Radical Rituals invites a collective cultural inquiry through bold perspectives and transformative practices. In a time of rapid technological shifts and socio-political instability, rituals become essential tools for navigating complexity.
The 11th edition of MUTEK Forum – MUTEK’s annual gathering and showcase of digital creativity’s future – took place from August 20 to 22, 2025, in Tio’tia:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal, Canada at Monument-National, the Society for Arts and Technology (SAT), OASIS Immersion and DASA. Mind-expanding talks, performances, exhibitions, workshops, masterclasses, readings, and networking activities facilitated urgent conversations and new connections within digital culture — bridging music, artificial intelligence (AI), extended reality (XR), media arts, gaming, ecological futures, quantum art, and design. The theme Radical Rituals frames the Forum as a space for resilience, care, and collaboration, where existing and emerging practices can spark systemic change. Radical Rituals are practices that build meaning and community while challenging dominant paradigms and imagining more just, inclusive futures.
To deepen this inquiry and encourage interdisciplinary dialogue, the Forum unfolded over three acts — Storytelling, Technology, and Practices — each offering a distinct entry point into the rituals of digital creation.
Highlights: a live AI poetry reading from language artist Sasha Stiles; AI Ecologies Lab exhibition (a techno-ecological jungle where six groundbreaking AI projects tackle sustainability and creativity), What’s Next in Immersive? A talk show on immersive storytelling with guests from PHI Studio, Ottomata, Victoria and Albert Museum; Quantum Matters Are Never Settled Matters: A talk by quantum art pioneer Libby Heaney; All the World’s Polygons: game-engine lecture by Alice Bucknell in Unreal Engine, a performance lecture from Suzanne Kite, fusing Lakȟóta cosmology and AI, a live reading from critical theorist and author McKenzie Wark, a quantum music demo by MOTH and ILĀ, and a closing conversation with award-winning composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer (The White Lotus, Babygirl, Utopia).
Photos by Maryse Boyse, Felix Bonnevie