machinekind

Many who study how technology is created, absorbed, and adapted talk about the need to collectively buy into a particular vision for the future. Our imaginations conjure images of machines that are neutral, orderly, and objective. We are promised that the value “Artificial Intelligence” will bring us is efficiency; better: medical care, teaching, lending, commuting, and relationships. Yet, this imagery obscures the invisible frameworks—both material and cultural—that are required to construct this future.

The exhibition machinekind aims to explore the liminal space between machine-generated efficiency and the poignant and sometimes valuable inefficiencies that accompany human behavior. What vision of a future built on machine-collaboration do we hope for? When and how do we want artificial intelligence making decisions with us, or altogether for us? As those invested in the technological innovation behind machine-kind market dreams of a world made easier, what elements of human social interaction might be lost or reinterpreted in the process? 

machinekind invites the viewer to explore the notion of artifice as it relates to the tangible, cultural, and ethical consequences of AI. The invited artists engage with questions of outsourcing care and connection, the often-biased logics embedded in data models, the humor in glitches, and the moments humankind and “machinekind” recognize one another in unexpected contexts. 

Included artists: American Artist, David Bowen, Tyanna Buie, Kate Crawford + Vladan Joler, Jake Elwes, Lauren Lee McCarthy + Kyle McDonald, Mimi Onuhoa, and Risa Puno + Alexander Taylor. Curated by: Alicia Patterson and Ashley Stull Meyers.