ProjectApril 1, 2021
The Next Biennial Should Be Curated by a Machine at The Whitney Art Museum
The Whitney announced the launch of The Next Biennial Should Be Curated by a Machine, an artificial intelligence project commissioned for artport, Whitney’s portal to Internet art, and online gallery space for net art commissions. Developed as a collaboration between artists UBERMORGEN, digital humanist Leonardo Impett, and curator Joasia Krysa, the project reimagines the future of curating in the light of artificial intelligence as a self-learning human-machine system.
The Next Biennial Should Be Curated by a Machine uses a group of machine learning processes to “curate” a series of imagined biennial universes evolving constantly. Collectively named B3(NSCAM), the featured software takes data sets from the Liverpool and Whitney biennials and various other sources, including Rolling Stone magazine—and processes them to calculate a future probability for words to appear, generating endless combinations of possible biennials in flux.
“The alternate, parallel universes constructed by the AI reflect the curatorial and institutional desires embedded in the data on which the software has been trained,” said Christiane Paul, adjunct curator of digital art at the Whitney Art Museum. “The AI engages in a kind of cultural apophenia, the tendency to see meaningful connections between seemingly unrelated things, and reveals hidden patterns.”
Audiences enter the project through an interface that depicts a twisting black and white vortex overlaid with sixty-four spinning wheels. Clicking on an individual wheel launches a new biennial universe on an animated background constructed from a range of sources, from NASA and sci-fi imagery to pop culture. Each universe is accompanied by a TikTok playlist’s soundtrack, referencing the mix of creative expression and preconfigured elements in digital tools.
The project is accessible anytime through the Liverpool Biennial’s website and the Whitney’s artport: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/the-next-biennial
The Next Biennial Should Be Curated by a Machine uses a group of machine learning processes to “curate” a series of imagined biennial universes evolving constantly. Collectively named B3(NSCAM), the featured software takes data sets from the Liverpool and Whitney biennials and various other sources, including Rolling Stone magazine—and processes them to calculate a future probability for words to appear, generating endless combinations of possible biennials in flux.
“The alternate, parallel universes constructed by the AI reflect the curatorial and institutional desires embedded in the data on which the software has been trained,” said Christiane Paul, adjunct curator of digital art at the Whitney Art Museum. “The AI engages in a kind of cultural apophenia, the tendency to see meaningful connections between seemingly unrelated things, and reveals hidden patterns.”
Audiences enter the project through an interface that depicts a twisting black and white vortex overlaid with sixty-four spinning wheels. Clicking on an individual wheel launches a new biennial universe on an animated background constructed from a range of sources, from NASA and sci-fi imagery to pop culture. Each universe is accompanied by a TikTok playlist’s soundtrack, referencing the mix of creative expression and preconfigured elements in digital tools.
The project is accessible anytime through the Liverpool Biennial’s website and the Whitney’s artport: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/the-next-biennial
