AI: Who’s Looking After Me? exhibits 


Cat Royale

Cat Royale is the futurist utopia where cats are watched over lovingly by an AI robot arm, tending to their every need. The film and installation documenting cats’ experiences with an AI caregiver probe the future impact of new technologies on animal care... and the trade-offs involved. The work from internationally renowned artist collective Blast Theory, currently cultural ambassadors for the Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub, will be accompanied by live research from author and computer scientist Dr Kate Devlin, King’s Department of Digital Humanities.  Read more about Cat Royale.


Autonomous Trap 001

Autonomous Trap 001 from acclaimed artist and technologist James Bridle is a playful experiment in making meaningful partnerships with machine intelligence. The artist wrote his own software, built neural networks and rigged up cameras to build his own self-driving car, showing the possibility and power of shaping our own relationship with technology. His work seeks to find common ground between human and machine ways of comprehending the world, whilst resisting corporate power.


Newly Forgotten Technologies

Ten years ago, Jeff Bezos shared a vision for the world where every home had an Alexa voice assistant. In reality, the environmentally extractive nature of manufacturing these AI technologies, the inability to recycle or repair them, and the lack of transparency around their function leads to questions around their presence in our lives. In the eerie and immersive installation Newly Forgotten Technologies, sound artist Wesley Goatley presents a cautionary tale from an undefined near future, where voice assistants are defunct.  


Sprout

Meet the inflatable, huggable robot that responds to human behaviour. Sprout incorporates innovative soft robotics to explore how we might develop the next generation of robots. Rooted in research led by Dr Oya Celiktutan, Head of the Social AI & Robotics Lab, King’s Department of Engineering in collaboration with creative robotics studio Air Giants (currently in residence in the department) and King’s students Jeffrey Chong, Theodore Lamarche and Bowen Liu, it uses the theory of Proxemics - how humans use space as a form of non-verbal communication - to explore how motion, distance and space might facilitate effective communication between humans and robots.


Looking for Love

Would training a machine on everything the internet knows about love result in unparalleled romantic success? Would you allow data to be decision-maker on all aspects of your romantic life? Looking for Love is part modern-day Tamagotchi, part interactive fiction and part experiment from Fast Familiar, the award-winning studio rooted in audience-centric experiences and the digital world. 


What is Essence

In What is Essence? visitors are invited to consider the very essence of seeing and express their own unique perspective of the world. Using a diverse range of AI-generated ‘artistic’ depictions of natural objects, the exhibit pushes the limits of current AI capabilities, exposing the ever-closing gap between human intelligence and AI and examining the nature of our own perceptive abilities. The work is a collaboration between PhD researcher Munkhtulga Battogtokh from King’s Department of Informatics and visual artist Alice White.  


The Future is Here!

Who are the workers behind the vast datasets machines learn from? The Future is Here! from visual artist Mimi Ọnụọha teases out myth from reality in the hidden, globally distributed human labour market that enables AI systems to function. Without crowdsourced tagging, labelling, and annotation work, the artist shows that bulk of machine learning as it unfolds today would simply not be possible. 


Between The Lines

Between The Lines from visual artist Sarah Selby, in partnership with Cari Hyde-Vaamonde, Visiting Lecturer at King’s Law School and Turing Fellow, highlights the power of algorithms within the UK immigration and justice systems, and the loss of the individual within these emerging processes. As human experiences are increasingly transformed into statistical ratings by AI and automated decision-making, this installation seeks to reintegrate the lived experiences of the individuals impacted. Created in collaboration with Beyond Detention (an organisation supporting people detained at Yarl’s Wood detention centre) and Twist Bioscience.


How Loud is Too Loud?

How Loud is Too Loud? considers how AI mediates access to the sonic world from multidisciplinary artist Seo Hye Lee in collaboration with Irumee Pai, from King’s School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences. Drawing on her experience of using a cochlear implant, the artist explores the way in which AI is intertwined with her physical self in a way that was not previously possible, through sonic sculpture and textile work. 


Heartifical Intelligence

Heartifical Intelligence is an immersive installation investigating the roles that technology and community each play in the healthcare journey of young heart patients. The piece was created in collaboration between TripleDotMakers, 9 young people who have congenital heart conditions and their siblings from the Evelina Children’s Heart Organisation (ECHO), and researchers at Wellcome/EPSRC Centre for Medical Engineering. Combining projection mapping, audio and sensors, the installations will pulse in sync to the heartbeats of the visitors while the audio piece explores themes including trust towards artificial intelligence in healthcare.  


Does AI Care?

Does AI Care? explores how novel AI tools could shape cancer care from the perspective of patients. Led by artist Sofie Layton, the collaboration brought together 8 young adults with experience of living with cancer and 3 researchers from the Wellcome/EPSRC Centre for Medical Engineeringworking at the cutting edge of AI applications in medical imaging, radiotherapy, and surgery. Through creative writing and making exercises, the group explored the project concepts together. The resulting audio piece and accompanying textile installation distils their conversations to reflect on the nature of AI, cancer and care and to consider how technological developments may change how patients are cared for.


Sentient Beings

Each Saturday throughout the season, Sentient Beings will invite visitors to question their relationship to security and privacy within the digital landscape of AI assistants. Featuring an immersive soundscape, the work sees artist Salomé Bazin collaborate with Dr Mark Cote from King’s Department for Digital Humanities, and Jose Such and William Seymour from the Department of Informatics.     


Live research

Clinical researchers from King’s Centre for Medical Engineering will conduct live research in the gallery, inviting visitors to offer their perspectives on the use of AI in healthcare, with collected responses informing future research.


Events and more…

A dedicated space within the exhibition will feature a range of interactive tools, games and publications from artists, writers, researchers and designers including Mimi Ọnụọha, Lily McCraith and Soul Miles, Superrr Lab, Proboscis and Mozilla Festival. 

The season event programme runs alongside the exhibition from July. From whole-building Lates to intimate discussions and workshops we’ll be inviting audience to interrogate how and where AI is impacting our lives.  Highlights include live performance from Indigo Youth, an AI myth-busting talk series by Tiarna Lee and Jhanelle White and more…


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