22th 404 International Festival of Art & Technology 2025 / USER VS. BOT
Reception for the Artists on Tuesday, October 7th from 6 to 8 pm: USER vs. BOT will bring together artists, scholars, and researchers from Japan, the United States, Slovenia, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, South Korea, Russia and the United Kingdom, who will present their artworks addressing current challenges and critical themes in Art, new technologies, and communication.
22th 404 International Festival of Art & Technology 2025 / USER VS. BOT
Please join us for USER vs. BOT, the 22nd anniversary of the “404 International Festival of Art and Technology,” to be held on the 8th floor of Gallery MC in New York City, at 545 West 52nd St. The free opening reception will be held on Tuesday, October 7 from 6 p.m., with the free admissions exhibition continuing on the 8th and 9th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
USER vs. BOT will bring together artists, scholars, and researchers from Japan, the United States, Slovenia, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, South Korea, Russia and the United Kingdom, who will present their artworks addressing current challenges and critical themes in Art, new technologies, and communication.
There is a modern tension between human agency and automated systems. As bots become more sophisticated, shaping our social media feeds, answering our questions, and even mimicking human behavior, the distinction between authentic interaction and programmed response begins to blur. Are we engaging with a person or a programmed script? Are our opinions shaped by genuine dialogue or algorithmic manipulation?
What was once designed to assist us has become a presence that competes for attention, influence, and even identity.
We’ve read and heard stories about robots rebelling against humans, but this relationship is less often reversed, as our bonds with the technology are as strong as, or stronger than, those we build with other people. In fact, it is that bond that instructs us how we will relate to others. Once we adopt them, they operate like a living organism, and we feel that expelling them would threaten our very existence.
Today, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell whether we are communicating with a person or a bot. But what is most concerning is the lack of interest in noticing the difference. Compared to a bot, humans are slower, more hesitant, and imprecise. It seems that emotion and spontaneity have definitively lost their place to the urgency of what is efficient and convenient.
As users adapt, bots sharpen their skills.
What is 404 Festival?
The “404 International Festival of Art and Technology”, born in the city of Rosario, Argentina, in 2004, is an independent non-profit project whose main objective is to democratize culture, spreading artistic productions that unite art with technology, creating an environment where artists can be in contact with the community. The annual continuity of 404 and its experiences around the world consolidated it as the first Argentine festival of Art and Technology.
404’s particularity lies in being an itinerant initiative, having been presented during 22 years, in forty five cultural centers, universities and public places in twelve countries around the world: Argentina, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Taiwan, Russia, Colombia, Japan, United States and France.
More than a thousand artists, professors and researchers from forty-six countries have been part of this project that has enjoyed the presence of one million visitors, amongst which stand out public school students of the country and from abroad. They have reaffirmed the social impact of this proposal, which currently links with universities and MediaLabs worldwide.
