Le Random

Le Random
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Visual Arts
  • Updated Biweekly

Le Random is building a digital generative art institution that contextualizes and elevates generative art. We achieve this in two ways. First, we are assembling a historically encompassing, chain-agnostic generative art collection. Second, we publish content that enables the generative art community to understand its past, curate its present and celebrate its future. This includes an Editorials section, our book-length Generative Art Timeline and our multimedia content here and on YouTube. This is the home of Le Random's audio content.

  1. 4d ago

    46: Melanie Lenz—Generativity and Vera Molnár at the V&A with Peter Bauman

    Episode page and full transcript: https://www.lerandom.art/episodes/melanie-lenz-generativity-and-vera-molnar-at-the-va  In this episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random's editor in chief) speaks with Melanie Lenz, Curator of Digital Art at the V&A, about Vera Molnár and Degrees of Disruption: Vera Molnar and Generative Art, her display at V&A South Kensington, open until May 2027. They follow Molnár's practice per the show's layout. It goes from her early geometric paintings in Paris through the machine imaginaire, her first access to a computer in 1968 and decades of plotter work. Lenz explains how the display draws on the V&A's computer art holdings, including the Computer Arts Society and Patric Prince collections, and why it closes with contemporary artists such as Casey Reas, Harm van den Dorpel, Licia He, William Mapan and Entangled Others. They also discuss how museums show the process behind computer art, the stigma around artists who work with machines, and why Lenz avoids the word "pioneer." Read our editorial, Degrees of Disruption: Vera Molnár at the V&A The display runs at V&A South Kensington until 30 May 2027, free: https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/degrees-of-disruption-vera-molnar-and-generative-art  Also in this episode: François Molnár, Degrees of Disruption, Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel (GRAV), Charles Csuri, Sougwen Chung, John Cage, Cybernetic Serendipity, François Morellet, Gottfried Jäger, Julio Le Parc Read next: Molnár's Paris Listen next: Ep. 17, Digital Curators Series 01—Douglas Dodds on Collecting and Valuing Emerging Technologies, Ep. 5, Timeline Ch 4—Digital Era Pt II (1960s) with Michael Spalter On the Living Timeline: Vera Molnár Develops Her “Machine Imaginaire” (1959), Vera Molnár Begins her Computer Art Phase with the Interruptions Series (1968) Chapters 📖: 00:00 Introduction 01:31 Why Vera Molnár, why now 05:12 Disruption as a way of life 07:31 Paris and the output space 11:25 Rules, art history and the art world 14:39 GRAV, François and agency 18:31 Entangled Others and generative AI 23:51 Showing the process 27:43 The machine imaginaire 30:55 Getting the computer 33:43 Generative principles today 37:36 Rules and learned models 41:51 The P word 44:37 Stories still to tell

  2. Jul 31

    45: AI Psychosis Summit—Macy Gettles, Quasimatt and Kevin Esherick with Peter Bauman

    Episode page and full transcript: https://www.lerandom.art/episodes/ai-psychosis-summit-macy-gettles-quasimatt-and-kevin-esherick In this episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random's editor in chief) speaks with Macy Gettles, Quasimatt and Kevin Esherick about the community around the AI Psychosis Summit that took place in Downtown NYC, April 30, 2026. They cover the origins of the community, from a memey, joke tweet to a packed Chinatown DIY community gathering. It's a scene where devs make art and artists ship products, where the point is the community rather than any individual art object. They also discuss managing AI euphoria with backlash, slop discourse and whether New York is over as Josh Kline's October article suggested. Read Kevin's Monday Editorial with us, What Was the AI Psychosis Summit?? Also in this episode: Anthropic, Basel Social Club Listen next: Ep. 44, Figure31—Discussing and Demonstrating DEL with Peter Bauman, Ep. 38, 2025 Art in Review with thefunnyguys, Conrad House & Peter Bauman Chapters 📖: 00:00 What was the AI Psychosis Summit? 05:04 How AI showed up in the work 11:30 Facing the anti-AI backlash 16:58 Cottagecore, aesthetics and slop 25:08 The image in 2026. Process vs. concept 28:03 AI psychosis, defined 36:36 Founding myth: a joke tweet 38:23 The Kline essay: is New York art over? 46:50 Scene tech and the Shake app 53:07 'What's next' and where to find everyone

  3. May 29

    44: Figure31—Discussing and Demonstrating DEL with Peter Bauman

    Episode page and full transcript: https://www.lerandom.art/episodes/figure31-discussing-and-demonstrating-del In this special video episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random's editor in chief) speaks with artist Loucas Braconnier (Figure31). They discuss DEL, a two-year project that began life as a terminal-based C application with a "Grim Reaper" persona before becoming a browser-native work. It consists of globular "bodies for the Ethereum network" rendered in real time as ASCII art. They go over Braconnier's path into blockchain art and his attraction to work that evolves over time, the discipline of building for longevity, and a wider conversation about how AI and new tools shift the artist's focus from technical skill toward conceptual intent. In the second half, Braconnier gives a live demo of the work and a visual walk-through, showing how its entities express network data through behaviors like twirling, meditating, or trying to escape the viewport. Monday's Editorial: Jakob Kudsk Steensen on Non-Human Pathways Also in this episode: Rafaël Rozendaal, Artforum Read next: Rafaël Rozendaal on a Liquid Canvas Listen next: Ep. 45, AI Psychosis Summit—Macy Gettles, quasimatt and Kevin Esherick with Peter Bauman, Ep. 30, Parker Ito—Understanding the World through Images with Peter Bauman Chapters 📖 00:00 — Introduction: meet Loucas Braconnier (Figure31) and the work 01:02 — Finding blockchain: the spark that drew him to Ethereum 03:02 — Why blockchain: what it brings to art that evolves over time 05:30 — Sculpture Garden & "Traveler": protocol art and the contract's inner space 09:38 — How DEL relates: dialogue with and departure from his earlier work 15:19 — On-chain & longevity: immutability, repairability, committing to the future 18:22 — Two years of work: from a terminal "Grim Reaper" agent to the browser 22:07 — Bodies for Ethereum: liveliness, behaviors, giving voice to the network 25:53 — Live demo: walking through the main collection 28:58 — Reading behavior: behavior modes and the 3D object behind the ASCII 30:41 — Browser as space: native viewing, reproduction, and the original 34:35 — The data readouts: exposing configuration, logs, and block hashes 40:10 — Owner tuning: editing parameters and giving away control 44:57 — Custom sites: bespoke builds over marketplace platforms 51:00 — AI and making: technical skill versus conceptual intent 56:02 — Closing: final reflections and what comes next

  4. May 12

    43: New York Frieze Week—Michael Connor, Regina Harsanyi & Karyn Nakamura with Peter Bauman

    Episode page and full transcript: https://www.lerandom.art/episodes/new-york-frieze-week-michael-connor-regina-harsanyi-and-karyn-nakamura In this episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random's editor in chief) speaks with Regina Harsanyi (Associate Curator of Media Arts at the Museum of the Moving Image), Michael Connor, Executive Director of Rhizome, and artist Karyn Nakamura about Frieze Week in New York. In particular the discussion focuses on the week's programs on May 16th, with Rhizome's 7 on 7 at New Museum, as well as MoMI's Open Worlds: An Afternoon of Digital Art Encounters. They cover an anatomy of Frieze Week itself, (art fair, satellite fairs, Whitney Biennial, and all) before zeroing in on what each guest is bringing to the table. Connor traces the sixteen-year arc of 7x7, this year organized around the theme of "Containment." Nakamura discusses her own 7x7 project with Lucas Gelfond, which probes the geometry of meaning inside language models and the possibilities of interpretability research as artistic material. Harsanyi walks through the museum programming in depth. See our "New York Digital Art Guide" Monday's Editorial this week is an essay by Bauman on the relationship between protocol art and worldbuilding: The Cerebral Samba Also in this episode: Josh Kline, Édouard Glissant, Linda Dounia, Rhea Myers, Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), MIT, Avery Singer, Ken Knowlton, Sarah Friend, Travess Smalley Read next: Reprogramming Sensory Habits, Wendi Yan & Karyn Nakamura on the Artifice of Knowledge Listen next: Ep. 18, Digital Curators Series 02—Regina Harsanyi & Jon Ippolito on Preserving the Digital, Ep. 25, Recapping Digital Art in 2Q 2025 Chapters 📖: 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:18 Frieze Week: What It Is and Why It Matters 00:07:20 The Saturday Battle Royale: 7x7 vs. MoMI 00:08:52 7x7: The Commons Residency and the "Containment" Theme 00:13:11 Karyn Nakamura: Interpretability as Artistic Material 00:16:19 MoMI x Tezos: Digital Materiality and the Fellowship 00:18:38 Edgar Fabian Frias and the Nureyka Performance 00:20:17 Travess Smalley's Pixel Rug Book and OONA 00:23:52 The Artist/Technologist Binary 00:35:20 Corporate Sponsorship and Artistic Subversion 00:38:27 The Josh Kline Essay: Real Estate and Art Quality 00:42:10 Rhea Meyers & Linda Dounia collaboration

  5. May 8

    42: Strange Rules and Protocol Art at the Venice Biennale—Trevor Paglen & Primavera De Filippi with Peter Bauman

    Episode page and full transcript: https://www.lerandom.art/episodes/strange-rules-and-protocol-art-at-the-venice-biennale In this episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random's editor in chief) speaks with artists Trevor Paglen and Primavera De Filippi about Protocol art. The occasion is Strange Rules, the landmark group exhibition co-conceived by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Holly Herndon, and Mat Dryhurst, running at the Palazzo Diedo in Venice for the full duration of the Biennale. The show offers the most institutionally significant framing of protocol art to date, and Paglen and De Filippi represent two of its most distinct vantages. The conversation opens with the question of how each artist situates their practice within the protocol framework. Paglen, long known as a revealer of hidden infrastructures, reflects on a career built between systems observation and systems intervention. He and on how his new work Voyager marks a turn inward, toward consciousness rather than exposure. De Filippi, a longtime Protocol art theorist and one of the few artists to self-define as a protocol artist, walks through her Protocolism Manifesto and the decade-long Plantoid project that preceded it, sharpening a key distinction: the difference between making art on top of a protocol and making the protocol itself as the creative act. Meanwhile, our Monday Editorial with Shohei Fujimoto completes our Venice Biennale coverage for the week. (More to come!) Also in this episode: OpenAI, Sam Altman Read next: Living Aesthetics: A Grammar of Protocol Art and Worldbuilding, Trevor Paglen on Technological Points of View Listen next: Ep. 38, 2025 Art in Review with thefunnyguys, Conrad House & Peter Bauman, Ep. 43, New York Frieze Week—Michael Connor, Regina Harsanyi & Karyn Nakamura with Peter Bauman Chapters 📖: 00:00 Introduction & The Strange Rules Exhibition 01:39 Trevor Paglen's Work: Voyager and the Pivot Inward 02:49 Trevor Paglen on Protocol Art & Post-Minimal Influences 04:57 Primavera De Filippi Defines Protocol Art & the Protocolism Manifesto 08:13 Voyager Explained: AI That Hypnotizes You 10:22 Plantoid: The Self-Replicating Blockchain Sculpture 13:34 The Breadth of Protocol Art & the Venice Biennale as Platform 17:43 Why Protocol Art Is Rising: Generative AI & the Meta-Layer 20:57 Photography, Modernism & the Current AI Rupture 23:35 Capital-A Algorithm: Fear, Critique & Alternatives 26:36 Embracing the Algorithm: Open Source & Artistic Autonomy 30:05 Consciousness, Entanglement & Voyager's Six Journeys 33:41 Synthetic Life, Symbionts & Machine Qualia 39:05 Protocol Art as a Lens for Economics, Politics & Technology 42:34 Protocol vs. Instantiation, Copyright & Closing Thoughts

  6. Apr 10

    41: James Bridle—Questioning Machine Intelligence with Peter Bauman

    Episode page and full transcript: https://www.lerandom.art/episodes/james-bridle-questioning-machine-intelligence In this podcast episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random's editor in chief) speaks with artist and writer James Bridle about what we actually mean when we say "intelligence." They discuss whether building our most powerful technologies around such a narrow version of it is a fundamental mistake. They also unpack author Bridle's argument from Ways of Being that intelligence has always been a political construct, and that contemporary AI represents a reduction of a reduction. The conversation moves through the three effects Bridle sees AI concretely producing right now: consolidation of power, environmental destruction, and a spreading ontological crisis. They end by widening to consciousness, ecological thinking, and what a genuinely non-human intelligence might actually require. It is one of the more skeptical conversations Le Random has hosted on AI, and one of the most clarifying. Enjoy! Monday's Editorial: Keiken on the Worldbuilding Lens Also in this episode: James Bridle, Gene Kogan, Hito Steyerl Read next: Hito Steyerl on How It Uses Us Listen next: Ep. 36, Stephanie Dinkins—AI, Memory & Survival with Peter Bauman, Ep. 39, Lawrence Lek—World Entry Points with Peter Bauman Chapters 📖: 00:00 Introduction: What Is Intelligence? 02:01 The Human Bias in How We Define Intelligence 08:03 Boosterism vs. Doomerism: Bridle's Dual Critique 15:10 Can Agentic AI Produce Ecological Intelligence? 20:07 Citizens' Assemblies and the Power of Diversity 24:37 Symbionts: A Third Way to Engage with AI? 29:55 AI Coding, Relationships, and What Actually Changes Us 36:16 Three Real Effects of AI: Power, Environment, Uncertainty 41:00 Art, Ethics, and the Glitch Residency 45:10 Consciousness Beyond Language: Mountains, Machines, and Standing Waves

  7. Feb 13

    40: Kayvon Tehranian & Sebastian Sanchez—Digital Art Post Boom with Peter Bauman

    Episode page and full transcript: https://www.lerandom.art/episodes/kayvon-tehranian-and-sebastian-sanchez-digital-art-post-boom In this special episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random's editor in chief) speaks with Kayvon Tehranian (CEO and co-founder of Foundation and Rodeo) and Sebastian Sanchez (formerly Christie's Manager of Digital Art Sales, now independent advisor and curator) about the structural challenges of the digital art market following the 2021 NFT boom. They discuss Foundation's recent sale to Blackdove and how Christie's, Sotheby's, and Rodeo have had to dissolve departments or shut down entirely because growth models built on crypto speculation proved unsustainable. The conversation explores where growth actually stalled and why none of the business models worked. Tehranian and Sanchez discuss what their organizations achieved, what can endure, and the need to rebuild from scratch. In the end, this conversation moves into the lofty topics of digital art becoming independent of volatile crypto cycles, moving into physical displays, and developing self-sufficient institutions built through slow, intentional work by committed participants. Also in this episode: Kayvon Tehranian, Sebastian Sanchez, NODE, Mike Winkelmann (Beeple), Becky Kleiner, Micky Malka, MoMA, Tyler Hobbs, XCOPY Read next: Micky Malka & Becky Kleiner on the Birth of NODE, NODE's 10,000: Fast Art, Slow Looking Listen next: Ep. 27, Reviewing Digital Art in 3Q 2025, Ep. 38, 2025 Art in Review with thefunnyguys, Conrad House & Peter Bauman Chapters 📖: 00:00 Introduction 01:40 Are These Isolated Incidents or Symptoms? 09:52 The Business Model Problem 14:13 Crypto Speculation vs. Art Collecting 19:13 Why Are Auction Houses Pulling Away? 25:45 The Role of Institutions 30:56 Anti-Establishment Energy and What Endures 36:00 The Physical Display Problem 38:40 What Will Endure: Rooted Practices 43:55 How Close Was It to Being Sustainable? 48:02 Leaner Models and the Future

  8. Jan 16

    39: Lawrence Lek—World Entry Points with Peter Bauman

    Episode page and full transcript: https://www.lerandom.art/episodes/lawrence-lek-world-entry-points In this special podcast episode, host Peter Bauman (Le Random’s editor in chief) speaks with artist and filmmaker Lawrence Lek about NOX Pavilion at The Bass Museum of Art in Miami, an immersive installation centered on a self-driving car in a “therapy” program for malfunctioning AIs. They unpack Lek’s long-running NOX universe: a speculative rehab center where care can slide into control, and where machine interiority is treated as a technical defect. The conversation moves from the politics of nonhuman rights and legal gray zones (“it depends”) to Lek’s recurring fascination with autonomous creative agency and what it would mean for an AI to make art as a choice that conflicts with its intended function. In the second half, Lek and Bauman widen the lens to world-building: why a world isn’t one thing but multiple entry points, how ideas like Umwelt and worldview shape what any intelligence can perceive, and why Lek increasingly thinks of his simulations as “superficial models”—interfaces to reality rather than claims to foundational truth. Monday’s Le Random Editorial: "Embodying AI at NeurIPS 2025: Creative AI Track" by Luba Elliott and "Ian Cheng on Composing with Systems" by Peter Bauman Also in this episode: Luba Elliott, Ian Cheng, Karl Sims, Sarah Friend Read next: Lawrence Lek on AI Reinventing Place Listen next: Ep. 41, James Bridle—Questioning Machine Intelligence with Peter Bauman, Ep. 31, Ian Goodfellow on Inventing GANs with Peter Bauman (Deep Learning Series 02) On the Living Timeline: Lawrence Lek Wins 2024 Artist Award at Frieze London (2024) Chapters 📖: 00:00:00 Intro + Monday editorial highlights (NeurIPS / Luba Elliott) 00:07:06 From ecology to AI: nonhuman agency, rights, and “mature” discourse 00:13:39 Repairing AI interiority: Enigma’s “Revery” and malfunction-as-psychology 00:19:58 Legal personhood + Empty Rider: blame, responsibility, and the “it depends” machine 00:27:35 The crash test dummy: guide character, onboarding, and corporate voice 00:32:11 The empathy transition: why people resist empathizing with machines (for now) 00:38:25 Narratives vs “living code”: simulation stories and instantiated lifeforms 00:44:21 What counts as a world? Umwelt, worldview, and multiple entry points 00:53:23 Where immersive worlds may head: metaverse hangover, AI’s role, and formats shifting 01:00:50 Outro + goodbye

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Le Random is building a digital generative art institution that contextualizes and elevates generative art. We achieve this in two ways. First, we are assembling a historically encompassing, chain-agnostic generative art collection. Second, we publish content that enables the generative art community to understand its past, curate its present and celebrate its future. This includes an Editorials section, our book-length Generative Art Timeline and our multimedia content here and on YouTube. This is the home of Le Random's audio content.

Information

  • Creator
    Le Random
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    47
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Le Random
  • Show Website
    Le Random

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