Nomination
www.alintakrauth.com/otherhood
Video: youtu.be/J8zNuyS5yj0
The (m)Otherhood of Meep (the bat translator) is an AI interpreter for grey-headed flying foxes, drawing from scientific research on flying fox vocalizations to interpret their voices into poetic form in real-time. It aims to evoke an interspecies bridge between species at the center of human/wildlife conflicts.
The artist moonlights as a registered bat rescuer, and this project has been born of those real-life experiences of interspecies care, nursing bats through to release back into the wild, and going through processes of bonding and unbonding. To make the work, a machine has been trained on a corpus of collected and categorized vocalizations, and given a visual display through TensorFlow and JavaScript, connecting to an array of wording and imagery designed by the artist. The artwork proposes a future for machine learning technologies where corpuses of human language are decentered, and AI are trained for purposes that aim to decenter human expression in preference for highlighting the voices and expressions of others.
Credits
Artist: Alinta Krauth
Javascript code assistance: Tristan Griffin
Aviary assistance: BatsQLD Organisation
Biography
Alinta Krauth (AU) is an award-winning new media artist who grew up on unceded Yugambeh land in Australia. She now lives in Norway, researching interactive art as a response to more–than–human agency and animal inclusivity. Much of her work involves ecological themes and scientific fieldwork alongside ecology experts, scientists, citizen scientists, and wildlife rescue organizations. Recent installations of her works have been seen in ZAZ10st Gallery USA, The Glucksman Gallery Ireland, HOTA Australia, Gallery 3.14 Norway, Art Laboratory Berlin Germany, and The Powerhouse Australia.