At ISEA 2020 Adnan Hadzi discusses the argument that the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies benefits the powerful few, focussing on their own existential concerns. ISEA 2020 was held completely online. The paper will narrow down the analysis of the argument to jurisprudence (i.e. the philosophy of law), considering also the historical context. We will discuss the construction of the legal system through the lens of political involvement of what one may want to consider to be powerful elites. Before discussing these aspects we will clarify our notion of “powerful elites”. In doing so we will be demonstrating that it is difficult to prove that the adoption of AI technologies is undertaken in a way which mainly serves a powerful class in society. Nevertheless, analysing the culture around AI technologies with regard to the nature of law with a philosophical and sociological focus enables us to demonstrate a utilitarian and authoritarian trend in the adoption of AI technologies. The paper will conclude by proposing an alternative, some might say practically unattainable, approach to the current legal system by looking into restorative justice for AI crimes, and how the ethics of care could be applied to AI technologies.
Author: admin
Working with Datasets
A roundtable discussion concluding Data / Set / Match, a programme exploring the crucial role of photographic datasets in the development of machine vision and artificial intelligence.
While the first symposium, What Does The Dataset Want?, focused on the significance of the digitised image, this conversation will consider the acts of closely looking and working with datasets. Analysing the ways in which data has been collected, configured and signified, the event aims to help understand how the rise of machine learning is both exacerbating and unveiling inherited historic structures of power
This discussion will first consider the scale, accessibility and politics of image datasets that the artists experienced while working on their projects. Following this, the conversations will widen to a broad set of questions around datasets, looking, labour, language, categorisation, parameters, precarity, and futures.
Speakers include:
Philipp Schmitt, artist, designer and researcher.
xtine burrough, media artist and educator
Sabrina Starnaman, a professor at humanities department at The University of Texas at Dallas US
Everest Pipkin, drawing and software artist
Ramon Amaro, lecturer in Art and Visual Cultures of the Global South, Department of History of Art, UCL
Nicolas Malevé, visual artist, computer programmer and data activist.
And more to be confirmed.
Recommended readings
An Introduction to Image Datasets, Nicolas Malevé
On Lacework: Watching and entire machine-learning dataset by Everest Pipkin
Recovering Lost Narrative In Epic Kitchens, by xtine burrough and Sabrina Starnaman
Tunnel Vision, by Philipp Schmitt
Biographies
Everest Pipkin is a drawing and software artist currently based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who produces intimate work with large data sets. Through the use of online archives, big data repositories, and other resources for digital information, they aim to reclaim the corporate internet as a space that can be gentle, ecological, and personal.
xtine burrough is a new media artist. She regularly participates in international festivals of digital art and has authored or edited several books including Foundations of Digital Art and Design (2013, 2nd Edition 2019), Net Works: Case Studies in Web Art and Design (2011), and The Routledge Companion to Remix Studies (2015). She is Professor in The School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication at UT Dallas.
Sabrina Starnaman is Associate Professor of Instruction in Literary Studies. Her research focuses on Progressive Era (1880-1930) American texts about social settlements and women’s activism, urbanism, and disability. Dr. Starnaman’s research explores how nineteenth-century activists remediated exploitative labor practices, racism, and poverty. She is interested in finding ways that their historical solutions, often implemented locally, can be brought to bear on similar problems in the twenty-first century.
Philipp Schmitt is an artist, designer, and researcher based in Brooklyn, NY. His practice engages with the philosophical, poetic, and political dimensions of computation by examining the ever-shifting discrepancy between what is computable in theory and in reality. His current work addresses notions of opacity, and the automation of perception in artificial intelligence research.
Dr Ramon Amaro is Lecturer in Art and Visual Culture of the Global South at UCL. He is a former Research Fellow in Digital Culture at Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam and visiting tutor in Media Theory at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, NL (KABK) and thesis at Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE). Dr Amaro completed his PhD in Philosophy at Goldsmiths, while holding a Masters degree in Sociological Research from the University of Essex and a BSe in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has worked as Assistant Editor for the SAGE open access journal Big Data & Society; quality design engineer for General Motors; and programmes manager for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). His research interests include machine learning, the philosophies of mathematics and engineering, Black Study, computational reason, and philosophies of being. Dr Amaro is under contract from Sternberg/MIT Press to write a monograph on machine learning, race, and the philosophy of being, provisionally titled Machine Learning, Sociogeny and the Substance of Race. He is also co-founder of Queer Computing Consortium (QCC), which investigates the “languages” of computation and its role in shaping locally embedded community practices.
Nicolas Malevé is a visual artist, computer programmer and data activist who lives and works between Brussels and London. Nicolas is currently working on a Phd thesis on the algorithms of vision at the London South Bank University. He is a member of Constant and the Scandinavian Institute for Computational Vandalism.
Machine Learning and Environmental Justice
Adnan Hadzi presented Machine Learning and Environmental Justice at the the RIXC Art and Science festival: ECODATA.
The RIXC Art-Science Festival: ECODATA aim is to explore the ‘ecosystematic perspective’. More than just rising awareness that living organisms are highly interdependent on each other and their environments, this year’s festival edition aims to reveal a web of connections that interweaves biological, social and techno-scientific systems, living and digital data, artistic and scientific approaches.
ECODATA exhibition is the central axis of the festival, which forms the rest of the program, made in collaboration with Ecodata–Ecomedia–Ecoaesthetics” research group led by researcher and theorist Yvonne VOLKART, (Basel, Switzerland). The purpose of this exhibition is to bridge the gap between technological and ecological as well as to incorporate technological issues into ecological art. This year’s exhibition will feature twenty artworks by internationally acknowledged artists working in the field of media art, science and ecology.
Screen Walk with Max Colson
Max Colson focused on how architecture and landscape are framed by digital visualisations, 3D software and collective memories. He elaborated on his approach and research methods using technologies such as 3D Lidar laser scanning, 3D animation software, architectural drawings, internet comments and photography. The effect of the digital on the physical (and vice versa) – and how this dynamic impacts urban life, work, notions of community, and tradition – were some of the areas explored.
The General’s Stork
Our friend Heba Y. Amin launched her book ‘The General’s Stork’, accompanying her Solo Show ‘When I see the future, I close my eyes‘.
Eva Eicker writes about the show: In her first UK solo show, Egyptian artist Heba Y. Amin presents ongoing projects combining various media such as video, appropriated archival photographs, performance and real footage. The title When I see the future, I close my eyes lends itself from the song ‘Excellent Birds’ (by Peter Gabriel and Laurie Anderson) for Nam June Paik’s reflection of digital media Good morning, Mr Orwell (1984). In her research-based practise, Amin is tackling the history of the technological influence on politics and the construction of territorial power with a focus on the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. This work could not be more relevant than during these times of global political threats.Inspired by the news in 2013 when Egyptian authorities detained a migratory stork for espionage because of an electronic device fitted to its body – Amin combines colonial narratives with the records of modern technology. In the video work As Birds Flying (2016), she depicts savannahs and wetlands, including settlements in Galilea (Northern Israel), which were captured in found drone footage. The audio presents dialogues from Egyptian actor Adel Imam’s film Birds of Darkness and discusses political tension, censorship, democracy and surveillance, such as “The government wants credibility, but no one trusts them.” Opposite this work, the artist presents wallpaper composed of appropriated archival aerial shots of Palestine and its history over time, again mimicking the (spying) bird’s perspective. The General’s Stork (2016-ongoing) shows a stork’s life and its famous owner Lord Edmund Allenby in Cairo, the British High Commissioner for Egypt and the Sudan from 1919 to 1925. In the photographs the artist appropriates the bird’s colour: flipping from b/w to colour. The work immediately gains a manipulated artificiality, intensified by the stork’s tall, out-of-proportion (but factual) appearance. Here she mashes up reality and appropriation, culminating in a speculative yet satirical approach. “What does it read like in a different context? I wanted to erase and dominate the narrative”, Amin remarked when we met.This ties over to her second project, Operation Sunken Sea (2018-ongoing); installed as a long table with flat lightboxes in a dimly lit space, the work evokes a governmental feel to it. At one end of the room is a b/w portrait of the artist – powerful, tall, a quasi-persona of a dictator. Opposite on the rear wall is a video projection of Amin’s speech recorded in Malta 2018 in front of a live audience. Stitching together quotes from famous dictators ranging from Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini to Former Premier of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev – the artist is mimicking dictators and proposes a solution to the so-called migration crisis by relocating the Mediterranean Sea within the continent of Africa. Occasional and affirmative sounding (if not very staged) cheering interrupts the overall silence of the piece or space, suggesting a focussed and serious listening is required. The lightboxes feature archival material supporting and recording the early twentieth century utopian visions of draining the Mediterranean Sea supported by various world leaders and scientists. This also includes a re-staging of Herman Soergel’s portrait, where Amin poses as the German engineer claiming to unite Europe and Africa as one continent to gain power, which the New York Times called at the time a “utopian phantasm” (14.4.1929). In 1956 a confidential CIA recommendation to Eisenhower proposed to funnel water and ‘create’ peace in the Middle East, stating it hoped “it would keep Nasser’s mind on other matters, because he needs some way to get off the Soviet Hook.”It is easy to become completely absorbed by the sheer visual and audio absurdity of human megalomania. While the politicians seek justification for their action or settlements with the proof of technology or photographs – the artist is taking them out of context opening the discourse: “Can you look at them and remove the context?”The third work, the multi-channel video installation Project Speak2Tweet (2011 – ongoing) features anonymous voice messages left at an online platform initiated by a group of programmers as response to the Egyptian Governments’ Internet shutdown during the 2011 uprising. Posted on Twitter, the uncensored messages by activists and the public resulted in moving messages to update families and friends. Here the artist gives a voice to the people – and the world was listening. Most touching is a man leaving a message not knowing if he will return from his trip to Cairo’s central square. Brilliantly installed as a metal construction, the visitor navigates looped snapshots of destroyed urban structures in Cairo as though meandering through a prison-like interior representing a corrupt dictatorship.For a short-lived moment, this work resonates as a good example of technology in juxtaposition to the other two bodies of work. This is nothing like the unstable-democratic realm and the ideal of ‘never trust the internet’, which we are adopting as norms. The messages are not publicly accessible anymore, and saved on the Twitter server.Eventually the paranoia of stork-espionage was discredited and evidently the bird was part of migration research by zoologists. Subsequently released, the bird was apparently caught and eaten. Without simplifying the complex themes, the exhibition equally manages not to overload the experience in the space and offers plentiful resources. The artist brilliantly dissipates the distinction between the truth and narrative in her projects by manipulating archival material and mimicking the political language and fascist mannerisms to open up debates. One is also left with a bitter aftertaste – the shifting between absurdity and reality is aching. The satirical element is overshadowed by the fact this is not shocking rhetoric anymore: we have become very numb to the increasing politicisation of news and media.
Kinemastik in Gozo
Roxman Gatt screened her performance piece ‘But Love left no Room for Hydration‘ @Kinemastik 16 Festival in Gozo & Malta.
I carried you with my horns
When escaping metador
Your hands holding
Onto me whilst
You rode me
We just kept driving
En route, escaping
Heartbreak and sad tunes
Between your thighs
So wet with sweat
Of fear of death
Against my neck
Mother was wailing
She was punished
For failing
We rode past her
Witnessing the disaster
Not once we asked her
Wether she is in
Need of plaster.
(poem by Roxman Gatt)
Roxman Gatt (1989 Mosta, Malta)
Lives and works in London
www.roxmangatt.com
New Maltese short films premiering during the third instalment of the 16th Kinemastik International Short Film Festival taking place in three partner cinemas around Malta and Gozo today and tomorrow.
These are Stephanie Sant’s film Perpetual Child, Samira Damato’s short Ħallini Ħanini and Liquid Dreams by Malta-based Columbian film-maker Andres Felipe Algeciras Marquez.
Other local film-makers competing this year are UK-based, Maltese artist Roxman Gatt with his experimental film But Love Left No Room for Hydration and Amy Azzopardi’s Room 23, which won the Most Creative and Original Concept award at the Malta Youth Film Festival 2020.
The programme, curated by Emma Mattei, consists of 16 short films in total, from 12 different countries, which will be shown at the Spazju Kreattiv Cinema in Valletta, Eden Cinemas in St Julian’s and Citadel Cinema in Victoria.
AI: Love and Artificial Intelligence
AI is a pun. It is the pronunciation of “love” in Chinese pinyin, and at the same time, stands for “Artificial Intelligence” in English. The two alphabets express the exhibition’s focus, which is to present the love that this generation has acquired in the age of social networking. The exhibition discusses the emotional decisions under the influence of algorithms, love affairs in the online environment, and the physical intimacies in long-distance relationships (Eros); It also resonates the sympathies woven by big data, which gathers people with similar ideologies and excludes those who disagree (Philia). Luc Ferry once said that “love never comes without hatred; they are probably two inseparable passions, if only because love leads us to hate those who hurt the people we love.”
The exhibition is designed as a dichotomous structure. Inspired by the typical “swipe right to like, swipe left to dislike” mechanism, it starts with a virtual online dating app that leads the audience to two different spaces. It is a metaphor for our manipulated emotions and speaks about romantic online relationships through an intertextual narrative. These romantic relationships have been perceived as “natural” interactions without being in the same physical space, groundless affection, and even remote performances of sexual desire. For millennials, the internet provides more freedom for expressing their instinctual egos while the physical world and people seem to be distant. These subtle emotions connect to our “inner-selves” are spread across the fiber optic network ubiquitously, raising the question that if our connection to the virtual domain means the detachment to the real world. Simultaneously, the layout of the exhibition is a spatial representation of our online behavior, meaning that every time one chooses to like or dislike, click or unclick, the algorithm generates the user’s data packet and direct the online route through the privacy permissions. We have literally no authentic choice among the numerous options. By “collaborative filtering” and “autocomplete” function (e.g. “Recommended for you” on Amazon, “Who to Follow” on Twitter, and “Topic you might like” on Quora), network science follows its default logic: “Birds of a feather flock together.” It generates social bubbles, which leads to discourse polarization, the proliferation of identity politics, and deeper divisions of our cultural and political landscape.
Now connect to the Internet, type in “AI” and searched for “Love”, I see people shouting, singing, mourning, feeling, fantasizing, and contemplating in struggles about gaining and losing love. It is the most distant course that comes nearest to thyself, and that training is the most intricate which leads to the utter simplicity of a tune.[1]With regard to Love and AI, we experience the featured artists’ tales through the spectrum of their works, and rethink the emotional and technological circumstances of our time.
[1] Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali
About Curator
Jenny CHEN Jiaying, writer and curator. She is now having a PhD program of Western Philosophy at Eastern China Normal University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the Department of Art History of China Academy of Art and received her Master of Arts degree from Lancaster University in the UK. She has contributed to media such as Artforum (CN), Artshard and NOWNESS. Recent Projects include: “Copernicus”, E.M.Bannister Gallery of Rhode Island College, Providence, U.S.A (2019); “Li Hanwei: Liquid Health”, Goethe Space, Shanghai (2019); “First edition of the Shanghai Curators Lab”, Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai (2018). Jenny’s other academic activities include the First Annual Conference of Network Society “Forces of Reticulation” roundtable and Huayu Forum of Art, etc.
Her article “Post-Internet Art Inside and Outside the Chinternet” was included in the collection of essays Forces of Reticulation published by China Academy of Art Press. Co-writing and editing of Shanghai Contemporary Art Archival Project 1998-2010, was published by MOUSSE in 2017.
About Hyundai Blue Prize
The Hyundai Blue Prize prioritizes creativity and sustainability over experience level when evaluating applicants. Each year, emerging Chinese curators submit exhibition proposals based on a theme that reflects Hyundai’s long-term vision. Up to six shortlisted curators will be offered a ‘One-on-One Mentorship’ from junior and senior jury members, who help applicants to prepare their final proposals, make connections within the art world, and explore their full potential.
About Hyundai Motorstudio
Hyundai Motorstudios are brand experience spaces that reflect the company’s artistic spirit and experimental approach to art, design and technology. This is where “motor,” a word used in the automobile industry, and “studio,” a word used to describe a space for contemplation and creation, meet in a manner accessible to the public.
Screen Walk with Zaiba Jabbar
Zaiba Jabbar explored the artistic and creative community working with face filters and augmented reality, redefining notions of identity and reality. She shared her curatorial experience in the field, introducing some of the emerging artists and practices which are transforming contemporary visual culture and the role of networked images. She was joined by Maria Than, Scarlett Yang and Mathilde Rougier in a discussion about augmented realities, sustainability and feminism, period awareness and activism. The Screen Walk was followed by the live stream workshop on upcycling with AR by artist Mathilde Rougier.
In Dark Times We Must Dream With Open Eyes @dorothea.space
In Dark Times We Must Dream With Open Eyes
Nico Vascellari‘s flag In Dark Times We Must Dream With Open Eyes makes it all the way to Gozo as it flies outside Dorothea Space Gozo. Visit blitzvalletta.com to purchase your own flag for €40 and support @africanmediamalta @foodbanklifeline #bluedoorenglishmalta #maltamicrofinance. More flag locations around Valletta will be added soon. Join our initiative and fly the flag at your own location.
#nicovascellari #contemporaryart #malta #blitzvalletta @africanmediamalta @foodbanklifeline @nicovascellari @artscouncilmalta @vcamalta @code.lunga @saradolfiagostini
PLA(N)Tform @Ars Electronica
Our colleagues from RIXC presented PLA(N)T during Ars Electronica.
PLA(N)Tform is a virtual ‘organism’ in which digital and biological actors grow and evolve in ‘ecosystemic’ relations. It is a speculative experiment of ‘terrestrial co-existence’ transforming biological, techno-scientific and atmospheric processes into a space-time of ‘planthropocene’ – gardens for human-plant ‘involution’.
The PLA(N)Tform at Ars Electronica will evolve into a virtual garden connecting live video concert from the Forest Garden Greenhouse in Riga and Virtual BioSensing exhibition as well as ‘growing, sensing and making kin-ship’ performances in Karlsruhe.
PLA(N)Tform
The PLA(N)Tform is a virtual organism in which both natural and artificial actors grow and evolve together, in the darkness of an infinite space of potentialities. The PLA(N)Tform grows in Deleuzian and Guattarian “rhizomatic” proliferations while it is nourished by luminous seeds, each containing their own “naturally artificial” worlds. By juxtaposing the different realities in a heterogeneous plurality, the PLA(N)Tform is understood as a speculative experiment of Latour’s “terrestrial co-existence.” Epistemological and aesthetic practices, far removed from hierarchical mechanisms, merge into a space-time of planthropocene” – Natasha’s Myers envisioned gardens for plant-people “involution.”
The PLA(N)Tform at Ars Electronica will evolve into a virtual garden connecting the live video concert from the Forest Garden Greenhouse in Riga and Virtual BioSensing exhibition in Karlsruhe, featuring the artworks that eco-systematically explore the forests and underwater world creating Reversed gardens, Forest stories and Floating woodlands; grow telegraph-plants and mimosa to explore devices for tracking and visualizing the plant-movement; use photogrammetry to create virtual Nature nostalgia environments in the times of isolation; make sensing experiments to explore human-plant kin-ship; investigate herbal tea making traditions, and engage in Home-Sick Farming activities that manifest in plant-growing and sharing, and cooking performances.