Emanuel Gollob (AT, b. 1991) is an artist and researcher whose work investigates what happens when humans encounter data-driven systems not as users but as counterparts. In installations, performances, and conceptual works, he brings industrial robots, machine learning models, and biological systems into situations where alternative relations become bodily experienceable and where the frictions between human expectations and logics inscribed in these systems generate new forms of experience, knowledge, and negotiation. He calls these productive tensions Fruitful Frictions.
Gollob’s practice spans embodied AI and robotics (disarming series), generative systems and the politics of non-productivity (Doing Nothing with AI series), biosemiotic human-AI-microbe interactions (ECOLALIA, CHRONOLALIA, Anthropophagic Myths), and the critical examination of AI infrastructures (The Library of Ineffable Affects). His recently published book chapter, Xenomorphosic Encounters (Springer LNAI, 2026), develops a framework for reimagining industrial robots as cultural agents.
He holds degrees from the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Industrial Design; Design Investigations) and is a PhD candidate and researcher at the Creative Robotics department of the University of Arts Linz. He has coordinated research activities in two FWF PEEK projects, holds eight peer-reviewed publications in ACM, IEEE, and Springer, and has collaborated with NVIDIA and KUKA. He teaches block seminars on performativity in human-robot encounters and has led international workshops at institutions including Kapelica Gallery / Kersnikova Institute and LABoral Centro de Arte. Residencies include ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, the European Media Art Platform (EMAP), and the ZEISS Innovation Hub.”
His work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian Arts + Industries Building, HEK Basel, ArtScience Museum Singapore, Science Gallery Melbourne, Ars Electronica, LABoral Centro de Arte, and NVIDIA GTC, and published at ACM CHI, ACM/IEEE HRI, ISEA, and IEEE VR.