Being (2022) is a social humanoid artificial intelligence created by interdisciplinary artist Rashaad Newsome. The first generation of Being was released in spring/summer 2019 with the support of the LACMA Art + Technology Lab Grant. A combination of 3D animation, game engines, scripted responses, generative grammars, and special machine learning models were used.
Being acts in various roles, leading participatory workshops on decolonization, serving as a tour guide in one of Newsome’s exhibitions, and continuously composing and reciting poems inspired by the work of queer poet Dazié Rustin Grego-Sykes and accompanied by an ASMR soundscape.
Rashaad Newsome, who was awarded the Golden Nica of the Prix Ars Electronica 2022 in the Computer Animation category for Being, combines various artistic practices in his work. He draws from the worlds of advertising, the internet, art history, Black culture, and queer culture.