What Models Make Worlds: Critical Imaginaries of AI

Ford Foundation Gallery
September 7-December 9 2023
Co-Curated by Mashinka Firunts Hakopian and Meldia Yesayan

This exhibition restaged “Encoding Futures: Critical Imaginaries of AI” (OXY ARTS, 2021) with an expanded roster of artists.

From the curatorial statement: “In computer science, algorithmic models are used to forecast and visualize prospective futures. Beyond recent large language models (ChatGPT) and image generators (DALL-E, Midjourney), modeling is also used in predictive policing, judicial risk assessment, automated hiring, and elsewhere. These models structure our present, projecting worlds marked by radically asymmetrical power distributions. Invoking the various meanings of “modeling,” the exhibition assembles the work of artists who map the limits of our current algorithmic imaginaries and move beyond them in acts of critical world building.

Artists: Algorithmic Justice League, Morehshin Allahyari, Andrew Demirjian and Dahlia Elsayed, Stephanie Dinkins, Aroussiak Gabrielian, Maya Indira Ganesh with Design Beku, Kite, Lauren Lee McCarthy, Mimi Ọnụọha, Niama Safia Sandy, Caroline Sinders, Astria Suparak, Mandy Harris Williams, Kira Xonorika