THE SCREEN #2: A Poem That Never Stops Writing Itself

Press Release 

For the second chapter of THE SCREEN, ZKM | Karlsruhe presents "A LIVING POEM" by Sasha Stiles

Sasha Stiles is one of the most significant voices of the generative age. Following its presentation at MoMA in New York, she brings "A LIVING POEM" to the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe on March 28, as the second position of THE SCREEN. In a form that has never existed before: expanded with personal references to her family history in Germany and as a tribute to the women who shaped computation and media art.

A LIVING POEM 
Sasha Stiles 
March 28 – April 12, 2026 
ZKM | Atrium 8

Sasha Stiles is a Kalmyk-American artist and poet, and one of the leading voices of the generative age – an era in which artificial intelligence does not merely analyze, but autonomously produces. She works with AI as a co-author, and together with her AI alter ego "Technelegy," an evolving system trained to emulate and extend her voice, she explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping human experience, language, and authorship. She understands the algorithm as an indispensable artistic medium of our time, a technology of memory and of consciousness.

A LIVING POEM is an infinite text arising from the interplay of human creativity and computational algorithms, a language game engine that ruptures and recombines language, producing a poem that perpetually rewrites itself. Stiles originally conceived the work for The Museum of Modern Art in New York, where it was on view from September 10, 2025, through March 3, 2026. Inspired by text-based works from MoMA's collection, A LIVING POEM regenerates every 60 minutes, embodying Stiles' understanding of poetry as a dynamic, living system rather than a fixed object. Each verse comes into being in real time through a custom-developed language model, intricate prompting, bespoke datasets, and sensory elements including voice, sound, and image.

A LIVING POEM was developed for the Hyundai Card Digital Wall at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2025 and now shifts with each place it inhabits. For its presentation in Karlsruhe, Stiles expanded the work with personal allusions to her own family history: the artist's mother, a Kalmyk of indigenous Oirat-Mongol descent, was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany after the Second World War and immigrated to the United States as a child. In both countries, her mother tongue – Kalmyk – became a kind of encoded form of memory and belonging. The ZKM version of A LIVING POEM also pays tribute to the pioneering contributions of women in computation and media art whose work is aligned with ZKM's collection and program, among them Vera Molnár, Alison Knowles, Lynn Hershman Leeson, and Tamiko Thiel.

THE SCREEN
THE SCREEN brings together three artistic positions on artificial intelligence over the course of six weeks. Installed in Lichthof 8 of ZKM | Karlsruhe, a monumental LED wall spanning two stories serves as the stage for works that each approach AI from a distinct perspective. The atrium becomes not only a space for exceptional media art, but an open invitation to linger, observe, and connect. THE SCREEN asks its visitors not merely to glance at art, but to spend time with it. On Fridays and Saturdays, the installation remains open until 10 pm.