Selected as one of this years 9 artists in residence I’m working with a group of scientists looking at how humans and AI see the world and make the connections particularly in relation to spatial temporal understanding.
Site visit – 11 / 12 / 23
I got to visit the labs and speak with the scientists attached to the project at UOB main campus. It was an invaluable experience getting to explore ideas around AI and ANN (Artificial Neural Networks).
Do Ai’s dream? Will they ever be able to hold a cup of tea and remember the last time they shared a cuppa with their grandmother? Could they ever let their minds wonder? Will an Ai learn our laziness and get us to fill in the rest?
Initial response –
Initial experiments with audio activated tesla coil and mirrors. 2023
I’m currently in early R&D for this project but considering ideas around what memory is and how we access it.
- Can Ai operate in multiple different ways to reach the same answer?
- Is there space for Ai to be more than a reinforcement of Neurotypical thought patterns or will it be just another system for Nurodiverse brains to convert?
- How can Ai link in scent or memory to build it’s connections?
- Will it ever look at a cloud and see the multitude of patterns and shapes we see?
- Will Ai ever dream of electric sheep?
SMQB is proud to have an Artists in Residence programme, established in 2020. Each year a group of artists with a range of skills, backgrounds and creative expertise, work with one of our ‘Seedcorn’ projects.
They collaborate with scientists to bring new perspectives and insights into the research project, while leading on creative outputs where they transform and interpret current research into artform. The project culminates in a showcase where artists and researchers present their final collaborative works, demonstrating the power and beauty in combining art and science to engage others in discussion about health experiences and cross-disciplinary innovation.
The project is moving on and I’m beginning to get a handle on where the final outcome will be. Considering how we even understand Ai is perhaps more important then how Ai sees the world?
Thinking about things like what we feed Ai’s on will alter how they perform. Like we do with eggs should we maybe begin to look at Ai’s fed on the internet as being factory farmed and Ai’s fed on selected information to be free range? If so then how do we categorize what is healthy for an Ai to eat?
Initial film test shot – 2024
Building on the initial tests and experiments I’ve learnt Unreal Engine 5 a 3d world building program and built a 3d environment from 3d scans of props, costumes and clay sculptures. The plan is to film elements within this 3d space and combine them with other footage.
Winterbourne Gardens (attached to UOB) allowed me to do some location filming in February 2024 for the project. I concentrated on how Ai’s learn and move around obstacle courses. Considering what it must be like to be an Ai learning a new unfamiliar environment. The mask allowed for very limited vision and almost no sound as well as being an uncomfortable experience.
Once inside the greenhouses with all the beautiful tropical plants and cactuses I soon found myself adopting their more fluid gentle movements and began wondering what Ai’s would look like if they where trained by plant life instead of humans. These location shoots often allow the world to grow in unexpected ways.