M. Beatrice Fazi
Cave Machines:
On the Platonic Representation Hypothesis
Lecture
13 October 2026 at 6 PM
Moderna galerija, Ljubljana
Q&A moderated by Marko Bauer
With a lecture by M. Beatrice Fazi at the Moderna galerija, Aksioma and the Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures are launching a series of new publications and related discursive events that will take place at various venues in Ljubljana and Vienna over the coming months.
The Italian philosopher – known for her work in the philosophy of computation, the philosophy of technology and media philosophy – will give a preview of her new essay entitled “Cave Machines: On the Platonic Representation Hypothesis”, commissioned by the two aforementioned institutions and co-published by Aksioma and the University of Applied Arts Vienna as part of the PostScriptUM series of short essays.
Printed copies will be available for the first time during the event.
In 2024, four MIT researchers named a hypothesis after Plato’s cave: neural networks, trained on different data and tasks, converge on one representation of reality. In Cave Machines, M. Beatrice Fazi takes the conjecture at its word, following it back to Plato, where it comes apart. The models never turn from the wall; the reality behind their agreement falls away. What remains is stranger than realism: representation as construction, structure built, not found, and a cave that is all there is.
The event will also feature a pop-up bookstore offering the latest publications from Aksioma as well as releases from local publishing initiatives such as Šum, ETC., Maska and Založba Sophia’s book series Izhodi.
Beatrice Fazi’s lecture in Ljubljana is a pre-event to
The Theory Cinematic Universe
the symposium organised by Aksioma and the Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures, which will take place at Kino Šiška on 7 December 2026.
More soon.
THE AUTHOR
M. Beatrice Fazi is a philosopher working on the philosophies of computation, technology and media. She has published extensively on the limits and potentialities of the computational method, on digital aesthetics and on the automation of thought. She is Associate Professor at the University of Sussex (United Kingdom), author of Contingent Computation: Abstraction, Experience, and Indeterminacy in Computational Aesthetics (2018) and co-author of Digital Theory (2025).
THE MODERATOR
Marko Bauer is a translator, writer and editor. He co-edits the book series Exits at Sophia publishing house.
CREDITS
Production: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, 2026
In partnership with the Academy of Fine Arts and Design (University of Ljubljana) and Moderna galerija, Ljubljana
Pre-event to the symposium The Theory Cinematic Universe conceived and organized by Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana and the Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures
Supported by:
the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia