New Exhibitions Exploring Artificial Intelligence

In QUAD Galleries, How We Make Meaning links two solo exhibitions by artists Memo Akten and Mimi Ọnụọha. The exhibitions explore aspects and meanings of Artificial Intelligence including; the gathering and use of data, machine learning also how humans and machines input and interpret data to view the world in scientific, spiritual and deeply personal ways.

Deep Meditations: by Memo Akten (2019)

How We Make Meaning incorporates Deep Meditations: A brief history of almost everything in 60 minutes by Memo Akten and Us, Aggregated 3.0 by Mimi Ọnụọha.

Deep Meditations: A brief history of almost everything in 60 minutes by Memo Akten (QUAD Gallery 1) is a monument that celebrates life, nature, the universe and our subjective experience of it. The work invites us on a spiritual journey through the slow, meditative, continuously evolving images and sounds, told through the imagination of a deep artificial neural network.

Us, Aggregated 3.0 by Mimi Ọnụọha (QUAD Gallery 2) combines 3 artworks using Google’s reverse-image search algorithms, to hint at questions of power, community and identity. The works include: The Future Is Here! which examines the process of dataset creation, teasing out the myths and reality of the labour behind machine learning, which is often done in the poorest parts of the world.

In Absentia 2.0 is based on an event in the early 1900s, when sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois was asked by the US government to conduct research on black rural life in Alabama, research that was never published. Ọnụọha asks “How many find their work halted not by lack of data, but by an unwillingness to hear?” “What is our responsibility both to listen and advocate for racial justice?”

A People’s Guide to AI opens up conversation around demystifying Artificial Intelligence. Visitors can download a free digital copy of the book via a QR code in the Gallery.

In QUAD Extra Gallery Spaces, Tom K Kemp’s Napoleon Complex combines a tabletop roleplaying game, improvised filmmaking and an animated CGI Emperor Moth to narrate the large and small scale consequences of weather modelling algorithms and global catastrophe insurance.

How We Make Meaning by Memo Akten & Mimi Ọnụọha and Napoleon Complex by Tom K Kemp can be seen in QUAD from: 7th September 2020 to 24th January 2021.

Gallery 1 & 2 is open daily from 11:00am (12 noon on Sundays) until 5:00pm, QUAD Extra Gallery Spaces open daily from 10:00am until 9:00pm. All exhibitions are free to visit.

QUAD requires all visitors to observe social distancing, please follow signage and directions from staff whilst moving around the building. The exhibitions are viewable without any physical interaction. The capacity of Gallery 1 & 2 will be managed, if capacity is reached we will operate restricted admissions. For more information please see: https://www.derbyquad.co.uk/whats-on/art or call QUAD Box Office on 01332 290606.

Exhibitions Related Events include an programme of free online talks, tours, discussions and screenings, open to all, are as follows, see www.derbyquad.co.uk/whats-on/art for information and to book.

What is Artificial Intelligence, What is Data? Panel Discussion with speakers Memo Akten, Mimi Ọnụọha and Tom K Kemp, chaired by Peter Bonnell & Laura O’Leary takes place on Wednesday 21st October at 3:00pm – Live broadcast via Facebook Live @derbyquad & Zoom, tickets available to book. https://tinyurl.com/yyf48fjz

Luba Elliott: Play the Turing Test Wednesday 4th November at 7:00pm – Live broadcast via Facebook Live @derbyquad & Zoom, tickets available to book https://tinyurl.com/y4dmj6jt

Instagram Live Gallery Tours with Assistant Curator, Laura O’Leary @quad_gallery

QUAD Extra Gallery Spaces Thursday 5th November at 1:00pm

QUAD Gallery Thursday 21st January at 1:00pm

Mimi Ọnụọha: Digital Screenings of Us, Aggregated (2020) & The Future Is Here (2019) Monday 23rd – Sunday 29th November – available to view on QUAD website

Tom K Kemp: Artist Talk Wednesday 16th December at 3:00pm – Live broadcast via Facebook Live @derbyquad & Zoom, tickets available to book https://tinyurl.com/y2rx8u3a

Notes to Editors

Memo Akten (Turkey) is an artist, musician, researcher and philomath. His work and research in Artificial Intelligence/ machine learning looks at collaborative creativity between humans and machines. His work in QUAD Gallery, Deep Meditations: A brief history of almost everything in 60 minutes is a monument that celebrates life, nature, the universe and our subjective experience of it. The work invites us on a spiritual journey through the slow, meditative, continuously evolving images and sounds, told through the imagination of a deep artificial neural network. Mimi Ọnụọha (USA/Nigeria) is an artist and researcher whose work in relation to AI highlights the social relationships and power dynamics behind data collection. Her multimedia practice uses print, code, installation and video to call attention to the ways in which those in the margins are differently abstracted, represented, and missed by sociotechnical systems. The Future Is Here! was originally commissioned for The Photographer’s Gallery.

Tom K Kemp (UK) incorporates roleplaying game design and animation into filmmaking, exploring systems-thinking, complexity and the eerie consequences of bureaucratic and economic systems on intimate human relations. His works generate unpredictable genre fiction where gameplay and collaborative storytelling are combined into a deviated method of complexity modelling.

QUAD is Derby’s centre for art and film, on the Market Place in Derby city centre. QUAD is a gallery, cinema, café bar and workshop that anyone can use. QUAD is a partnership between Derby City Council and Arts Council England. See www.derbyquad.co.uk for more information. http://twitter.com/derbyquad

For further information on this event, or any other issue relating to QUAD, please contact Kathy Wilson on 01332 285422 (mobile 07791441941) or email kathyW@derbyquad.co.uk