The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA; Director: Kim Sunghee) presents What an Artificial World from 26 April to 25 August, 2024, at the MMCA Cheongju Art Storage Center (hereafter, MMCA Cheongju).
What an Artificial World is the first media art exhibition at the MMCA Cheongju. It is organized to examine AI in today’s society and culture and to explore the possibility of symbiosis between technology and humans. The exhibition examines the meaning of technology in the present day from diverse aspects, including ecology, creation, evolution, and systems, through artworks that deal with AI as their subjects. It asks what we are missing and what we need to focus on in relation to AI. It also proposes to imagine a world that can(not) be predicted by sharing what contemporary artists think about the age of AI.
AI is a technology developed since the 1950s to embody human intelligence—the ability to learn, recognize, and reason. AI research in science and engineering has its origins in the study of human intelligence, and it has promoted the development of technology with human-like capabilities by promising the evolution of humanity and the enrichment of life. AI has been performing functions similar to human intelligence for specific purposes. But in recent years, AI’s ability to ‘generate’ has been introduced, giving it the potential to go beyond ‘artificial’ and replace/transcend ‘humans.’ While accelerating technology and advancements in AI are bringing us a future we could only imagine, they are also raising social and ethical concerns about the issues of environment, labor, and data colonialism. What an Artificial World traces the progress of AI and seeks to reveal the artificial world it constructs.
Featuring eight artists and teams, Ayoung Kim, Slitscope, Unmake Lab, Ian Cheng, Jake Elwes, TZUSOO, Trevor Paglen, Hito Steyerl, What an Artificial World presents controversial keywords surrounding AI today by associating them with artworks on view in the exhibition. The eight keywords are reorganized into four sections: Future and Non-future, Generative Creation and Mutant, Evolution and Coevolution, and Orbit Dance and Double Vision.
The first section, Future and Non-future, explores the desire to ‘predict the future’ and its nature, focusing on AI’s predictive capabilities. Hito Steyerl’s This is the Future (2019), presented under the keyword ‘future,’ exposes the short-sightedness of AI’s predictive algorithms and the artificial stupidity that relies on speculating the future through such algorithms. Unmake Lab’s Ecology for non-futures (2023), Oracles for non-futures (2023), and Domestic Animal Syndrome (2023) are presented under the keyword ‘non-future.’ The three works deal with predictions without a future generated by AI that has been caught up in human perception and visual systems. Unmake Lab turns the ‘predictive nature’ of AI into questions about past events.
The second section, Generative Creation and Mutant, provides a look at generative AI, which is given the role of creation through the function of ‘generation.’ TZUSOO’s new works Dalle’s Aimy (2024) and Aimy The Pregnant (2024) are presented under the keyword ‘creative generation,’ Dalle’s Aimy is part of the artist’s ongoing series since 2022, which visualizes the (adversarial) relationship between humans and AI over generation or creation. Through the figure of Aimy, generated by a generative AI DALL·E 2, TZUSOO presents a new type of art outside the artist’s purview. Jake Elwes’s The Zizi Show (2020) and Zizi & Me (2020) are presented under the keyword ‘mutant.’ The Zizi Project (2019-ongoing) consists of a deepfake of drag performance. Jake Elwes incorporates AI-powered deepfake into his work to help viewers understand the technology. From there, he uses that understanding to address the technology’s inherent bias and those who are marginalized by it.
The third section, Evolution and Coevolution, centers on the keyword ‘evolution,’ It presents works that imagine the world under the influence of AI and our place in it. Slitscope’s Poem Travel (2024) is presented under the keyword ‘co-evolution’. The work offers an experience of writing poems together with a proprietary AI named SIA. This process is metaphorized as a ‘travel.’ The process of humans and technology working together to create art draws a co-evolutionary relationship and gives us a glimpse of the world to come. Ian Cheng’s Life After BOB: The Chalice Study (2021-2022) is presented under the keyword ‘evolution.’ The work tells the story of Chalice, a girl implanted with BOB. Beginning with the question, "What if an AI could do the job of living your life better than you?”, Ian Cheng’s work asks what a ‘better life’ really means in the age of AI.
The fourth section, Orbit Dance and Double Vision, examines the advances in AI technology and the emerging social issues of today. Ayoung Kim’s Delivery Dancer’s Sphere (2022), presented under the keyword ‘orbit dance,’ tells the story of Ernst Mo, a woman rider making deliveries in a fictionalized city of Seoul. The artist visualizes the rider’s body and time under the control of a delivery platform and its algorithms, highlighting the problems of today’s platform labor. Trevor Paglen, presented under the keyword ‘double vision,’ presents Image Operations. Op. 10 (2018). The work visualizes automated visual systems from computer vision to machine learning. In this work, Paglen points out that technology is no longer neutral: how we see it and how it is seen is determined by its political use.
In addition to the special exhibition gallery of MMCA Cheongju, What and Artificial World presents five video works by participating artists on the Media Canvas, outdoor exhibition platform. The works mediate between the museum’s inside and outside, complementing the exhibition in an extended form.
What an Artificial World unravels the characteristics and implications of AI from its most basic aspects. As such, the exhibition takes a closer look at the world that lies ahead and can(not) be predicted. Each of the eight thematic keywords of the exhibition has a contrary or connective meaning. Those who see the exhibition are provided with an opportunity to explore the works on display with these keywords and reflect on the issues surrounding AI. The exhibition invites viewers to make connections and associations between the thematic keywords, sections, and artworks. This opens up possibilities for reflection on the age of AI. In other words, this exhibition does not seek to address the predictability or impossibility in the age of AI. Instead, it aims to reexamine our attitudes and thinking about AI, inviting us to consider ways of coexisting with new imaginations.
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