (FCT) ¿Philosophy of Cognitive Enhancement¿ between 2013-2016 and 2016-2019. He received the 2011 Mellon Foundation-fellowship grant at CASBS, Stanford University on Cognitive (Neuro-) Sciences and the Humanities in 2011 (Stanford University, USA). Besides the 2006-2009 PhD Scholarship (FCT), Portugal he attended the 2003 Documentary Film Course (174 hours) edition of the Videoteca CM Lisboa. In 1998 he received the "Dance¬ and Theatre-prize"of the city counsel of Munich for his multimedia and interdisciplinary (Internet/TV/theater) play ¿Ztml¿ (Muffathalle München) and in 1997 received the Prize of the Authors Days (Autorentheatertage) for his theatreplay ¿Trance¿. He was head of the research line Philosophy of Human Technology and head of the RG3 research group Science, Art, Technology and Society at the research center CFCUL (4/2023-10/2023). Gerner´s general research goal is to propose and insert itself in a philosophical reflection of philosophy of technology and media ( such as AI aesthetics and AI Avatars) and its ethics and (generative) aesthetic issues- within an interdisciplinary focus on the concept of human technology, ethics and aesthetics foundations, hacking and philosophy of green human technology techno-human F2F encounters and (programmed) sociality within philosophical critical reflections of the concept of generative (synthetic) media, algorithmic cinema, operativity and the philosophy of inovative media, the digital and quantum computing, gestures and artefacts, art-as-research and epistemologies of aesthetics, audience and mediated presneces, aesthetic-artistic-experiential experimentation and crossmodal sonification/visualisations driven by resilience and resistance in the midst of climate change and proposing scenic methods of climate theatre . Research and teaching on philosophy of (digital) technology and media to rethink & hack into rehearsals, artistic research, art,sonic thinking, dramaturgies of alterity, green ethics and a new social contract & human aesthetic experience for a critic of algorithmic rationality, affectivity and simulation of social encounters, e.g. in AI Avatar platforms. Since 10/2023 he is as well member of the IPQ(portuguese Quantum Institute)with Quantum Connection platform and the first Tenure track member of FilmEU University and its international consortium as Auxiliary Professor and Reseracher based at Universidade Lusófona, Lisbon, since December 2023 and at CICANT (DOI 10.54499/UIDB/05260/2020) since January 2024.

Graus

• Licenciatura
  Germanistik/Ev. Theologie LA Gymnasium
• Doutoramento
  History and Philosophy of Science
• Pós-doutoramento
  Philosophy of Cognitive Enhancement
• Outros
  Documentary Film Course

Publicações

Magazine article

• 2016-09-13, Data without interpretation or interpretation without object?, Mateus Doc Caderno XI
• 2015-05-03, Notes on embodied and disembodied notions of infinity and continuity (considering C.S.Peirce, Rudy Rucker´s 'White Light' and Milan Kundera ´Immortality´, Mateus Doc
• 2015-03-02, Introduction: Desvio/Detour, Cadernos Mateus Doc
• 2015-03-02, Enhancement as Deviation: Notes on a Philosophy of Enhancement , Cadernos Mateus Doc VII- Desvio

Journal issue

• Special Issue: AI aesthetics n.1 v.11 Eds: A. M. Gerner; R. S. Souza; V. de Aguiar, 11

Journal article

• 2024-07-01, TOUCHING THE FACE OF THE OTHER PRELIMINARY EXPLORATIONS IN AI AVATARIZATION FOR FAKE/FACE AESTHETICS, Reti, saperi, linguaggi 1/2024 a. 13 (25) pp. 13-36
• 2024-07, AI Heritage Avatars, Revista de Comunicação e Linguagens
• 2023-12, Towards AI Aesthetics, Semeiosis - transdisciplinary journal of semiotics
• 2023-12, Critical Generative AI Aesthetics, Semeiosis - transdisciplinary journal of semiotics
• 2023-01-24, Rehearsals on Faciality Diagrams of AI Avatars, Estudos Kantianos [EK]
• 2022-05-05, Rüdiger Zill Der absolute Leser, Phenomenological Reviews
• 2021-04-01, Hacking into Cybertherapy: Considering a Gesture-enhanced Therapy with Avatars ( g+T A), Kairos. Journal of Philosophy & Science
• 2020-01-29, Towards the techno-social Uncanny, Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia
• 2019-10-07, Antlitzverluste. Zum kritischen Posthumanismus des Gesichts, Internationales Jahrbuch für Medienphilosophie
• 2018-09-08, Oikos der Alterität.Drei Ouvertüren zu einer Ökonomie, Ökologie und Echologie der Aufmerksamkeit, Internationales Jahrbuch für Medienphilosophie
• 2017-12-19, Probing Cognitive Enhancements of Social “Resonance” – Towards a Aesthetic Community of Sensing and Making Music Together, Kairos. Journal of Philosophy & Science
• 2016-07-07, TOWARDS A PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN TECHNOLOGY: OUTLOOK ON COGNITIVE ENHANCEMENTS IN AVATAR/ VIRTUAL REALITY SCHIZOPHRENIA THERAPY, compleXitas Rev. Fil. Tem.

Thesis / Dissertation

• 2012-05-29, PhD, Philosophical Investigations of Attention
• 1996-10-05, Degree, Semiotik des Lachens auf dem Theater. Teil einer didaktischen Wahrnehmungsschule des Dramas, dargestellt an produktiven Rezeptionen von Texten von Heinrich v. Kleist

Book

• 2016, STRATA, 1, Gerner, Alexander, BoD

Book chapter

• 2025, Rehearsals Of Shared Encounters for Improvising a Public Square, Designing in Times of Crisis. Envisioning and Applying, Routledge
• 2025, Hacking Into Green Deal Neighbourhoods with City Ethics and Fundamental Human Rights, Designing in Times of Crisis. Envisioning and Applying, Routledge
• 2025, Do “AI” Avatars generate our past? Hacking into transformations of temporality by synthetic media , ARTIFICIAL MEDIA: Emerging Trends in Creativity, Education and Artistic Practice (=Springer Series on Cultural Computing), Springer Nature
• 2024, Playing with Arte(f)actors, Diachronic Perspectives on Embodiment and Technology, Springer Nature
• 2024, Diachronic Perspectives on Embodiment and Technology: Gestures and Artefacts An Introduction, Springer Nature
• 2023, The Eyes Have it . The Problem of the Avatar Gaze, Actor & Avatar. A Catalogue, transcript
• 2023, THE AIS HAVE IT? HACKING INTO THE AI AVATAR DREAM, Actor and Avatar. A Catalogue, transcript
• 2023, On Ali Moini's Avatar hacking, Actor & Avatar, transcript
• 2023, Hackear a "Aprendizagem" Profunda: Bildung entre ruído e a resonância, Cognition & Modeling, Proceedings of 11th International Meeting on Information, Knowledge and Action. Diamantina, Brasil, 2023
• 2022, REHEARSALS OF SHARED ENCOUNTERS FOR IMPROVISING A PUBLIC SQUARE, ARQUITETURA, CIDADE E PAISAGEM PROJETAR EM CONTEXTO DE CRISE, 10, Taylor & Francis
• 2022, Hacking into Green Deal Neighbourhoods with city ethics and fundamental human rights , ARCHITECTURE, CITY AND LANDSCAPE DESIGN IN A CONTEXT OF CRISIS, 10, Taylor & Francis
• 2020, Smile to pay with your face. Hacking into programmed faciality in the age of Big Data and AI, Big Data: Implicações Epistemológicas e Éticas , 88, CLE, Filoczar
• 2019, “The Origin of the New World”. On Elena Dorfman’s Deus (S)ex-Machina, Feminist Philosophy of Technology (=Techno:Phil ¿ Aktuelle Herausforderungen der Technikphilosophie), J.B. Metzler
• 2019, Self-Melioration, Autonomy and Music-Enriched Self-Control: On Enhancing Children’s Attention, Shaping Children. Ethical and Social Questions that Arise when Enhancing the Young (=Advances in Neuroethics, 2), 2019, 2, Springer International Publishing
• 2017, Resonanz und Interaktion: Eine philosophische Annäherung anhand zweier Proben, Resonanz - Rhythmus - Synchronisierung, transcript Verlag
• 2015, Conceptual personae of the "attentional self"
• 2014, Introduction
• 2014, On the Cinematic Self- Cinematic experience as “Out-of- Body” experience?, Altered Self and Altered Self Experience, BoD

Edited book

• 2024, Springer International Publishing
• 2014, 1, 1, BoD
• 2010, College Publication
• 2007, 2007, CFCUL

Report

• 2021-02-15, On Hacking Cultures, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349324747_On_Hacking_Cultures
• 2019-11, Philosophy of Cognitive Enhancement- Final Report 30.9.2019 (143pp), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349338395_FINAL_REPORT_ALEXANDER_GERNER_Philosophy_of_Cognitive_Enhancement_SFHBPD903602012_3092019
• 2019-08-16, Envisioning human autonomy in the digital age with quantum technologies

Working paper

• 2022-12-22, Let IT write? Hacking into Dramaturgies and strategies of prompt as Automatization of writing in the age of the dream of the "creative machine"
• 2022-12-22, Hacking into Aesthetics and Politics of AI-Avatarization and algorithmic faciality
• 2022-12-21, Towards ethical implications of Quantum Communication Working Draft_0.1
• 2020-04-22, Hacking into Dramaturgies and enabling technologies of AI and Big Data: Notes on philosophical "Noise" and Michel Serres "Parasite" in the time of the Sars Covid-19 Virus
• 2019-12-13, Hacking into algorithmic aesthetics

Online resource

• 2014-04-05, PODEMOS MELHORAR A ATENÇÃO?

Conference paper

• 2017-07-13, Gesture-based cognitive enhancements by random walks and human digital body doubles, 16th International Meeting of Art and Technology: #16.ART: Artis intelligentia: IMAGINING THE REAL
• 2017-01, Philosophical outlook on Avatars as Enhanced Embodied Techniques of Self and Other in Schizophrenia Therapy., VIII Jornadas Ibéricas de Filosofia da Ciência

Conference abstract

• 2017-11-24, Hacking, messing around, enhancing, flattening or resisting the embodied alien?
• 2016-12-28, On the virtual “uncanny”
• 2013-09-11, Gerner, A (2013) "The relation of attention, pain and perspective-taking in integrative medicine: “enhanced distraction techniques of attention”,, Psychosomatic Assessment and Integrative Care. 22nd World Congress on Psychosomatic Medicine, Lisbon

Exhibition catalog

• 2022, O acto de Vestir a Máscara, Arena Ensemble/ Culturgest
• 2020, Sulcos: manual de sobrevivência (Sérgio Costa), Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes, Lisboa
• 2018, Dry Moments: Notes on Samuel Matzig´s Photography Series Stilles Wesen// Silent Being, IBIRAPI Contemporânea
• 2014, Gerner, A. (2014). Thinking the Non-Stratified with Sergio Costa’s >StrataStrata<, bilingue edition. In: Museaum Edit (Ed.). Arte Laguna Prize Sérgio Costa Strata (14.5-.-5.6.2014), Veneza: p.18 -21, EUROPRINT: Arte Laguna Prize, Veneza, Italy https://issuu.com/artelagunaprize/docs/catalogo_sergio_costa_issuu

Preface / Postscript

• 2015, Cadernos Mateus Doc Migration/ Migracion

Theatre play

• 2022-03-25, Wild (dramaturgy), Arena Ensemble, Culturgest
• 2018-01-11, Actores/Actors (Co-Dramaturgy), Arena Ensemble , Teatro São Luiz, Lisbon, Portugal
• 2010-05-20, Os Cães (The Dogs) (Co-Author, director, visual concept), Teatro Turim Lisbon, associação AM'ART, Teatro Turim Lisbon, Teatro Turim, Lisbon, Portugal
• 2007-09-27, The International Show: A Panikk Transatlantique, PS122 New York USA; Bergen Nationaltheater Norway; Meteor Festival; Tou Scene, Performance Space P122, New York, USA

Artistic performance

• 2011-08-15, Notes on Utopia, Atelier Concorde, Lisbon, Portugal
• 2010-08-11, "He who does not work shall not eat. Lançamentos de ideias à paisana [Launch of undercover ideias], Sou festival AoGosto, Lisbon (PT), SOU Movimento e Arte
• 2008-02-10, Let´s do Endings again, breakfast performance with crumbs, migalhas, krümel and smule, lydgalleriet, Bergen, Norway
• 2004-04-15, What keeps you awake?, BIT Teatergarasjen, Bergen, Norway
• 2003-04-23, Fiel Amigo. A friend that can be trusted, Bergen Galerie 3.14, Bergen, Norway
• 2003, tragédia 0:1 "Tragedy 0:1" (The football match is a test of ethics in society), CCB (BlackBox), Lisbon, Portugal

Other output

• 2023-12-23, AI Aesthetics- CfP (Semeiosis December 2023), Special Issue on AI Aesthetics Call For Papers: Semeiosis open access journal Special Issue on AI Aesthetics Submission Deadline: 20th of May 2023 All submissions must be made directed to the following e-mail address: amgerner@fc.ul.pt https://semeiosis.com.br/ Qualis B2 - ISSN 2178-5368 — semeiosis@usp.br semeiosis semiótica e transdisciplinaridade em revista
• 2023-08-27, ESCOLA DAS TRANSIÇÕES|CONVERSATIONS OPEN STUDIO | ANNEMARIE MAES | JONATHAN MINCHIN | ALEXANDER GERNER, Em diálogo com o projeto Escola das Transições, reside na Fundação da Casa de Mateus ao longo do ano de 2023 e aqui instalou o seu Laboratório da Forma e da Matéria, no qual experimenta formas novas com materiais locais, bactérias e têxteis vivos. No final de Agosto, serão as vindimas a dar o tom para novas criações.
• 2022-05-02, Research Proposal: Transformations of languages and communication in the digital sphere: complexity, modeling and new ethical perspectives, Submitted Research Project: to FAPESP 2022 Transformations of languages and communication in the digital sphere: complexity, modeling and new ethical perspectives /Responsible Researcher: Anderson Vinicius Romanini (USP) Host Institution: School of Communications and Arts (ECA) at the University of São Paulo (USP) Duration: 5 years
• 2021-01-26, Workpackage 6 (Author) Green Ethics, Philosophy of Human Technology, Culture & Policies EU Horizon 2020 Green Deal Proposal , submitted application WP 6 (1,2 Mio Euros) on Green Ethics, Philosophy of Human Technology, Culture & Policies develops a Green ethics including policy advice and cultural intelligent greentech that heeds the challenges of the European Green Deal to transform the EU countries together from a high to a low carbon economy without reducing prosperity and while improving people's quality of life
• 2019-09, Campinas 2: Hacking into programmed sociality of F2F encounters: ethical, political and societal challenges in the age of >Big Data< and AI, Humanity is facing to be increasingly immersed in the digital world, becoming hackable in relation to self-, personhood and our sociality. Companies and even states are engaged in digital governance of our behavior and our extended digital doubles and interconnected bodily selves by profiling, tracking, surveillance, automating decisions. We have to reflect algorithmic rationalities critically.
• 2019-05, Ruby (Associate Producer), Fiction Short Film, 16mm, colour, Portugal 2019 PT/English director: Mariana Gaivão Producer: Primeira Idade, Alexander Gerner, Mariana Gaivão 931 Spectators (02/2020) 7 Festival Selections (incl. International Film Festival Rotterdam 2020; Fillm Fest Dresden 2020) 11 Exhibitions 3 Awards (Best Director Villa do Conde 2019; Best portuguese Short Caminhos Coimbra 2019; Best Poster Award)