equalACT: The Lore, Vore and Core of AI-Imagery

How does AI perceive the world and us? This perspective is distorted by patriarchal and sexist biases and is automatically reproduced in the generated material. In AI systems, biases are not only structurally inherent; they can also be easily exploited. Particularly on social media, real social influence is actively generated through artificial bodies presented as female.

Elisa Deutloff and Ava Leandra Kleber share how they are nevertheless able to work with AI systems in a feminist and artistic way, and why this has inevitably led to the development of a research-based practice.

AVA LEANDRA KLEBER, born in Mannheim in 1997, is studying art and media at the HfG Offenbach and works at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. Through her work with AI systems, she reveals their inherent as well as systemic and socially oppressive structures – distorted representations of bodies and role models – in works exhibited, amongst other venues, at the B3 Biennale, the Fundación Ludwig de Cuba (CUB), the Erratum Gallery in Brussels (BE) and Berlin, Tbilisi (GEO), Valinhos (BRA), as well as through research and organised activism, in publications, panel discussions and talks.

ELISA DEUTLOFF, born in 1998 in Lich, is an art student in Offenbach. She explores themes such as identity, surveillance and media representation. Her works have been exhibited at venues including the Frankfurter Kunstverein, the Fundación Ludwig de Cuba (CU), the MAK Frankfurt, the Martin Asbæk Gallery (DK), the saasfee* pavillon (DE) and the Sisters Room (GEO). She has also contributed to three AI research projects at the HfG Offenbach, where she currently works as a tutor in the field of electronic media.

Their collaborative short film *MegatrashwannabebigstarXD* premiered at the 2026 Berlinale.

ARTISTIC RESEARCH – make it feminist! equalACT is a joint project between the HfS Ernst Busch and the UdK Berlin and is funded by the Berlin Equal Opportunities Programme (BCP). equalACT supports women and tin* individuals who combine gender, diversity and anti-discrimination with artistic research.