This event is joint with E+Society and the Beall Center for Art + Technolo gy.
Location: Engineering Hall (EH) 2430 and Zoom< /p>
Derek Curry and Jennifer Gradecki are artists who approach technolog y as a formal medium\, spending time experimenting with it: learning what it does\, what it resists\, and what it makes possible\, before reflecting on what it signifies socially or politically. Their practice involves rev erse-engineering technological artifacts in order to understand them on th eir own terms—a disposition drawn from their artistic backgrounds.
I n this presentation\, they will discuss several of their research-based pr ojects\, each modeling a different way artists can engage with AI and comp utational systems. Examples will include an interactive replica of an open -source intelligence surveillance system\; a facial recognition algorithm\ , trained only on fictional characters and returning exclusively false pos itives\, that interrogates how law enforcement actually deploys the techno logy\; an air-gapped LLM-based propaganda machine\, exhibited as an instal lation\, that reveals what AI-driven disinformation looks like without gua rdrails\; and a fully AI-generated short film\, co-authored with a locally -run open-source language model\, tracing the concealment of human cogniti ve labor from the Mechanical Turk to the contemporary gig economy\, using the very tools whose existence depends on that concealment.
Curry an d Gradecki will reflect on what artists can bring to AI research: as colla borators in critical design\, as builders of public-facing apparatuses\, a nd as practitioners of an open-ended mode of inquiry that doesn't require fixed deliverables to be productive..
Bio:< /p>
Derek Curry and Jennifer Gradecki are media artists who critique the dominant technological powers by hacking technologies to reveal underlyin g assumptions and effects. They use methods from media theory and science and technology studies as a means for critical engagement. They often repr oduce technologies used for social control or that have a significant soci al impact\, including open-source surveillance systems\, financial technol ogies\, and artificial intelligence.
Curry and Gradecki are Associa te Professors in Art + Design at Northeastern University. They hold MFAs f rom UCLA (New Genres 2010) and PhDs from SUNY Buffalo in Media Study (Curr y 2018) and Visual Studies (Gradecki 2019). They have presented and exhibi ted at venues including Ars Electronica (Linz)\, Arts Santa Mónica (Barcel ona)\, FramerFramed (Amsterdam)\, NeMe (Cyprus)\, Beta Festival (Dublin)\, and the Beall Center for Art + Technology (Irvine). Their research has be en published in Autonomedia\, Leonardo\, Big Data & Society\, Artnodes\, V isual Resources\, and Leuven University Press. They were awarded Best Arti st(s) in the ‘Artists for Media’ track for MediaFutures transnational supp ort program in 2023. Their artwork has been funded by Science Gallery (Dub lin\, Detroit\, Atlanta\, Melbourne)\, the NEoN Digital Arts Festival\, an d MediaFutures.
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260504T103000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20260504T120000 LAST-MODIFIED:20260430T014148Z SUMMARY:Technology as a Formal Medium: What Artists Bring to AI Research TRANSP:OPAQUE X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=TEXT/HTML:This event is joint with E+Society and the Beall Center f or Art + Technology. \;
Location: Engineering Hall (EH) 2430 and Zoom
Derek Curry and Jennifer Gradecki are artists who approach technology as a formal medium\, spending time experimenting with it: learning what it does\, what it resists\, and what it makes possi ble\, before reflecting on what it signifies socially or politically. Thei r practice involves reverse-engineering technological artifacts in order t o understand them on their own terms—a disposition drawn from their artist ic backgrounds.
In this presentation\, they will discuss several of their research-based projects\, each modeling a different way artists can engage with AI and computational systems. Examples will include an interac tive replica of an open-source intelligence surveillance system\; a facial recognition algorithm\, trained only on fictional characters and returnin g exclusively false positives\, that interrogates how law enforcement actu ally deploys the technology\; an air-gapped LLM-based propaganda machine\, exhibited as an installation\, that reveals what AI-driven disinformation looks like without guardrails\; and a fully AI-generated short film\, co- authored with a locally-run open-source language model\, tracing the conce alment of human cognitive labor from the Mechanical Turk to the contempora ry gig economy\, using the very tools whose existence depends on that conc ealment.
Curry and Gradecki will reflect on what artists can bring t o AI research: as collaborators in critical design\, as builders of public -facing apparatuses\, and as practitioners of an open-ended mode of inquir y that doesn't require fixed deliverables to be productive..
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Bio:
Derek Curry and Jennifer Gradecki are m edia artists who critique the dominant technological powers by hacking tec hnologies to reveal underlying assumptions and effects. They use methods f rom media theory and science and technology studies as a means for critica l engagement. They often reproduce technologies used for social control or that have a significant social impact\, including open-source surveillanc e systems\, financial technologies\, and artificial intelligence. \;
Curry and Gradecki are Associate Professors in Art + Design at Northe astern University. They hold MFAs from UCLA (New Genres 2010) and PhDs fro m SUNY Buffalo in Media Study (Curry 2018) and Visual Studies (Gradecki 20 19). They have presented and exhibited at venues including Ars Electronica (Linz)\, Arts Santa Mónica (Barcelona)\, FramerFramed (Amsterdam)\, NeMe (Cyprus)\, Beta Festival (Dublin)\, and the Beall Center for Art + Technol ogy (Irvine). Their research has been published in Autonomedia\, Leonardo\ , Big Data &\; Society\, Artnodes\, Visual Resources\, and Leuven Unive rsity Press. They were awarded Best Artist(s) in the ‘Artists for Media’ t rack for MediaFutures transnational support program in 2023. Their artwork has been funded by Science Gallery (Dublin\, Detroit\, Atlanta\, Melbourn e)\, the NEoN Digital Arts Festival\, and MediaFutures.
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