By Cissy Sun, Head of Art-Science

On 6th September, we had an inspiring discussion on curation and artificial intelligence with Mr. Patrick Keller, Architect & Co-founder of fabric | ch - studio for architecture, interaction & research, and Ms. Xi Li, Curator & Director of Aiiiii Art Center.

Mr. Patrick Keller introduced the architecture studio, fabric | ch, where architects and computer scientists work together on a variety of experimental projects that combine architecture, networks, data, and algorithms.

Delving into these projects, Patrick first introduced the work - Platform of Future-Past, which was shown at HOW Art Museum in Shanghai in 2022. “Platform of Future-Past” is an architectural device and monitoring installation, it is equipped in three zones with environmental monitoring devices. The sensors record as much data as possible over time, generated by the continuously changing conditions, presences, and uses in the exhibition space. The data is then stored on Platform Future-Past’s servers and replayed in a loop on its computers. It is a “recorded moment”, “frozen” on the data servers, that could potentially replay itself forever or is waiting for someone to reactivate it. A “data center” on the deck, with its set of interfaces and visualizations screens, lets the visitors-observers follow the ongoing recording process. However, as the exhibition was interrupted by the pandemic, the museum was closed for a few months, and the data from the real exhibition space was very limited. Thus the artists fed the platform the prepared data to generate the moving images. With the touch on artificial data, Patrick reminded us to think about massive ways to treat datasets while talking about artificial intelligence.

The practice of using networks, data, and algorithms led the artists to develop a systematic approach to combining digital information with physical elements according to certain rules. Furthermore, such practices brought the artists to the exhibitions and curation projects. In the context of Entangled Realities, Living with Artificial Intelligence at the House of Electronic Arts (Basel), 2019, fabric | ch developed the work of Atomized (curatorial) Functioning (A(*)F), which was later also exhibited during Art and Science in the Age of Artificial Intelligence at the National Museum of China (Beijing), 2019.

A(*)F is an architectural project based on automated algorithmic principles, to which a machine learning layer can be added as required. It is a software piece that endlessly creates and saves new spatial configurations for a given situation, converges towards a “solution”, in real-time 3d and according to dynamic data and constraints. During the exhibition at HeK, the sensors collected data both from the artworks and the physical environment, including the walls and the lighting. The information collected by the sensors mapped out the space and helped the curators to organize the exhibition flows.

* Atomized (curatorial) Functioning, fabric | ch, 2019

As an ending note, Patrick shared with us the ongoing research project between fabric | ch, the Nam June Paik Art Center (Yongin, South Korea), and ECAL / University of Art and Design, Lausanne (HES-SO), on "viewing rooms" and "digital exhibitions". The research is to give access to the collection of the art center in new ways and forms, out of the physical museum and through digital means. In addition to the research project, fabric | ch is also working on a new project about the digital presentation of the past exhibitions at ZKM (Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe), the exhibition is planned to open at ZKM at the end of the year.

Next up, Ms. Xi Li introduced the Aiiiii Art Center and its two major programs – The International Conference on AI Art as well as the Opening Exhibition of the institution – Book of Sand. During the presentation, she tackled the questions of AI and authorship, what AI art is, and the narration in the context of AI.

The International Conference on AI Art was co-organized by the Aiiiii Art Center and the Art and Artificial Intelligence Lab of Tongji University. With the theme of “AI and Authorship” (2021) and “Artificial Imagination” (2022), the conference combines the most radical of research from a diverse international curation of fields ranging from art, design, computational science, cultural critique as well as political philosophy. This network is established to pioneer and push the boundaries of artificial intelligence and creative production.

While looking at the exhibition space, two questions came to Xi’s mind: how to physicalize the digital artwork into the space and how to visualize AI art. The two questions lead Xi and her team to the curation concept of the Book of Sand. She chose literature to narrate the exhibition to catch the public attention and tell a good story of AI art. The exhibition starts by employing literary imagination to juxtapose seemingly infinite, random generative art and Borges’ “Book of Sand”, a book that possesses neither a beginning nor an end, just like sand. A book in which “I”, the subject, can turn the pages but cannot predict the outcome, just as we cannot fully comprehend the operational logic of the “black box” embedded by and into a neural network. Against the joy of possessing the book grows the fear that the book is not really infinite, just as we fear that the infinite productivity of AI will make us its captives, as well as the fear that its “infinite creativity” is simply the outcome of intelligent permutations of existing human ideas.

“The Book of Sand” is an exhibition done by the joint efforts of machines and humans — the output of the machines interferes with human curatorial and artistic practices. By showcasing the works of Jake Elwes and Dabeiyuzhou, Xi explained further how they worked with the artists to turn web-based artwork into spatial installations.

It is inevitable to talk about what AI art is and who the author is when curating the programs and research projects at Aiiiii Art Center. However, such questions are not at the core of their curatorial practice but to discover the potential of AI itself and deliver the message appropriately to the target audience. With the involvement of machines in the creation and curation process, the question of the role of the machine became a challenging topic. Moreover, it also leads us to think – is there have to be a curator/creator’s name in the exhibition?

Responding to Xi’s question, Patrick pointed out that there are different cases dealing with the question. Taking their own practices, for example, the algorithm is at the core of their work. With the help of AI, the artists could dig deeper into their works, but the concept and the way of working are developed by the collective over years of research and practice. It is important to have their names in the exhibition as they are the creators of the work. Nevertheless, it might be challenging to define the creator for other works using open-source software and text-image software. However, in Patrick’s view, any machine learning program is fed with a huge dataset, without this, the algorithms could not do anything. The things the machines are trained to do and how they are trained to make it essential to define the creator.

We would like to thank everyone for their participation, your engagement during the Q&A session has made the conversation vibrant and the event all the more valuable. If you have further questions for our speakers regarding their work, please email us at artscience.china@swissnex.org. We will try our best to forward them to our speakers.

Click here to watch the recording of the webinar.