Wagenknecht is known for pioneering the use of drones in painting and other mechanized forms of art in the early 2000s while based in New York.
Her works are often recognized for their experimental co-creative aspects, exploring the relationship between technology and the vulnerabilities of being alive. Previous exhibitions and works held in permanent collections include the Centre Pompidou, Istanbul Modern, Whitechapel Gallery, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the New Museum in New York, among others. She has collaborated with CERN, Chanel, Coinbase, and Google's Art Machine Intelligence (AMI) Group. Her work has been featured in publications such as TIME, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, Art in America, and The New York Times. Wagenknecht has held fellowships at Eyebeam Art + Technology Center in New York City, Culture Lab UK, Institute HyperWerk for Postindustrial Design in Basel (CH), and The Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University.
- Data & Dragons Level 1-3 is an evolving sculpture project first presented in Austria in 2013, now featuring three installations: Kilohydra: A Love Letter to Chelsea, xxxx.xxx, and Cloud Farming.
- Each installation interacts with internet data in distinct ways.
Kilohydra and xxxx.xxx utilize custom printed circuit boards to intercept and log surrounding data, anthropomorphizing a server room as a tribute to a time when online experiences felt anonymous. Despite processing information, the sculpture never discloses its findings.
Cloud Farming recontextualizes technological hierarchies into a portrait of data, merging the cloud, social networks, and data leaks into a single object. It creatively examines contemporary power structures, serving as a three-dimensional map of post-Wikileaks information culture.