LASER Brussels and LASER CYLAND: SYMBIOSIS: Art in the Age of AI

The Leonardo/ISAST LASERs are a program of international gatherings that bring artists, scientists, humanists and technologists together for informal presentations, performances and conversations with the wider public. The mission of the LASERs is to encourage contribution to the cultural environment of a region by fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and opportunities for community building to over 50 cities around the world.

LASER Brussels & LASER CYLAND in Transit in New York: SYMBIOSIS – Art in the Age of AI

With : Alexandra Dementieva, Anna Frants, Petermfriess, Aernoudt Jacobs, Eunsu Kang, William Latham, Lev Manovich, and Koen Theys.

Chaired by: Alexandra Dementieva

Moderated by: Carla Gannis

Supported by: FÉDÉRATION WALLONIE-BRUXELLES CULTURE.BE, Flemish Ministry of Culture and CYLAND

EVENT INFO

When: Saturday, January 25, 2025, from 4:00 to 5:30 PM EST. Find your timezone HERE

Where: Hybrid event

Online: Livestream via YouTube – www.youtube.com/@ademalex/streams

In-person: The Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Gallery, 417 Lafayette Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10003

This discussion is part of the exhibition SYMBIOSIS: Art in the Age of AI, which opens on January 23, 2025.

About the Exhibition:

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 23, 2025, at 6 PM
On view: January 24 – March 29, 2025 | Tuesday through Saturday, 10 AM - 6 PM
Laser Talk: Saturday, January 25, 2025, from 4 to 5:30 PM.
Location: The Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Gallery 417 Lafayette Street 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10003

Learn more: www.swpk.org/exhibition-symbiosis

We are pleased to present the group show, SYMBIOSIS: Art in the Age of AI, on display at the SWPK Gallery from January 23 to March 29, 2025. The exhibition features works by eight artists: Alexandra Dementieva, Anna Frants, Petermfriess, Aernoudt Jacobs, Eunsu Kang, William Latham, Lev Manovich, and Koen Theys.

The exhibition explores the complex and evolving relations between human creativity and artificial intelligence. It showcases a diverse set of works by contemporary artists who leverage AI as a collaborator in their artistic processes. “Symbiosis: Art in the Age of AI” is a platform for dialogue and exploration. Through this show, we aim to develop a deeper understanding of the symbiotic relationship between humans and machines, and demonstrate the wide range of possibilities for using AI in art. As opposed to only focusing on the currently popular type of AI technology (i.e., “generative AI”), we want to present a more broad conceptual and aesthetic landscape of AI arts.

The included artworks show diverse and unique manifestations of the symbiotic relationship between artificial and human intelligence. Every piece represents the combination of artificial intelligence’s computer power and sophisticated algorithmic thinking with human intuition, emotions, and concepts. Artists are able to create new forms, explore new aesthetic possibilities, and push the boundaries of their work by utilizing various forms of AI. The included artworks employ a variety of AI techniques and instruments, such as natural language processing, machine learning algorithms, and generative adversarial networks (GANs). The resulting works demonstrate the great potential of AI to enhance human creativity, and they are as diverse as the tools that produced them.

Artificial intelligence traditionally aimed to replicate human cognitive abilities like vision, language com-prehension, and problem-solving. Today, however, AI has expanded into simulating human aesthetic capabilities. Currently, millions of people use AI tools to create fiction, compose music, and generate simulated photographs and artworks in diverse styles. This radical technological shift in the realm of human aesthetics prompts many intriguing questions, compelling us to reassess our long- held assumptions and beliefs.

While AI implies technological simulation of human intelligence, its use by artists challenges this notion. Historically, art has been discussed using concepts like skill, imitation, mimesis, and taste, rather than “intelligence.” The emergence of AI in artistic creation prompts us to consider the concept of “artistic intelligence” and its potential meanings, with the artworks in this exhibition offering various perspectives on these questions.

BIOS

Carla Gannis is an American transmedia artist based in New York and a professor at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Her art is characterized by a commitment to experimentation. Throughout her career, she has worked with an array of mediums and tools, including drawing, painting, video, interactivity, extended reality, and machine learning. Her multilayered narratives explore identity within an atomized and hyperreal 21st-century context – capturing the spirit of our rapidly shifting visual and technological times through blending historical art influences with contemporary digital semiotics and speculative fiction.

Gannis’s work has been exhibited globally in exhibitions, screenings, and internet projects. Her most recent projects include “Networked Nature” at the Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN (2024); “wwwunderkammer” at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, Charleston, SC (2023); and “Welcome to the wwwunderkammer” at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (2022). Her work has been featured in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Kunstforum, El PaÍs, ARTNews, Art Forum, The LA Times, among others. She is a Year 7 Alum of NEW INC, in the XR: Bodies in Space track, New York, NY.

Instagram: @carlagannis | Bluesky: @carlagannis.bsky.social | X: @carlagannis

linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/carlamgannis/

Petermfriess is a Brussels-based independent artist and senior researcher. Ph.D. in self-organising social systems and space technology engineering. Besides his activities in ICT innovation, he is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher with a wide array of interests such as artificial intelligence, nano- and biotechnologies, system theories, humanities, transhumanism, space exploration and ecology. Being transversal by nature, he combines inspiration from visual arts, music, theatre, dance, technologies, science, philosophy and travelling into conceptual digital art. The focus is an emotional and aesthetically accessible representation of humanity’s existence and evolution.

petermfriess.com

Alexandra Dementieva is a multimedia artist, based in Brussels. Alexandra Dementieva studied journalism in Moscow, USSR, and fine arts in Brussels, Belgium. Her principal interest as an artist is the use of social psychology, perception theory and behaviorism in media installations that combine dance, music, cinema and performance. She organizes LASER Talks Brussels and teaches at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Brussels, Belgium). Dementieva received the first prize for the best mono-channel video at VAD Festival (2005, Girona, Spain). She is a participant of numerous exhibitions in major international cultural institutions, including Rubin Museum (New York, USA), MACRO Museum (Rome, Italy), Centro de la Imagen Museum (Mexico City, Mexico), the Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art (Russia), and others. She lives and works in Brussels, Belgium.

 alexdementieva.org

Lev Manovich is an artist, author, and one of the world's most influential digital culture theorists. After studying visual art, architecture, and filmmaking, Manovich began using computers to create digital art in 1984. His work has been exhibited in 14 solo and 120 international group exhibitions at many prestigious institutions, such as the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London, Centre Pompidou, and Shanghai Biennale. His innovative art projects include “little movies” (the first film project for the World Wide Web, 1994), Soft Cinema (narrative films edited by algorithms in real-time, 2002) and Phototrails (visualizations of 2.3 million Instagram photos shared in 13 global cities, 2013).

Manovich played a key role in creating four new research fields: new media studies (1991–), software studies (2001–), cultural analytics (2007–) and AI aesthetics (2018–). He is the Presidential Professor of Computer Science at City University of New York's Graduate Center and the Director of the Cultural Analytics Lab. His books include Artificial Aesthetics, Cultural Analytics, Instagram and Contemporary Image, and The Language of New Media, which has been called “the most provocative and comprehensive media history since Marshall McLuhan.” Manovich was included in the lists “25 People Shaping the Future of Design” (Complex, 2013) and “50 Most Interesting People Building the Future” (Verge, 2014).

manovich.art

Anna Frants is an artist, curator in the field of media art. She graduated from the Vera Mukhina Higher School of Art and Design (Leningrad, USSR) and Pratt Institute (New York, USA). Founder of the nonprofit cultural foundation Cyland Foundation Inc. Cofounder of CYLAND MediaArtLab and CYFEST. Frants’ interactive installations have been showcased at Museum of Art and Design (New York, USA), Video Guerrilha Festival (Brazil), Manifesta 10 Biennale (2014, St. Petersburg, Russia), Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), Chelsea Art Museum (New York, USA), Russian Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), Kunstquartier Bethanien (Berlin, Germany), Hatcham Church Gallery, Goldsmiths, University of London (UK), Dartington Estate (UK), Ca’ Foscari Zattere Cultural Flow Zone (Venice, Italy), MAXXI Museum (Rome, Italy), National Arts Club (New York, USA) and at other major venues all over the world. The artist’s works are held in the collections of the Russian Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), Museum of Art and Design (New York, USA), Sergey Kuryokhin Center for Modern Art (St. Petersburg, Russia) and Kolodzei Art Foundation (New York, USA) as well as in numerous private collections. She lives and works in Miami, USA.

annafrants.net

William Latham is a computer artist. William studied at Oxford University and at the Royal College of Art in London. He is well known for his pioneering Organic Computer Art project based on his work on the IBM with mathematician Stephen Todd. He has also worked in rave music and computer games development with Universal, Sony SCEE and Warner Bros. Since 2007, he has been Professor in Computer Art and Games Development at Goldsmiths, University of London. Since 2015 he has worked extensively on developing Mutator VR and Mutator artworks that have been shown worldwide including The Pompidou Centre, Paris (France), Shanghai (China), Venice (Italy) and Linz (Austria). He lives and works in London and Brighton, UK.

mutatorvr.co.uk

Aernoudt Jacobs is a Belgian artist working primarily with the medium of sound. His work is both phenomenological and empirical. It has its origins in acoustic and technological research and investigates how sounds can trigger sonic processes that will affect the observer's scope of perception.

His work focuses on a central question: how can the complexity, richness and stratification of our direct, daily environment be translated into something that can really be experienced. His work has been exhibited widely at Bergen Art Museum (NO), Macba (ES), ISEA (GER), Singuhr Hoergalerie (GER), Netwerk (BE), NIMK (NL), STUK (BE), Vooruit (BE), Kaaitheater (BE), deSingel (BE), Le Bon Acceuil (FR), Lydgalleriet (NO), Tschumi Paviljoen (NL), Palais de Tokyo (FR) and Hermitage (RU)

In addition to his artistic practice Jacobs co-directed Overtoon, a platform and production facility for sound art based in the centre of Brussels until 2022.

www.aernoudtjacobs.info

Eunsu Kang is an artist, a researcher, and an educator who explores the intersection of art and machine learning as well as the possibility of creative AI. She started her artist career with video installations and single channel videos. Her works have been invited to art exhibitions around the world including Korea, Japan, China, Switzerland, Sweden, France, Germany, and the US. Her works gradually have transformed into interactive and interdisciplinary art projects, which currently focuses on the nascent area of AI art. All ten of her past solo shows, consisting of individual or collaborative projects, were invited or awarded. She has won the Korean National Grant for Arts three times. Her works have been presented at conferences including ACM, ICMC, ISEA, SIGGRAPH Asia, and NeurIPS. Kang earned her Ph.D. from DXARTS at the University of Washington, an MA from MAT at UCSB, and an MFA from Ewha Womans University. She left her tenured art professor position to design and teach new courses (Art and Machine Learning, Creative AI) at the Machine Learning Department of Carnegie Mellon University. She also co-founded the Women Art AI collective.

Kangeunsu.com

KOEN THEYS (1963. Brussels, Belgium.) was one of the first artists in Belgium to artistically exploit the medium of video in the early 1980s. Productions such as the ambitious video work Diana (1984) and the interpretation of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring der Nibelungen (1984-1989) caused his international breakthrough.

One of Theys’ recurrent practices is to deconstruct art history’s great traditions and icons of our western culture and linking them to contemporary issues. He uses artistic methods like displacement, doubling, morphing… to visually manipulate certain well-known western icons or symbols to the point where they seem to be turning against themselves.

Identity in all it's forms and especially in it's fluidity is one of the artist’s greatest focus. How people present themselves, what they choose to identify with, how (political) group-identities take over and function as a misguiding safe-haven, how the image of one’s self is the drive behind all ambition… and how all this can be very easily lost.

Theys’ work has been shown all over the world and is part of public collections such as MOMA in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Nouveau Musée in Villeurbanne, the S.M.A.K. in Ghent, the M HKA in Antwerp, the Museum of Modern Art in Brussels, Le Casino in Luxembourg, … and many others.

www.koentheys.org

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