Društvo Ljudmila, laboratorij za znanost in umetnost bo v osmo/zi predstavilo projekt Širni spleteni svetovi umetnice Ave Zevop, ki je nastal pod okriljem konS ≡ Platforme za sodobno raziskovalno umetnost.
Odprtje:
Petek, 26. 5. 2023 | 19.00
Ogled razstave:
27.–28. 5. 2023 | 12.00–18.00
29. 5.–2. 6. 2023 | 14.00–19.00
Voden ogled razstave:
sobota, 27. 5. 2023 | 13.00
petek, 2. 6. 2023 | 18.00
O projektu:
Projekt Širni spleteni svetovi umetnice Ave Zevop raziskuje, kaj kot zemljevid sveta razkriva umetna inteligenca, ki kot sistem pristranskosti deluje tako na ravni komputacijskih kot tudi na ravni kulturnih procesov ter je kljub navidezni nematerialnosti globoko vpeta v naše družbene, politične in ekonomske strukture. Kate Crawford o “imperijih umetne inteligence”, ki jih oblikujejo prepleti držav in industrij in ki “preizkušajo in preoblikujejo tradicionalno vlogo držav, obenem pa tudi krepijo in razširjajo starejše oblike geopolitične moči”[1], razmišlja kot o novem atlasu sveta. Atlasu, ki predstavlja dominanten in političen način gledanja, sledeč kolonialnim željam po centralizaciji moči.
Postavitev Širni spleteni svetovi sestavljata dva dela. Prvi sooča raznolike produkte treh modelov umetne inteligence za generiranje podob (Stable Diffusion, Kandinsky-2 in CogView), ki se lahko razlikujejo po ustroju modelov (kjer mdr. nastajajo razhajanja tudi zaradi razlik v jezikih, ki jih uporabljajo), pa tudi na ravni podatkovnih baz, s katerimi so trenirani. Podobe, ki so na razstavi predstavljene v obliki vizualnih shem, so bile generirane z uporabo uradnih nazivov nacionalnih držav kot besedilnih napotkov (prompt) za generiranje podob. Pri zasnovi vizualnih shem, ki generirano podobje organizirajo v celine, se umetnica opira na atlase in zemljevide sveta kot na specifične organizacije vednosti oziroma vizualizacije podatkov, ki niso nevtralni ali objektivni načini reprezentacije sveta, ampak vedno vsebujejo tudi specifično gledišče ter politično, družbeno in estetsko dejanje “ustvarjanja sveta”, ki vzpostavlja prostore različnih pomenov in (ne)vidnosti.
Drugi del projekta Širni spleteni svetovi predstavljajo estetsko ambivalentne skulpture, ki so bile generirane z uporabo UI-modela za generiranje 3D-objektov. Model je bil v procesu razvoja projekta treniran s prostodostopno podatkovno bazo ScanTheWorld, ki vsebuje tridimenzionalne skene na tisoče kulturnih artefaktov, klasificiranih glede na trenutno nahajališče teh objektov. Podatkovna baza tako na neki način odraža širši problem (predvsem zahodnih) muzejskih zbirk, ki vsebujejo objekte, “zbrane” na kolonialističnih ekspedicijah, ki so zato ločeni od lokacij in kontekstov svojega izvora.
Ob tem lahko potegnemo vzporednice z “ekspanzionistično logiko neskončne zbirke”[2], ki vodi ustvarjanje podatkovnih baz za treniranje nevronskih mrež, v katerih je svet sploščen v obliko podatkov, ki so s procesi ekstrakcije in kategorizacije izvzeti iz izhodiščnih kontekstov. Kompleksni ter kulturno, zgodovinsko, geografsko in politično specifični podatkovni nizi pa so v teh procesih abstrahirani in preoblikovani v poskus izgradnje objektivne in univerzalne podobe sveta, ki daje podlago generiranju novih artefaktov.
Projekt Širni spleteni svetovi različne modele strojnega učenja obravnava kot ideološke agente ekstrakcije, kategorizacije in interpretacije ter odpira razmišljanje o tem, kakšni so (novi) zemljevidi in razmejitve, ki jih riše umetna inteligenca, kako njeno delovanje sledi ozemljem, odnosom in genealogijam moči (preteklosti in sedanjosti) ter kakšna je njena vloga v procesih ustvarjanja svetov prihodnosti.
[1] Kate Crawford, Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence, Yale University Press, New Haven in London 2021, str. 186.
[2] Prav tam, str. 121.
O avtorici:
Ava Zevop se z raziskovanjem različnih medijev posveča vprašanjem, povezanim z izzvanimi pojmi današnje resničnosti, stilistiko in semantiko digitalne kulture ter vlogo medijev in tehnologije v procesih “ustvarjanja svetov”. Trenutno v svojem delu raziskuje sintetične medije kot preobrat v kulturni paradigmi in strojno učenje kot pospešek kolonialnega razuma. V preteklosti je delovala tudi pod imenom strtgm.
Njena dela so bila med drugim razstavljena na skupinski razstavi Fever Dream v Galeriji Kresija (2023), v okviru samostojne razstave Na začetku je bila statika … na koncu spleteni svet v osmo/zi (2022), na festivalu Design FEST Gent v Muzeju oblikovanja Gent (2022), na skupinski razstavi Let it be Queer! v Mestni galeriji Ljubljana (2021) in na 26. mednarodnem festivalu računalniške umetnosti – MFRU: Infrastrukturni kompleks: Altered Earth (2020). Ava živi in deluje med Ljubljano in Brusljem.
Kolofon:
Umetnica: Ava Zevop
Kuriranje: Maja Burja
Znanstveni sodelavec: Benjamin Fele
Oblikovanje grafik: Maruša Uhan
Mapiranje projekcije: Urša Čuk – rastrLAB
Zahvala: Aksioma – Zavod za sodobne umetnosti, Ljubljana, Stella Ivšek, Zelimkhan Suleymanov, Valter Udovičić, Staš Vrenko, Miha Zupan
Produkcija: Ljudmila, laboratorij za znanost in umetnost (pod okriljem platforme konS)
Razstava je del programa Ljubljana Art Weekend.
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Projekt konS – Platforma za sodobno raziskovalno umetnost je bil izbran na javnem razpisu za izbor operacij “Mreža centrov raziskovalnih umetnosti in kulture”. Naložbo sofinancirata Republika Slovenija in Evropska unija iz Evropskega sklada za regionalni razvoj.
ENGLISH
Ava Zevop | Webbed Wide Worlds
Opening
Friday, 26 May 2023 | 19.00
Exhibition
27–28 May 2023 | 12.00–18.00
29 May–2 June 2023 | 14.00–19.00
Guided tour of the exhibition
Saturday, 27 May 2023 | 13.00
Friday, 2 June 2023 | 18.00
About the project
Ava Zevop’s project Webbed Wide Worlds explores what artificial intelligence reveals as a map of the world, as it operates as a biased system at the level of both computational and cultural processes and is deeply embedded in our social, political and economic structures, despite its seeming immateriality. Kate Crawford considers the “empires of AI” – shaped by the entanglements of states and industries, which are “challenging and reshaping the traditional role of states while also being used to shore up and expand older forms of geopolitical power” – as the new atlas of the world. An atlas that represents a dominant and political way of seeing, in line with colonial desires for the centralisation of power.
The installation Webbed Wide Worlds comprises two parts. The first confronts the diverse products of three AI models for image generation (Stable Diffusion, Kandinsky-2 and CogView). These models may differ both in terms of their structures (where, among others, differences arise due to the different languages used) and at the level of the databases on which they are trained. The images presented in the exhibition as visual schemes were generated using the formal titles of countries as textual prompts for image generation. For the design of the visual schemes, which organise the generated images into continents, the artist drew upon atlases and maps of the world as specific organisations of knowledge and data visualisations, which are not neutral or objective representations of the world but always include a specific viewpoint and the political, social and aesthetic act of “worldmaking”, which establishes zones of different meanings and (in)visibilities.
The second part of the project Webbed Wide Worlds, features aesthetically ambivalent sculptures which have been generated using an AI model for generating 3D objects. In the process of developing the project, the model was trained on the open-access database ScanTheWorld, which contains 3D scans of thousands of cultural artefacts, classified according to their current location. In a way, the database is a reflection of the wider problem of (mainly Western) museum collections, which include objects “collected” on colonial expeditions that are therefore detached from the locations and contexts of their origins.
A parallel can be drawn here with the “expansionist logic of never-ending collection” that underlies the creation of databases for neural network training, in which the world is flattened into data removed from its initial contexts through the processes of extraction and categorisation. In these processes, complex and – culturally, historically, geographically and politically – specific datasets are abstracted and transformed into an attempt to construct an objective and universal image of the world, which then provides the basis for the generation of new artefacts.
The project Webbed Wide Worlds considers various machine learning models as ideological agents of extraction, categorisation and interpretation and raises questions on the (new) maps and boundaries drawn by artificial intelligence, how its workings trace the (past and present) territories, relations and genealogies of power, as well as its role in the processes of creating the worlds of the future.
[1] Kate Crawford, Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence, Yale University Press, New Haven 2021, str. 186.
[2] Ibid, p. 121.
About the artist
Ava Zevop explores different media to reflect on the challenged notions of today’s reality, stylistics and semantics of digital culture, and the role of media and technology in “worldmaking” processes. She is currently researching machine learning as an acceleration of colonial reason. In the past, she has also operated under the name strtgm.
Previous works have been exhibited in the solo exhibition In the Beginning, There Was Static … In the End, There Was the Webbed Wide World at osmo/za (2022) and in the group exhibitions Fever Dream at Kresija Gallery (2023), Design FEST Gent in the Design Museum Gent (2022), Let It Be Queer! in the City Gallery of Ljubljana (2021), and Infrastructural Complex: Altered Earth at the 26th International Festival of Computer Art – MFRU (2020). Ava lives and works between Ljubljana and Brussels.
Credits
Artist: Ava Zevop
Curator: Maja Burja
Scientific collaborator: Benjamin Fele
Design of graphic elements: Maruša Uhan
Projection mapping: Urša Čuk – rastrLAB
Acknowledgements: Aksioma – Zavod za sodobne umetnosti, Ljubljana, Stella Ivšek, Zelimkhan Suleymanov, Dorijan Šiško, Valter Udovičić, Staš Vrenko, Miha Zupan
Production: Ljudmila, Art and Science Laboratory (under the auspices of konS Platform)
Projekt konS – Platforma za sodobno raziskovalno umetnost is a project chosen on the public call for the selection of the operations “Network of Investigative Art and Culture Centres”. The investment is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union.
The exhibition is part of Ljubljana Art Weekend.