POR:TA TALKS #5 Rewriting the Rules: Rethinking the Art World in the Digital Age

POR:TA TALKS #5 took place at Ando Living Rooftop, bringing together artists and cultural practitioners for a conversation exploring how digital art and technology are reshaping the structures of the art world.

As technology becomes increasingly embedded in the ways art is created, exhibited, collected, and experienced, traditional models are being challenged. Digital art is not only introducing new tools and forms of artistic expression, but also raising questions around authorship, value, access, collecting, institutions, and the relationship between artists and audiences.

In this edition, “Rewriting the Rules: Rethinking the Art World in the Digital Age,” the conversation explored how technology is changing the cultural ecosystem and what these transformations might mean for the future of art. From new forms of creation and exhibition to collecting, funding, and access, the discussion brought together different perspectives on which rules are being rewritten, and who is shaping what comes next.

The panel brought together Leonel Moura, a pioneering figure in Portuguese Digital and New Media Art, whose practice has explored robotics, artificial intelligence, and autonomous systems as creative agents for over two decades; João Pedro Fonseca, whose work brings another perspective to the evolving relationship between contemporary art and technology; and Gonçalo Santana Ferreira, a Lisbon-based poet and multidisciplinary artist working across digital art, AI, generative design, video, sound, and interactive installations.

The conversation was moderated by Lucy Antrobus, curator and cultural strategist, who brought her extensive experience in public speaking and facilitating conversations around art and culture.

POR:TA TALKS is a space for dialogue, listening, and reflection, where different voices come together to critically engage with the present and imagine possible futures for the arts.