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You're closer to comprehending exactly what your dog is saying when he's barking up that tree than you think thanks to artists and AI. World-renowned curator Lucia Pietroiusti, composer and performer Annie Lewandowski, and code artist Kyle Mcdonald came together to share what acoustic science and machine learning have revealed about the creative minds of Humpback Whales. The speakers explored what understanding interspecies communication is teaching us about ourselves in the second talk of the series, MAXforum: The Interspecies Quest.
1014 partnered with Media Art Xploration for MAXforum: 3 live conversations with artists and scientists to better understand the future of human, non-human, and artificial intelligence. Explore creative advances to be made at the intersection of diverse intelligences.
The lineup featured featured a McArthur Grant-winning artist, a world-renowned curator, and some of the most brilliant minds in the tech and science world.
MAXforum was produced by Media Art Xploration and presented in partnership with 1014.
Annie Lewandowski is a composer/performer who works in song and improvisation. As an improviser on piano, accordion, and electronics, she has performed/recorded with musicians including Fred Frith, the London Improvisers Orchestra, Caroline Kraabel, Theresa Wong, Tim Feeney, CAGE, Sarah Hennies, Spinneret.s, and Doublends Vert. As a singer, guitarist, and keyboardist, she has recorded with bands and ensembles including Emma Zunz, Xiu Xiu, The Curtains, Former Ghosts, and Yarn/Wire. Her band Powerdove has released nine recordings, most recently “War Shapes” (Murailles Music, 2017) and “Bitter Banquet” (fo’c’sle records, 2018). She premiered her Euripidean multimedia song cycle “Bitter Banquet” with baroque keyboardist David Yearsley at the Sustaining the Antique Festival of Classics at Cornell University in October 2016.
Kyle McDonald is an artist working with code. He crafts interactive installations, sneaky interventions, playful websites, workshops, and toolkits for other artists working with code. Exploring possibilities of new technologies: to understand how they affect society, to misuse them, and build alternative futures; aiming to share a laugh, spark curiosity, create confusion, and share spaces with magical vibes. Working with machine learning, computer vision, social and surveillance tech spanning commercial and arts spaces. Previously adjunct professor at NYU’s ITP, member of F.A.T. Lab, community manager for open Frameworks, and artist in residence at STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at CMU, and YCAM in Japan. Work commissioned and shown around the world, including: the V&A, NTT ICC, Ars Electronica, Sonar, Today’s Art, and Eyebeam.
Lucia Pietroiusti is Curator of General Ecology at the Serpentine Galleries (London) as well as the Curator of Sun & Sea (Marina) by Rugile Barzdziukaite, Vaiva Grainyte and Lina Lapelyte, the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, 2019, awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. She is the curator (with Filipa Ramos) of the durational festival on interspecies consciousness, The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish (2018-19) as well as the research, publication and performance project, PLANTSEX, on erotics and botany. Since 2013, she has programmed and produced research projects, artist commissions and performances, as well as film and collaborative partnerships, at the Serpentine Galleries. Pietroiusti was the co-curator of the 2018 (Work), 2016 (Miracle), 2015 (Transformation) and 2014 (Extinction) editions of the Serpentine’s yearly Marathon festival of art, science and technology; and the co-curator (with Kay Watson) and co-presenter (with Victoria Sin) of The Serpentine Podcast. Previously, Pietroiusti has been Assistant Curator at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (2007-2009) and Associate Editor of the journal of the arts and letters, Boulevard Magenta (2008-2010). Pietroiusti is currently researching more-than-humanism, ecology, interspecies consciousness, species extinction, plant intelligence, botany and myth.
Ashley Jane Lewis (moderator) is a 29 year old Interactive Artist, Maker and Youth Tech Educator. In the summer of 2016 she was listed in the Top 100 Black Women to Watch in Canada. In her undergrad (New Media, BFA at Ryerson University, 2008 – 2012), Ashley designed The Obama Board, a keyboard that swaps the sound of the note with a word from Barack Obama’s inauguration speech. After showcasing the project at the Toronto Mini Maker Faire she was invited to demo the installation at the Detroit Maker Faire for 20,000 people where she won Make Magazine Editor’s Choice and was highlighted on Barack Obama’s website.