What can Artificial Intelligence (AI)* learn from our tears?
Join us for the launch of 576 Tears, a new digital artwork created by Zach Blas and commissioned by UP Projects for This is Public Space.
This event will offer insight into Blas’ practice, 576 Tears and the religious beliefs and fantasies that influence popular conceptions of Artificial Intelligence and the ideation and making of the work. Blas’ presentation will be followed by a conversation between the artist and curator and cultural strategist, Julia Kaganskiy. Kaganskiy is a leading voice in art and technology and helped launch several ground breaking programmes in the field, including The Creators Project (VICE/Intel) and NEW INC (New Museum).
576 Tears is an experiment in emotional crying with an imagined Artificial Intelligence god and invites audiences to experience how and what an AI god might learn from the process of religious weeping. As a symbol and ritual of worship, religious crying is considered a pious method of communicating with god and the divine. By training an AI god on images of tears; writings on crying in religious, philosophical, scientific, cultural, and technical contexts; music about weeping; the sounds of crying; and the emotional state of website visitors’ faces, 576 Tears broadly considers what tears might communicate, symbolise, express, and teach in an era that fantastically imbues artificial intelligence with godly power.
The commission culminates in an ever-growing archive of tears collected from participants and is underpinned by a musical score composed with an AI neural network trained on the sounds of crying and the song ‘96 Tears’ by ? And The Mysterians.
Accessibility
Live captioning and British Sign Language interpretation will be available during these events. Should you require British Sign Language interpretation please email info@upprojects.com in advance of the event so we can ensure to provide you with dedicated access links to the event.
About Julia Kaganskiy (she/her)
Julia Kaganskiy is a curator and cultural strategist based in New York City. Throughout her career, she has been interested in the ways emerging technologies shape culture and society and has been an advocate for the role of art and artists in helping us envision more desirable futures. Julia has been recognized as a leading voice in art and technology and helped launch several groundbreaking programs in the field, including The Creators Project (VICE/Intel) and NEW INC (New Museum). As an independent curator, Julia has worked with Superblue, Science Gallery (Dublin and London), Matadero Madrid, Barbican Centre (London), Mana Contemporary (Jersey City), ArkDes Museum (Stockholm), Borusan Contemporary (Istanbul), Eyebeam Center for Art & Technology (New York), Transfer Gallery (New York), and many others.
About Zach Blas
Zach Blas (b. Point Pleasant, West Virginia, USA) is an artist, filmmaker, and writer whose practice spans moving image, computation, theory, performance, and science fiction. Blas engages the materiality of digital technologies while also drawing out the philosophies and imaginaries lurking in artificial intelligence, biometric recognition, predictive policing, airport security, the internet, and biological warfare. The Doors (2019) is an immersive environment that imagines a new psychedelic age fueled by AI, nootropics, and tech culture.SANCTUM(2018) is a sex dungeon-cum-detention center that recasts security and surveillance through BDSM. A film installation, Contra-Internet: Jubilee 2033 (2018) follows author Ayn Rand on an acid trip, in which she bares witness to a dystopian future of the internet. im here to learn so :)))))) (2017), a four-channel video installation and collaboration with Jemima Wyman, resurrects Microsoft AI Tay to consider the gendered politics of pattern recognition and machine learning. Facial Weaponization Suite (2011-14) consists of amorphous masks that demand opacity against biometric facial recognition systems. Recent exhibitions include British Art Show 9, Positions #6, Van Abbemuseum; Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI at the de Young Museum; The Body Electric at the Walker Art Center; the 2018 Gwangju Biennale; and the 68th Berlin International Film Festival. Blas’s practice has been supported by a Creative Capital award in Emerging Fields, the Arts Council England, Edith-Russ-Haus für Medienkunst, and the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. His work is in the collections of Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, and Whitney Museum of American Art. His 2021 artist monograph Unknown Ideals is published by Sternberg Press.