Extended until 5th July: AI Exhibition 'New Realities - How Artificial Intelligence Reflects Us'
03.03.2026 | from City Museum Aarau
Reading time: 5 minutes
Image rights: Stadtmuseum Aarau
03.03.2026, Extended until 5th July: The exhibition at the City Museum Aarau attracts a larger audience than expected and raises many questions about our future with AI. The new accompanying programme addresses some of these questions, offering AI lectures, interactive formats for all ages, an online parents’ evening on social media, and a children's trail for further exploration.
A year of strong attendance thanks to AI focus. 29,009 visitors found their way to the City Museum Aarau in 2025 (previous year: 25,700). The museum team has shown a keen sense for current topics, striking a chord with the public through their AI focus: They launched the first AI-accompanied exhibition in Switzerland ('beloved, praised, hyped – an exhibition about heroes, role models, and idols'), which also resonated in the international museum community. This focus found a fitting continuation in 'New Realities – How Artificial Intelligence Reflects Us'.
The exhibition showcases photo-realistic AI images from the last three years, demonstrating to the audience how rapidly technology and aesthetics have evolved and how our perception habits must continuously adapt.
How is the exhibition resonating with the public? 'The interest is even greater than anticipated, and our visitors are surprisingly diverse: young adults, school classes, groups, as well as individual older visitors – from AI beginners to experienced individuals,' explains museum director Marc Griesshammer. 'We notice that the exhibition provides a lot for discussion: Often, our reception team becomes a counterpart for conversations about AI-related concerns. Our events on application tips, impacts on the professional world, and future questions are also very well attended.'
Programme Overview With the new accompanying programme until the summer holidays, the City Museum Aarau responds to this interest, offering a wide range of exploration opportunities for a broad audience.
For children: Booklet with games, puzzles, and analogue activities (from age 6; from 8th March; independent). Parents' Online Evening: 'AI, Likes, and Digital Role Models' on social media, manosphere, and risks in digital everyday life (Monday, 16th March, 8 PM) in cooperation with the Conscious Influence Hub and Child Protection Switzerland.
For groups: AI crash course, guided tour, and aperitif – playful and insightful formats for team outings and group events. AI Exchange for adults: Discussing, experimenting, and collaboratively solving problems with AI (21st April, 19th May, 16th June in cooperation with the City Library Aarau). For Creatives: Online input 'From text to image – working creatively with AI' with digital curator Maren Burghard (Tuesday, 21st April, 6 PM).
AI Lectures 'The Power of Recommendation Algorithms' – why YouTube, Spotify & Co. suggest content we like (Tuesday, 5th May, 6 PM). 'Environmental Cost' – How much does an AI inquiry cost the environment? (Thursday, 18th June, 6 PM). Public Tours (22nd March, 26th April, 28th June*, 2 PM) *Curator's special.
Events for families, AI newcomers and experienced, and creatives: With the new accompanying programme until the summer holidays, the City Museum Aarau responds to these needs, offering proven and new formats for deeper exploration. For instance, AI expert lectures on the 'Power of Recommendation Algorithms on YouTube, Spotify & Co.' (5th May) and the environmental impact of AI (18th June). An AI exchange for adults invites participants to exploratory problem-solving and discussion in cooperation with the City Library Aarau (21st April, 19th May, and 16th June). Additionally, digital curator and promoter of AI imagery in 'New Realities' shares her working method with AI and practical hacks in an online input ('From text to image', 21st April, 6 PM, online only). Furthermore, an online parents' evening with Child Protection Switzerland and the Conscious Influence Hub deepens the risks of AI fakes on social media (16th March, 8 PM).
For families, there is a new children's trail with puzzles, games, and analogue activities, and in the DigiSpace lab, young and old explore AI technology experimentally (14th/15th March and 18th/19th April). Concluding in June is a closing weekend on 27th/28th June, where curators guide the exhibition one last time and AI is experimented with in the DigiSpace, inspired by the exhibition objects and images.
Exhibition Description 'New Realities – How AI Reflects Us' How does AI change our view of the world? For centuries, humans have created images that bridge reality and fantasy – from painting and photography to film and digital media. With the spread of Artificial Intelligence, new creative possibilities unfold: texts, images, and entire visual narratives emerge with a click or voice command. The foundation is data sets from which AI models recognize patterns and create new content. These are not reality but appear astonishingly real.
What is created by humans, what by algorithms – and how does this shape our reality? In the exhibition 'New Realities – How AI Reflects Us' at the City Museum Aarau, the audience has the opportunity to engage with AI assistants about the rapidly advancing AI developments. Between fascination and skepticism: Enriching, short conversations with facts about artificial and natural intelligences and aha moments regarding one's own conscious or unconscious AI experiences – with a pinch of humour – are guaranteed.
About New Realities The exhibition was developed as a series by the Museumsstiftung Post- und Telekommunikation Deutschland in cooperation with the Museum für Kommunikation Frankfurt. It features AI-generated images by digital curator Maren Burghard, first exhibited at the museums for communication in Nuremberg, Berlin, and Frankfurt between 2023 and 2025. Extended until 5th July at the City Museum Aarau.
Editor's note: Image rights belong to the respective publisher. Image rights: Stadtmuseum Aarau
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City Museum Aarau
The collection of the City Museum encompasses around 60,000 objects of very differing qualities: furniture, photographs, posters, graphics, precious items, everyday objects, and technical cultural assets, primarily from the 18th to the 20th century.
Due to its former history as a residential museum, furniture constitutes a focal point. The City Museum Aarau has been housed since 1939 in what was then called the 'Schlössli'. The massive tower, built from large stone blocks dating back to the 13th century and situated outside the city, has seen various additions over time.
In 1971, old residential and commercial buildings in front of it were demolished to create a terrace, giving the 'Schlössli' a distinctive position in the cityscape. Its entrance, however, was set discreetly at the end of this terrace.
The City Museum initially consisted mainly of furnished, historically styled rooms with minimal space for exhibitions. Since its founding in 1992, the Society for the Promotion of the City Museum has sought to address this lack through expansion, broadening the museum's mission along the way.
On the recommendation of a related report, five architecture firms were invited to submit proposals in 2006, with the aforementioned terrace selected as the location for expansion.
With the expansion and reopening in 2015, the City Museum Aarau entered an important phase of repositioning: The focus is now on the leading media of the 20th century – photography and film – and the new digital visual worlds, which are central to exhibitions, educational offerings, and collaborations.
A part of this realignment is the cooperation with the Aargau State Archive, with the 'Fokus Ringier Bildarchiv' being the heart of this collaboration.
Note: The "About Us" text is taken from public sources or from the company profile on HELP.ch.
Source: City Museum Aarau, Press release
Original article published on: Verlängert bis 5. Juli: KI-Ausstellung «New Realities - wie Künstliche Intelligenz uns abbildet»