What visions, expectations and fears do we associate with the idea of a future, all-encompassing artificial intelligence? The European ARTificial Intelligence Lab – AI Lab for short – initiated by Ars Electronica in 2018 includes 14 renowned institutions from the fields of art and science throughout Europe. The network is aimed at artists who work with AI applications and/or reflect on their use and impact on our society. In the AI Lab Exhibition we show a selection of these works.

Baitul Ma’mur: House of Angels

Joe Davis (US), Sarah Khan (PK)

The project is about to keep 2.417 quintillion angels on the head of a pin.

Codex Virtualis

Interspecifics (INT)

Codex Virtualis is an artistic research framework oriented towards the generation of an evolving taxonomic collection of hybrid bacterial-AI organisms.

Cypress Trees, a beginning

Anna Ridler (UK), Caroline Sinders (US)

How can AI help us to face the climate crisis and other entwined challenges? This machine-learning-generated moving image piece gives insights into the complexity of data sets and raises questions about deforestation and the politics of climate change, memory and loss. Anna Ridler and Caroline Sinders created a special dataset of the Bald Cypress on the gulf coast of the USA, where both have family ties.

Made to Measure

Group Laokoon (DE): Cosima Terrasse (FR), Moritz Riesewieck (DE), Hans Block (DE)

Is it possible to create a doppelganger of someone using only their personal Google data? The artistic data experiment MADE TO MEASURE allows viewers to tangibly experience what conclusions can be drawn about a person’s character, psychology and future behavior through algorithms. Who determines who we are and who we think we are?

Moon Rabbit

Sarah Petkus (US), Mark J. Koch (US)

In a research and development phase lasting several months, Sarah Petkus and Mark J. Koch attempt to teach a suite of artificial intelligences to recognize familiar shapes and objects in images of star clusters, planetary surfaces, and other celestial bodies.

The Museum of Edible Earth

masharu (RU/NL)

The Museum of Edible Earth is a cross-disciplinary project with a core collection of earth samples which are eaten for various reasons by different people across the globe.

Transformation of Scenery

Yoichi Ochiai (JP)

In order to mediate between the massive landscapes composed by original nature and the massless landscapes described by digital nature, Yoichi Ochiai continues to create artwork for transforming scenery. Between mass and masslessness, he is searching for a longing for mass and a sentiment for pixels.

Triopic Spectacle

PDNB (Postdigital Neobaroque) (AT/DE/IT/GB)

Triopic Spectacle endeavours to flatten the hierarchies between the real and the potential. It challenges the outmoded, myopic, binary thinking of local/global, 1s/0s, individual/collective, real/virtual, analog/digital, natural/artificial by establishing two-way windows, bridges, interfaces, portals and glitches between three ‘triopic’ domains: ‘real reality’, ‘mixed reality’, ‘virtual reality’.

The Wandering Mind

Gershon Dublon (US), Xin Liu (CN), with guest artist Xiao Xiao (US/FR)

Shape your dreams with the sounds of our world. The Wandering Mind is an AI-powered micro-sampler that assembles winding soundscapes from thousands of global field recordings found online. In curated performances, group naps and guided mind-wanderings, we convene collective actions of sleeping together. In this special series for Ars, entitled “Field Sketches from Imaginary Travels,” guest performer Xiao Xiao combines the ambient soundscapes of Wandering Mind with improvisational theremin, keyboard, and vocals.

Credits

This exhibition is presented in the framework of the European ARTificial Intelligence Lab, which is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport.