KARLSRUHE, Germany — Many of the artworks at Z.K.M. are not so much viewed as braved.

One installation on show at the interdisciplinary center for arts and technology is designed to trick visitors into thinking there are security cameras filming inside the bathrooms. (There are not.) But the illusion of surveillance, part of the “Safe Zones” series by the artist Jonas Dahlberg, sets the tone for a visit to Z.K.M., a thrillingly destabilizing institution that smudges the boundaries between life and art.

Z.K.M., which has a reputation for spotting new and risky ideas, promoted, collected and exhibited digital and interactive art long before most major museums did. This year, the institution is celebrating 30 years of being ahead of the curve.