Treffpunkt: der Vulkan (Azahar, Admiral und Lazy_fairy)
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︎︎︎Programme
︎︎︎Trailer
[EN] Meeting point: the Volcano (Azahar, Admiral and Lazy_fairy) [VN] Gặp nhau nơi miệng núi lửa
(Azahar, Admiral
và Tiên_làm_biếng)Two-channel Video Installation with VR activations.
10:00 mins
2022
Three fictional characters explore their personal experiences with the "welcome culture" in Germany and discuss strategies for survival against institutional powers. They propose using an intersectional feminist lens to create fairytales that serve emancipation and transformation, and consider how to build a sustainable and supportive system for POC/FLINTA* in exile.
From time to time, Admiral (Sedawi), Azahar (Al Kayal) and Lazy_Fairy (Lương) offer visitors the chance to step into their reality with VR glasses to embody the fourth character and immerse themselves in their mixed-reality stories.
The artwork is connected to lumbung in the sense that it examines the idea of collective storytelling and resource sharing in a virtual world. The artists also practice lumbung in their own work by collaborating with other artists and communities and creating a shared archive of stories and experiences. The artwork is part of the lumbung program during documenta fifteen, which features various events and activities that reflect the values and practices of lumbung.
From time to time, Admiral (Sedawi), Azahar (Al Kayal) and Lazy_Fairy (Lương) offer visitors the chance to step into their reality with VR glasses to embody the fourth character and immerse themselves in their mixed-reality stories.
© Cẩm-Anh Lương, Mayada Al Kayal, Batoul Sedawi
Courtesy the artist
Production Credits:Esra Sakalli – PhotogrammetryCẩm-Anh Lương – Conception, Video Editing, VR design
Mahmoud Ismail, Roland Sookias/EDDy Lab ULiège – 3D scanning
Edoardo Micheli – Music & Sound design
With thanks to: Nadira Husain, Noureddin Yassin
Inspired by the collective work The Super Empowered,
*foundationClass, nGbK, Berlin, 2020
Part ofdocumenta fifteen
June 18 - September 25, 2022Hafenstraße 76
34125 Kassel
Germany
TrótTin_AI / TrustIn_AI
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Interactive-Sonic Installation
Intervention performance:
Lyon Đạt Nguyễn
Sound composer:
Edoardo Micheli
Motion Designer:
Unaporn Kitcharoenwong
Documentation:
Esra Sakalli (Berlin), Ly Lê (Toronto) & Khuê Bùi (Saigon)
Tools: AI -Text-to-Image Generators
AI-Image-to-Image Generators
2023
Intervention performance:
Lyon Đạt Nguyễn
Sound composer:
Edoardo Micheli
Motion Designer:
Unaporn Kitcharoenwong
Documentation:
Esra Sakalli (Berlin), Ly Lê (Toronto) & Khuê Bùi (Saigon)
Tools: AI -Text-to-Image Generators
(NotionAI, Bing Chat AI, ChatGPT) and
(Dall-E 2, RunwayML)
2023
Algorithms can be biased in several ways. AI systems learn to make decisions based on training data, which can include biased human decisions or reflect historical or social inequities. This can lead to the perpetuation of biases in decision-making. [1]
When carnival rituals represent the crowning and subsequent de-crowning of a king/queen/power upholder, does AI represent a crowning of power? Most of our searches, conversations, secrets, hopes, needs, and worship might start with a question to AI. The work "TrótTin_AI" (TrustIn_AI) aims to question the trustworthiness of AI, It asks whether we can trust AI as much as we question the trustworthiness of our ancestors' beliefs, customs, and traditions. For example, in Vietnam, ancestor worship involves believing you can communicate with ancestors through a third-party fortune teller. [2]
By drawing parallels between AI and traditional beliefs, "TrótTin_AI" prompts reflection on the potential biases of algorithms and their impact on the news and resources with which humans converse. Using various AI image and text generators and Touch Designer, the installation detects human bodies and generates a projection mapping display featuring abstract forms based on a particular dataset. This dataset on the themes of human beliefs, carnivals, and festivals generates horizontal, adaptable words, ideas, thoughts, and feelings without any hierarchical structure. "TrótTin_AI" aims to blur the line between the physical and digital worlds, creating an entertaining and thought-provoking experience that encourages dialogue around the carnival theme.
Participants can engage with the installation directly and personally by sharing or performing personal gestures of offerings, worship, or other customs they practice, along with their experiences. This engagement fosters a closer understanding of the relationship between AI and human beliefs, encouraging reflection on the ways in which these two seemingly disparate entities can interact.
When carnival rituals represent the crowning and subsequent de-crowning of a king/queen/power upholder, does AI represent a crowning of power? Most of our searches, conversations, secrets, hopes, needs, and worship might start with a question to AI. The work "TrótTin_AI" (TrustIn_AI) aims to question the trustworthiness of AI, It asks whether we can trust AI as much as we question the trustworthiness of our ancestors' beliefs, customs, and traditions. For example, in Vietnam, ancestor worship involves believing you can communicate with ancestors through a third-party fortune teller. [2]
By drawing parallels between AI and traditional beliefs, "TrótTin_AI" prompts reflection on the potential biases of algorithms and their impact on the news and resources with which humans converse. Using various AI image and text generators and Touch Designer, the installation detects human bodies and generates a projection mapping display featuring abstract forms based on a particular dataset. This dataset on the themes of human beliefs, carnivals, and festivals generates horizontal, adaptable words, ideas, thoughts, and feelings without any hierarchical structure. "TrótTin_AI" aims to blur the line between the physical and digital worlds, creating an entertaining and thought-provoking experience that encourages dialogue around the carnival theme.
Participants can engage with the installation directly and personally by sharing or performing personal gestures of offerings, worship, or other customs they practice, along with their experiences. This engagement fosters a closer understanding of the relationship between AI and human beliefs, encouraging reflection on the ways in which these two seemingly disparate entities can interact.
- Manyika, J. (2022) What Do We Do About the Biases in AI? Available at: https://hbr.org/2019/10/what-do-we-do-about-the-biases-in-ai
- Long, N.T. and Van, V.H. (2020) “Ancestor worshiping beliefs in the beliefs and religion life of vietnamese people: nature, values, and changes of it in the current period,” PalArch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt / Egyptology, 17(3), pp. 370–388. Available at: https://doi.org/10.48080/jae.v17i3.92.
Part ofCarnival
of Algorithmic Culture
June 23rd & June 24th, 2023
bodyshop studiosToronto, Canada
Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts
Part of
Vietnam Festival of
Creativity & Design 2023
November 13th-19th, 2023
Hải An Gallery
Hồ Chí Minh City, Việt Nam
December 1st-7th, 2023
Vietnamese Women’s Museum
Hà Nội, Việt Nam
The Volcano Chronicles (Part I: Lazy_fairy)
Lazy_fairy sets out on a whimsical journey to reach a volcano and reunite with their imaginary friends. Along the way, they share personal experiences and family archives while pondering the true fairytale of "welcome-culture" in Germany, a place that seems bizarre to them. By borrowing storytelling techniques and folktales from Vietnamese, as well as cyber and other mythologies, they hope to weave their voice through a process of collective storytelling and claiming space. Throughout this journey, Lazy_fairy investigates the intersections between institutional power, identity, community and even a strange connection to coffee paths.
Despite their determination, as the volcano begins to erupt, Lazy_fairy vanishes into the fiery abyss.
Despite their determination, as the volcano begins to erupt, Lazy_fairy vanishes into the fiery abyss.
"The Volcano Chronicles" is a series of immersive VR and video works that explores the transformative power of (collective) storytelling. The name also references the sculpture "Tanz aus dem Vulkan" ("Dance out of the volcano"), 1988, by Ludmila Seefried-Matějková, located at Nettelbeckplatz, Berlin. Although the location's name is controversial due to its colonial past, it serves in present days as a focal point for the yearly demonstration and discussion meeting on International Wom*n's Day (March 8th) in Berlin.
"The Volcano Chronicles" proposes a collective fairy tale approach through an intersectional-cyber-feminist lens; It offers a strategy for resisting institutional powers and working towards emancipation and transformation from within. The series poetically attempts to create a sense of community and belonging for BIPoC and/or FLINTA* individuals in exile.
Each part of “The Volcano Chronicles" will delve into the perspective of one or more fictional character(s), embodied through 3D scans of one or more humans.
© Cẩm-Anh Lương, 2023
jardin d(’h)ivers
Provoked by the statement of EU foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell: "Europe is a garden, the rest of the world is a jungle", JARDIN D[‘H]IVERS*, a proposal by visual artist Cẩm-Anh Lương, musician Edoardo Micheli and members of Neue Nachbarschaft Moabit, is a two-day event about the fragility of gardens, of their boundaries and their dependence on the hostile jungle outside. It is an attempt to cultivate and open up an experimental, virtual world in which we examine the power relations between all creatures and the world's inhabitants beyond these distinctions and limits, with reflection on the power dynamics, resonating from recent developments in art, science, technology, music, as well as migration stories, ecology, policymaking.
(*) JARDIN D [‘H]IVERS is a play on words in French. “Jardin d’hiver” means “ garden” while “Jardin divers” can be translated as “garden of diversity”.
Featuring an artist talk, a gaming installation, a sound installation, a short film screening and a sound workshop on ecoacoustics and soundscape ecology.
Inviting Participants: Shane Munro, Florine Schüschke, Roland Sookias, Lucien Danzeisen