Calculating Empires

A visual manifesto on power and technology
Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power Since 1500 is a 24-meter-long fresco in the form of an ellipse that literally surrounds the viewer. Calculating Empires tracks the time period from 1500 to 2025, starting with the emergence of capitalism, European colonialism, and the printing press, and follows the development of key technologies and social shifts through to today with artificial intelligence and quantum.

The installation, compiled from more than 1,000 texts and hand-drawn illustrations, and shows how five centuries of technological development repeat the patterns of automation, militarization, and enclosure - and provokes us to think how the future could be different.

Current events
The themes addressed by Calculating Empires are more topical than ever. As artificial intelligence and Big Tech transform society before our eyes, power is being concentrated in just a handful of global technology firms. “Technology has fundamental consequences for the balance of power in society”, warned Professor Reijer Passchier in Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant earlier this year. He claims that a new aristocracy of extremely wealthy individuals is forming, comparable to the feudal system of the past, but based on data and technology as the means of production instead of land.

It is precisely that historical continuity that forms the core of Calculating Empires: Crawford and Joler show how the entanglement of technology and power is not a new phenomenon, but has shaped societies for centuries.

The artists
Kate Crawford (Australia, 1976) is an internationally renowned scholar of artificial intelligence, artist, and author. She is a Professor at USC, Senior Researcher at MSR NY, and author of the award-winning book Atlas of AI (Financial Times book of the year). She was named by TIME100 as one of the most influential people in AI. In 2025, she won the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale with Vladan Joler for Calculating Empires.

Vladan Joler (Serbia, 1977) is an academic, researcher, and artist whose work blends critical design, data investigations, and counter-cartography. He is the head of Share Lab, a data-driven research team that focuses on shining light on to the hidden infrastructures of the Internet and the power of algorithms. In 2025, he won the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale with Kate Crawford for Calculating Empires.

Purchase
Rijksmuseum Twenthe purchased the work with the generous support of the Mondriaan Fund, Turing Foundation, PLANETART and VriendenLoterij. There are only six editions of Calculating Empires available for collections worldwide. With this acquisition, Rijksmuseum Twenthe has gained the only edition to be included in a public collection in the Netherlands, positioning the museum as an international pioneer at the juncture of art, technology and society.