Residency: Speculative Violence. Ethics, Aesthetics, and Power in the Age of AI-Generated 'Synthetic Realism'
Donatella Della Ratta · Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies, John Cabot University Rome, IT
"Speculative Violence" is about how AI-generated images are reshaping our perception of the future—and, in turn, our actions in the present. It's a process in which acts of future harm—displacement, destruction, erasure—are rendered visually real before they occur. Once seen, they begin to feel inevitable, stripped of urgency or political shock. Trump’s proposed vision of Gaza as the 'Riviera of the Middle East' is a striking example: even if met with outrage or disbelief, the slick, AI-generated visuals begin to settle into public consciousness. What once seemed like provocation starts to feel plausible. In this way, generative AI acts as a prophetic visual tool, reversing photography’s traditional link to memory. Instead of documenting what has been, it implants what might be—conditioning collective perception to accept politically engineered visions of the future as inevitable, and in doing so, enacting a quiet, insidious form of violence."
The project investigates the role of synthetic images—those generated by artificial intelligence—within contemporary dynamics of violence, analyzing their ethical, political, and aesthetic implications. It explores the notion of "synthetic realism" brought to life by generative AI, in which adherence to reality is no longer a standard for an image’s value. These seemingly innocuous images, born from binary code, devoid of empirical ties, origin, or context, silently perform violence against history, factuality, and the very notion of evidence. The research maps these emerging modes of being of the image—both the overtly destructive and the subtle, almost imperceptible forms—that inhabit the landscape of synthetic realism.
Finally, it explores how AI-generated images contribute to “speculative violence”—a subtle yet powerful form of harm enacted through the visualization of imagined, contentious futures—by crafting images that not only materialize these scenarios but also normalize them, shaping perception and conditioning acceptance. In doing so, these synthetic images blur the line between possibility and inevitability, making the unreal feel not only real, but imminent.
By critically examining these visual regimes, the project invites a deeper reflection on how algorithmic aesthetics can silently prefigure, normalize, and legitimize acts of violence before they even occur.
Donatella Della Ratta’s residency at the Disruption Network Institute (1 May-1 November 2025) is part of the research “Speculative Violence. Ethics, Aesthetics, and Power in the Age of AI-Generated 'Synthetic Realism'”, granted by the Italian Council (Public Call 2024).
In this context, she will realise a lecture performance ASK ME FOR THOSE UNBORN PROMISES THAT MAY SEEM UNLIKELY TO HAPPEN IN THE NATURAL. #2 2025, at the conference SHADOWS OF ILLIBERALISM: Resisting the Radical Right, 13-15 June 2025 – Studio 1, Kunstquartier Bethanien. Read more here.
Project supported by:
Donatella Della Ratta
Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies, John Cabot University Rome, IT
Donatella Della Ratta is a scholar, performer, and curator specializing in networked technologies and generative AI. Currently Associate Professor of Communication at John Cabot University, she is a former Affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. In addition to her widely published scholarly work in Italian and English, Donatella has built a professional career in global networked media. A former journalist and TV author for Italian public broadcaster Rai Television, from 2007 to 2013 she served as the Arab world community manager for the Silicon Valley-based international organization Creative Commons. She has curated several international art programs, including Syria Off Frame in collaboration with the Luciano Benetton Foundation, Venice, 2015. She is co-founder and board member of SyriaUntold, recipient of the Digital Communities Award at Ars Electronica 2014, and a member of the advisory board of the Cinema Futures initiative at Locarno International Film Festival. In 2025, GEN_, the documentary she has co-authored with Gianluca Matarrese, was selected in the international world doc competition at Sundance Film Festival. Donatella's research on Generative AI and speculative violence earned her the Italian Council award 2024-25 from Italy's Ministry of Culture.