Artists Statement

Performance, June 10, 2022, Santa Mònica Art Centre. Public Event.

Keywords: performance , live coding, knowledge systems, machine learning, AI

Anatomies of Intelligence (AoI) is an artistic research project carried out by Joana Chicau and Jonathan Reus, who work together to establish connections between formats and collections of anatomical knowledge and research on the “anatomy” of computational learning and predictive processes, data sets, and machine learning models.

Anatomies of Intelligence is a performance in which we create a complex and intimate experience around a demonstration / dissection of a single unsupervised learning algorithm, K-means. The performance , inspired by the anatomical theater of the early years of the Enlightenment, takes place in a single environment in which the two artists, sitting around a circular table with their laptops, send JavaScript commands to a server. which, in turn, transmits them to an adapted audiovisual “theater” based on the web browser accessible to the global public during the performance .

Simultaneously, in person the same distributed platform is used as central audiovisual material to create an immersive experience for the audience in situ in which each step of the algorithm is slowed down, and can be seen, heard and experienced.

Some of the points we focus on have to do with tacit knowledge and confidence in the senses when it comes to accumulating knowledge about similar bodies and structures. The concept of aesthesis has been especially useful to us in shaping our work; aesthesis is a somewhat obscure term that appears in eighteenth-century European medical and philosophical dictionaries and describes “the faculty or capacity for sensation” (1) in scientific practice. Our concept of aesthesia forms a methodology for this project that analyzes the “sensory power” shown by machine learning algorithms, their representations, and training data sets.

Our research has fed a growing dataset and an online repository (2) that collects terminology and techniques for a critical examination of the “anatomy” of learning and prediction processes and models of machine learning algorithms. . The same platform is used to make an exploration of how a collection like the one mentioned and a set of artisanal algorithmic tools can face, by means of a performance practice that combines live coding, voice and meditative reflection, to the idealized bodies of artificial intelligence: its representational structures and processes of meaning creation.

(1) Hendriksen, MMA, 2012, doctoral thesis, Leiden University.
(2) Link: https://anatomiesofintelligence.github.io/catalogue.html

Link to online performance: https://anatomiesofintelligence.xyz/
(The performance takes place between 19h-20h; it is important to access the URL from the beginning as the performance is based on a sequence of real-time audiovisual commands, which will be lost in another way).

Here is the list of instructions to keep in mind before the show:
– access with a medium-sized screen-sized computer or laptop (not over the phone);
– better experience in the latest version of Firefox or Chrome;
– make sure you have a stable internet connection;
– turn on the sound in your browser and on your device;
– allow pop-ups in your browser. For example:
https://support.thebigword.com/hc/en-gb/articles/115007453467-how-to-enable-pop-up-windows-in-web-browsers-

Disclaimer:
– During this performance, images with graphic content not suitable for all viewers (including explicit images of human anatomy) will be presented.

https://anatomiesofintelligence.github.io/

• Joana Chicau [Portugal/United Kingdom] is a designer and researcher with training in dance. In his practice he investigates the intersection of the body with the built, designed and programmed environment, with the aim of expanding the ways in which the digital sciences are presented and made accessible to the public. He has organized events, in which he has also participated, with performances addressing multi-location collaborative coding, algorithmic improvisation, open debates on gender equality and activism.  https://joanachicau.com/
• Jonathan Chaim Reus (USA/NL) is a musician and artist who explores expanded forms of musical creation and improvised performance through a critical and embodied commitment to technological artifacts. Its practice is transversal and is based on research, with open and iterative processes of collaboration with professionals in the arts, sciences and humanities. His artwork increasingly uses performance to investigate the representational qualities of computer systems, algorithms, and infrastructure. https://jonathanreus.com/