Advancing Technology: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Have you gone down the rabbit hole that is AI yet? If not, what is holding you back? Yes, it may sound very frightening to some, alienating even, but for others is exciting and challenging. For sure many people seem to be in a rampant debate about it. Even asking what is it? Does it help us or hinder us? Is it too fast to keep up and, anyway, who is behind it? Find out more in Advancing Technology: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly.

Picture on Left Hand Side Refik Anadol, Echoes of the Earth: Living Archive, 2024. Installation view, Serpentine North. Photo: Hugo Glendinning. Courtesy Refik Anadol Studio and Serpentine.

Guess what? AI is not that new. It has actually been around since the 1950s and was used in ways that many of us didn’t even notice. A computer’s ability to remember our search history so that we don’t have to repeatedly type out the same sentence is the work of AI. So is Siri or Alexa’s ability to recognize human voices and respond to their commands accordingly.

AI has been at work for years without us noticing, but its rapid advancements in recent years have been impossible to ignore.

Lately, we are all being bombarded with conflicting information about AI. A lot of us don’t truly know how to feel about this new technology that is rapidly infiltrating all aspects of life. From custom online shopping assistance to writing personalized speeches within seconds to creating a visual image of your favorite fictional book character, AI has become nearly unavoidable. And it is the increase in ‘doing things for us’ that is worrying for some.

The way that AI works is it rapidly collects large amounts of data from the internet using complex software. From there, the advanced software can automatically form patterns using this data.

Since the development of the internet, we have all put up images, words, tags, and stories that have contributed to the billions or even trillions of data out there that AI collects and uses.

Many people fear that the technology has gone too far. They argue that AI is taking jobs from humans and stealing data through unethical means.

On the other side of the argument, many people praise AI for its ability to do mundane tasks that would take a person hours in a matter of seconds, claiming that its efficiency is extremely helpful and gives humans more time to do more meaningful work. 

One indisputable fact of AI is that it is not possible without humans. All of the information that AI stores, analyzes, and uses is for the most-part, the past work of humans. 

George Lois, renowned advertising creative, once said,

‘Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.’

George Lois

So, in theory, a computer can’t be ‘creative’, can’t think for itself, and is not able to make ‘creative accidents? What if, instead of fearing AI, people decided to combine their own creativity with the endless potential that it can provide?

Two groundbreaking exhibitions seek to explore the potential of human and AI’s collaborative capabilities in making completely original and one-of-a-kind work. 

A Body of Harnasie, created by choreographer Wayne McGregor, and visual artist Ben Cullen Williams, and performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Edward Gardner. The piece was a co-commission between NOSPR and the LPO and tells the timeless folk story of  Szymanowski’s Harnaisie with a modern twist. 

Harnaisie is set in the beautiful Tatra mountains, between Slovakia and Poland, the original story of the abduction of a bride by the robber Harnaś, with a shepherd as the only other character.

This production combines live dance from a trio of two males and one female with seamless AI visuals collected through hours of mountain footage, all set to the soundtrack of traditional highland music.

A sculptural video installation will be suspended over the orchestra, depicting the fusion of traditional dance and artificial imagery blended seamlessly, blurring the boundaries of what is real and what is fake.

This groundbreaking project reimagines how dance can not only be created, but experienced. It embraces the endless potential of this new groundbreaking technology and combines it with the classic story of Harnaisie that has been performed for over 80 years. 

In the new year, Serpentine is embracing the new wave of technology with a new upcoming exhibit using AI enhancement to portray completely original depictions of natural habitats around the world.

Refik Anadol’s exhibition, Echoes of the Earth: Living Archive, at the Serpentine, is the product of years of experimentation with visual data of coral reefs and rainforests. 

As a pioneer in AI arts, Anadol created a piece titled Artificial Realities: Coral, that utilized approximately 5 billion images of coral that were accessible on the internet.

With all of that information, AI technologies were able to generate abstracted coral with new colour combinations and visuals, allowing the audience to be immersed in an underwater experience that is one-of-a-kind and that they would never normally have access to. 

In this exhibition, Anadol explores the profound ways that technology impacts our life and how this alters our understanding of the world around us. 

Refik Anadol, Echoes of the Earth: Living Archive, 2024. Installation view, Serpentine North. Photo: Hugo Glendinning. Courtesy Refik Anadol Studio and Serpentine.

Through their art, A Body of Harnasie and Echoes of the Earth: Living Archive are able to explore the positive ways in which AI can impact creativity when used responsibly. 

Despite AI being scary and unfamiliar to many of us, it is also exciting and full of so much unlocked potential. Rather than being restrictive and impersonal, the combination of human and artificial intelligence has the capability of bringing nearly impossible ideas to life.

As George Lois says, originality overcomes everything, and AI has given us the opportunity to be innovative and create in ways that we never could have imagined.

See the UK Premiere: A Body of Harnasie on March 6 at London’s Royal Festival Hall followed by a performance at Concertbouw Brugges on March 9. https://lpo.org.uk/event/dance-re-imagined/

Visit the Serpentine Exhibition: Echoes of the Earth: Living Archive on February 16 to April 7 2024. https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/

If you enjoyed reading Advancing Technology: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly why don’t you try Colourful Alchemy: A Journey into the World of Illuminated Hues here

.Cent Magazine London, Be Inspired; Get Involved