[Gallery Walk] Can 'AI and Humans' Live Together?

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art's 'Predictable (Un)predictable World'
Held at Cheongju Art Storage Center until August 25
Exploring AI's Impact on Society and Culture

Artificial intelligence, developed since the 1950s, has recently gained the ability to ‘generate,’ raising the possibility of replacing or surpassing humans. While the technological prowess and advancement of AI are accelerating the future we once imagined, they are also exacerbating socio-ethical issues such as environmental, labor, and data colonialism. An exhibition that tracks the trajectory of AI and reveals the artificial world it is building is coming.

Kim Ah-young, Delivery Dancer's Sphere, 2022, single-channel video, color, sound, 25 minutes. [Photo courtesy of National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art]

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) is holding the exhibition "Predictable (Un)predictable World" until August 25 at the MMCA Cheongju Art Storage Center (hereafter Cheongju Pavilion).

"Predictable (Un)predictable World" is the first media art curated exhibition at the Cheongju Pavilion, designed to examine artificial intelligence (AI), which influences today’s society and culture, and to explore the possibilities of coexistence between technology and humans. Through artworks centered on AI, the exhibition contemplates the meaning of today’s technology from various perspectives such as ecology, creation, evolution, and systems. It also questions what issues we are overlooking and what tasks require our focus regarding AI. Furthermore, it shares contemporary artists’ reflections on the AI era and invites visitors to imagine the "Predictable (Un)predictable World" together.

The exhibition features eight artists (teams): Kim Ah-young, Slitscope, Unmake Lab, Ian Cheng, Jake Elwes, Chusu, Trevor Paglen, and Hito Steyerl. They connect controversial keywords surrounding AI today with their works. The eight keywords are presented in four sections: ‘Future and Non-future,’ ‘Generation and Non-generation,’ ‘Evolution and Co-evolution,’ and ‘Orbital Dance and Two Eyes.’

The ‘Future and Non-future’ section focuses on AI’s predictive technology, exploring the desire to ‘predict the future’ and its nature. Hito Steyerl’s "This Is the Future" (2019), presented under the ‘Future’ keyword, reveals the myopic limitations of AI’s predictive algorithms and criticizes the artificial stupidity that relies solely on prediction algorithms to guess the future while failing to properly perceive reality. Under the ‘Non-future’ keyword, Unmake Lab’s "Ecology for the Non-future" (2023), "Oracle for the Non-future" (2023), and "Domestic Animal Syndrome" (2023) are exhibited. These three works embody AI’s ‘futureless predictions’ confined within human understanding and visual systems.

Hito Steyerl 'This Is the Future', 2019, video installation, environment. Collection of Ulsan Museum of Art. Photo by Hong Cheol-gi. [Photo courtesy of National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art]

The ‘Generation and Non-generation’ section addresses perspectives on generative AI, which has been assigned the role of creation through its generative function. Under the ‘Generation’ keyword, Chusu’s "Dali’s Amy" (2024) and "Pregnant Amy" (2024) are introduced. Through Amy, created by the generative AI program DALL·E 2, the artist presents a new type of art that breaks away from conventional artistic creation. Under ‘Non-generation,’ Jake Elwes’s "The Gigi Show" (2020) and "Gigi and Me" (2020) are exhibited. Through this project, the artist explains the biases accumulated in AI technology and the marginalized entities.

The third section, ‘Evolution and Co-evolution,’ showcases works imagining the world influenced by AI and our place within it, centered on the keyword ‘Evolution.’ Slitscope’s "Time詩間Travel" (2024), introduced under the ‘Co-evolution’ keyword, is a work metaphorically depicting the experience of writing poetry together with the AI ‘Sia’ as a ‘journey.’ Ian Cheng’s work "Life After BOB: The Charis Study" (2021-2022), presented under ‘Evolution,’ begins with the question, "What if AI can live my life better than I can?" and probes the true meaning of a ‘better life’ in the AI era.

The ‘Orbital Dance and Two Eyes’ section highlights social issues emerging alongside AI technology development. Kim Ah-young’s "The Sphere of the Delivery Dancer" (2022), under the ‘Orbital Dance’ keyword, visualizes the body and time of riders controlled by delivery platforms and algorithms, revealing the problems of platform labor today. Trevor Paglen, introduced under the ‘Two Eyes’ keyword, presents "Image Computation Work No. 10" (2018), a work visualizing various forms of automated visual systems, from computer vision to machine learning.

'Predictable (Un)predictable World' Exhibition View_Photo by Hong Cheol-gi. [Photo courtesy of National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art]

This exhibition not only takes place in the 5th-floor special exhibition hall of the Cheongju Pavilion but also screens five video works by participating artists on the outdoor exhibition platform ‘Media Canvas.’ These works serve as a bridge connecting the inside and outside of the museum, completing the exhibition in an expanded form.

Kim Sung-hee, director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, said, “In this exhibition, visitors can examine eight interlinked keywords and artworks to contemplate today’s issues surrounding AI. Rather than focusing on the predictability or unpredictability of AI, I hope this serves as an opportunity to reassess our attitudes and reflections on AI technology and to consider ways of coexistence with technology based on new imaginations.”