AkademieAIR selection 2026

Thank you for the many strong applications.
We had three slots. Here is who we selected.

Tentakel: Postanthropozäne Theogonie
Alex Grüner 

Alex Grüner’s idea stood out to the jury. A graphic novel about octopoid civilizations piecing together the ruins of human-AI communication will be a welcome contribution to the YslandBook. The project doesn’t explain the theme — it inhabits it unexpectedly. Speculative fiction, graphic storytelling and a genuine sense of humour make this feel alive. What will Schmiede do to it, and what will it do to Ynselbuch?

HOPECORE
Eugénie Desmedt 

HOPECORE lands somewhere uncomfortable, which is the right place to be. Training your own language models to speak the dialect of self-optimization and motivational internet culture is a sharp move — it turns the tools of AI on the mythology surrounding AI. The Jury appreciated that the project doesn’t borrow from existing systems but builds its own ground. The ecological and social questions underneath are present without being preachy. Ynselbuch will gain from Hopecore’s friction.

Schmerz im Obst
Srdjan Knežević  

What drew us to Schmerz im Obst was the tension it refuses to resolve: sensuality against pain, memory against displacement, poetry across languages that don’t always translate cleanly. Knežević doesn’t use AI as a subject but as one layer of a larger investigation into what literary expression can be. The multilingual, audiovisual dimension gives the work a reach that feels right for a book meant to gather voices from many places. We’re looking forward to where this lands on the page.

The three form a trio we didn’t plan but couldn’t ignore — myth, critical practice, poetry — and honestly, the discord between them feels like the point.

more about Akademie Hallein