Daniela Gandorfer: After the Law

In an age of ecological collapse and proliferating virtual sovereignties, the authority of law is unraveling—not in absence, but through transformation. From GitHub protocols to blockchain-based frontiers, legal concepts are no longer solely authored by states but co-produced by code, climate, and capital. This lecture asks what it means to dwell in such indeterminacy—not to resolve it, but to co-create legal concepts that matter-forth. Introducing the concept of “matterphorics”, Gandorfer proposes a new legal imaginary that reclaims speculative governance from the privatising logics of techno-libertarianism—one breath, one frontier, one decentralised concept at a time.

Dr. Daniela Gandorfer is a legal theorist and co-founder of the award-winning non-profit LoPh+, working at the intersection of technology, governance, and regenerative finance. She is the author of Matterphorics (Duke University Press, 2026). Her work explores legal indeterminacy, emerging technologies, and decentralized governance. She teaches at the University of Westminster, holds a PhD from Princeton, and is completing an Executive MSc in Finance at LSE (2025). LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielagandorfer/

The Virtual Realisms public lecture series critically investigates the evolving forms of reality created through algorithmic worldbuilding, where advanced digital technologies give rise to new and diverse interpretations of what is considered ‘real.’ As virtual spaces reach unprecedented levels of fidelity, this seemingly contradictory term suggests that, rather than a unified representation of our reality, we are now enmeshed within multiple new artificial realisms shaped by the proliferation of immersive technologies, CGI, and intelligent automation across all sectors. Spanning both technical and speculative practices, the series of lectures will explore how real-time virtual environments, and the technologies that underpin them, are redefining the logics of cultural production, creativity, and power in our increasingly rendered world.

Virtual Realisms is a monthly series of public lectures taking place throughout the 2024-25 academic year at the University of Westminster in London, UK. For more information about the series, please visit www.virtualrealisms.com.

Virtual Realisms is curated by Tadej Vindis, Lecturer in Creative Technologies, and Teodora Sinziana Alata, Lecturer in Creative Computing and Algorithmic Cultures, at the University of Westminster.

The series is organized as part of the Quintin Hogg Trust funded project, "Emerging Technologies and Advanced Technological Literacies for Creative Disciplines", led by Dr. Elizabeth Allen and Tadej Vindis, and is part of a wider CreaTech initiative of the College of Design, Creative and Digital Industries at the University of Westminster. Graphic design by Andrew Mallinson.

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