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Livestream: An exploration of where human ends, and machine takes over
Everyone has been talking about the manner in which AI has permeated our lives - from smart speakers to home automation, to driverless cars and more. What people have also been talking about is the dependence of artistes on AI to create works of art - paintings, illustrations, stories, and even music.
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
Yes, Daft Punk might have kick-started a mock fad with Random Access Memories but artistes today are working on cutting edge research to explore the intersection between where humans end and where AI begins. Or in the case of this particular artiste - vice versa as well.
Sougwen Chung is a remarkable researcher who has trained robots to mimic her artistry - so to speak. Her research stemmed from the question that if machines are starting to be able to do the work traditionally done by humans, what will become of the human hand? How does our desire for perfection, precision and automation affect our ability to be creative?
Her answers came when she began thinking in terms of combining philosophy with technology. She started off by combining AI and robotics with traditional forms of creativity - in her case - visual arts. It helped her understand a little more deeply the notion of what is human and what is machine. She tells us, “I took some open-source robotic arm designs, I hacked together a system where the robot would match my gestures and follow (them) in real time. The premise was simple: I would lead, and it would follow. I would draw a line, and it would mimic my line.”
This year, Chung has launched Scilicet, her new lab exploring human and interhuman collaboration. Chung believes that by teaching machines how to do the work traditionally done by humans, people can explore and evolve their criteria of what’s made possible by the human hand. “And part of that journey is embracing the imperfections and recognizing the fallibility of both human and machine, in order to expand the potential of both,” she tells us.
She sums up by saying that she is still in pursuit of finding the beauty in human and nonhuman creativity. “In the future, I have no idea what that will look like, but I’m pretty curious to find out,” she signs out.
TED TALK CORNER
SOURCE: bit.ly/2Dx4tnS
SYNOPSIS: What happens when humans and robots make art together? In this awe-inspiring talk, artist Sougwen Chung shows how she “taught” her artistic style to a machine, and shares the results of their collaboration after making an unexpected discovery: robots make mistakes, too. “Part of the beauty of human and machine systems is their inherent, shared fallibility,” she says QUOTEWORTHY: Chung is an artist and researcher whose work explores the dynamics between humans and systems. Chung’s research is focussed on the mark-made-by-hand and the mark-made-by-machine as an approach to understanding the dynamics of humans and systems.
She is a former research fellow at MIT’s Media Lab and a pioneer in the field of human-machine collaboration In 2019, she was selected as the Woman of the Year in Monaco for achievement in the Arts & Sciences.
In 2018 she was an inaugural EAT Artist in Resident in partnership with New Museum and Bell Labs, and was awarded a commission for her project Omnia per Omnia
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