The Liminal Review
Daemons: New Processes in Arts Technologies

Across 2,225 submissions from 82 countries, a shift is taking place in how artists are working with technology.

For the second edition of The Liminal Review, Dr. Rachel Falconer, Head of Creative Technology at Goldsmiths, University of London, returns to examine the ideas and tensions taking shape across contemporary artistic practice.

At the center of this year’s Review is agency. Technology is no longer simply a tool for artists to use or question. Increasingly, artists are working within technological systems that can operate without being directly instructed or observed. 

So where does responsibility sit when the system itself begins to act?

To explore this changing relationship, Falconer introduces the Daemon. In computing, a Daemon is a process that runs continuously in the background, without direct intervention. Four Daemons emerge from the 2026 submissions: Thalassic Drift, Haptic Undertow, Palimpsest Sediment, and Jurisdictional Static.

Together, they offer a critical reading of a field in motion and of what artists can reveal about technological change while it is still unfolding.