Artist Simon Denny returns to New Models to discuss the defense tech sector’s newfound dedication to aesthetics.
Distilling the branding languages of companies like a16z, Palantir, and Anduril—which draw heavily on Italian Futurism, return-to-order neoclassicism, and the graphic idiom of modernist institutions—Denny shows techno-libertarian leaders to be positioning themselves as a progressive counter-elite, priming the public to receive its revanchist turn toward war as natural, just, and inevitable.
“Why is Andreessen reaching for art and culture? He doesn’t have to reach for culture... What is useful for him in reaching back toward Futurism…?”
This conversation builds on “Epic Fury: the Dark Art of Defense Tech” Simon’s feature for the May 2026 issue of Artforum; as well as his installation “Monsters Between Worlds” with Venkatesh Rao, which is on view in Venice as part of Palazzo Diedo’s “Strange Rules” exhibition (through Nov. 21); and “Rules Based Order” in Munich, his solo show at Gallery Kraupa-Tuskany-Ziedler.
It’s strange to see such powerful aesthetic consensus conditioning a new mass acceptance of militarism, and to feel it stoking a sentiment that’s been effectively taboo in the West since the horrors of the 20th century’s world wars.
Of course it’s understandable that nations are urgently refocusing on “security.” Geopolitical tensions are indeed rising. But what if there’s something even more unsettling at play here than war itself..
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