1.3 Divination and Chance
Tracks
Track 3
Monday, June 24, 2024 |
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM |
Plaza P7 |
Speaker
Mr Aven Le Zhou
PhD Researcher
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)
FP: Archiving Body Movements: Collective Generation of Chinese Calligraphy
11:00 AM - 11:25 AMAbstract
As a communication channel, body movements have been widely explored in behavioral studies and kinesics. Performing and visual arts share the same interests but focus on documenting and representing human body movements, such as for dance notation and visual work creation. This paper investigates body movements in oriental calligraphy and how to apply calligraphy principles to stimulate and archive body movements.
Through an artwork(Wushu), the authors experiment with an interactive and generative approach to engage the audience’s bodily participation and archive the body movements as a compendium of generated calligraphy. The audience assumes the role of both writers and readers; creating (“writing”) and appreciating (“reading”) the generated calligraphy becomes a cyclical process within this infinite “Book,” which can motivate further attention and discussions concerning Chinese characters and calligraphy.
Through an artwork(Wushu), the authors experiment with an interactive and generative approach to engage the audience’s bodily participation and archive the body movements as a compendium of generated calligraphy. The audience assumes the role of both writers and readers; creating (“writing”) and appreciating (“reading”) the generated calligraphy becomes a cyclical process within this infinite “Book,” which can motivate further attention and discussions concerning Chinese characters and calligraphy.
Biography
Aven Le ZHOU (b. 1991, Wuhan, China) is an artist who works with Interactive Media and Generative Agents, such as emergence systems, genetic algorithms, and generative Artificial Intelligence. He is a PhD candidate in Computational Media and Arts, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou). He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an affiliated Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers.
Dr Hugh Davies
RMIT University
FP: From I-Ching to AI: Interrogating Digital Divination
11:25 AM - 11:50 AMAbstract
Divination denotes practices of mediation that aim to reveal hidden knowledge and sketch out speculative fu-tures before they come into being. Often employing crea-tive and playful methods, divinatory speculations wield ominous power, even when inaccurate. Today, this power is becoming concentrated within neoliberal coordinates following the professionalization of divination, most markedly through artificial intelligence (AI). Reviewing the literature of past and present divinatory practices to interrogate its methods from games to AI, this paper of-fers four key contributions: (1) it establishes divination as a media arts practice; (2) it traces transnational histories of this practice; (3) it unpacks the limitations and issues arising from AI divination, and (4) it presents strategies and tactics to confront them. Mapping the shifting power-relations and speculative practices of prediction, this paper reveals and critiques the unannounced spiritual mysticism surrounding contemporary AI and its increas-ing embrace within late-capitalist future forecasting.
Biography
Dr Hugh Davies is an artist, curator, and researcher. Working across digital media, academic scholarship, and creative practice, he explores the social, cultural, and political dimensions of games and play in the Asia Pacific region. Davies recently exhibited a series of North Asian divination games at Hong Kong’s Centre for Heritage, Art and Textiles and curated a collection of videogames at the inaugural exhibition of Hong Kong’s M+ Museum of Visual Culture. Davies has co-authored two books: Understanding Games and Game Cultures (2021) and Exploring Minecraft, Ethnographies of Play (2020). He is currently a researcher in Chinese Platform Studies at RMIT in Melbourne, Australia, and is president of the Chinese Digital Games Research Association (CDiGRA).
Mrs Chloe McFadden
PhD Candidate and Artist
University of New South Wales
FP: Practices of Prediction: Tarot as a Lens for Disrupting ML Eventfulness
11:50 AM - 12:15 PMAbstract
This paper explores how artists can engage Tarot as a lens for engaging and disrupting faith in machine learning ca-pabilities. Considering the increased casual adoption of ML systems, especially as embedded into social media platforms like Discord and TikTok, it explores how predic-tion as a form of knowledge production is engaged and naturalised via interaction. Tarot reading, as another form of knowledge production, was selected due to its produc-tive similarities and differences, which are used by the artist to unearth and examine faith in prediction. This is achieved via the creation and discussion of the creative project, “Practices of Prediction” (2023), an interactive installation in which audience members are encouraged to reach out into the unknown, turning to the ML system for guidance and advice, receiving in return a new generated Tarot card and reading. The paper explores three practice-based avenues for revealing and disrupting faith in prediction: manipulating prompt weighting, exploring the dynamics of 'flipping and seeking', and contrasting the concealment and revelation of predictive processes . The final section of the paper offers reflective insights on the implications of using Tarot as a creative lens, both for the artist and the audience. In this, it calls to the forefront what it means to collectively generate visions of the future with ML systems.
Biography
Chloe McFadden is an artist and PhD candidate based in Sydney on Gadigal land. Primarily making generative art and interactive installations that utilize machine learning systems, her work critically engages with society's growing faith in predictive technologies. Through her art, she aims to disrupt this reliance and sensitizes audiences to the increasingly ubiquitous ways we are co-constructing our futures alongside machine systems.
She graduated with first-class honours and received the university medal from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 2021. Her PhD research is particularly focused on exploring the role that artists can play in examining, uncovering, and disrupting how our faith in predictive algorithms manifest, and its impact within society and culture.
Beyond her academic and artistic pursuits, McFadden serves as the Media Coordinator for Arc UNSW, where she facilitates student publications and volunteer programs.
Session chair
Paul Brown
Computer Arts Society
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