Establish a better connection to the apps and services that are essential partners in our daily lives. Especially now, in times of disconnection and distance.
Let’s be honest, these services and apps are our companions – inviting us to grow and engage in play and exploration. They take us by the hand in the never-ending evolution of our needs, desires, dreams and aspirations, making our decisions easier. And they never forget the memories we made together.
They fluently adapt to our words and gestures, learning from our clumsy interactions and unruly behaviours. Curiously observing the world, they suggest the shortest paths and the most relaxing creative outlets. They make our bubbles bigger.
Understanding and adaptive, they reach out and inquire. They keep our efforts going and aid in attaining new, wonderful levels of progress. Waking and resting with us – ever so idly – they discretely wait and listen to what we really mean to say. And no question could be too random or shameful in this contingent symbiosis. They know. Or at least they’ll try and learn.
Ask yourself, “What would I be without them?”
Past events
> The European Art Science Technology Network, Digital Creativity (EASTN-DC) at the 14th AudioVisual Arts Festival (ONLINE) | 30. 5. 2021
> title “Human Companions - Chatroom” in the frame of Re-Connect Online Performance Festival | 8. in 12. 4. 2021
> Presentation of the project in the framework of “9. worldwide vvvv meetup” organised by NODE Institute | 23. 3. 2021
> Rosi Grillmair: connect.experience | solo exhibition | 11–24 March 2021 | osmo/za
About the exhibition
During her residency at osmo/za, artist Rosi Grillmair researched mechanisms of anthropomorphisation in the field of artificial intelligence and the return impact of AI on us, its users and (co)creators, who, in the now habituated interactions with such technologies, are also constantly updating and nearing machines in our behaviours.
The artistic project connect. experience reverse engineers the procedures and situations in which we’re training algorithms daily – by confirming we are not robots, evaluating translations, recognising traffic lights and road crossings, talking to virtual assistants and chatbots … The artist has translated them into intentionally awkward and dysfunctional tasks for observing the feedback effect of such interactions on us.
The exhibition, as a transformative ideological apparatus, is used as a polygon to carry out an experiment: training a multitude of people through repetition, learning and voluntary optimisation. Using the promotional address of contemporary applications and services, it promises involvement, transgressive experience, personal growth, networking and collaboration. It politely invites us from the streets and behind our screens, into a seemingly playful situation, which in turn requires a careful reading of signs and execution of instructions. Namely, because the artist designed the exhibition as one would write an algorithm. Algorithms are, after all, abstract concepts that with the help of the appropriate (im)material infrastructure are either executable or not.
While following the circular path of a closed program loop – solving tasks, observing, responding, weaving semantic networks and learning – we’re physically executing the exhibition algorithm. Much like the first calculations in the beginnings of computer history were performed by “human computers”. The object of this behavioural programming is therefore us. The installation works as a program that, in seven steps, takes the visitor on a path of personal optimisation – becoming an artificial intelligence. When we’ve returned to the starting point at the end of our journey, we may, transformed by the experience, find it easier to integrate into contemporary techno-capitalism, or we may simply be better adapted to viewing exhibitions.
Gallery (photo: Katja Goljat)
About the artist
Rosi Grillmair (1991) is an artist, programmer and lecturer on art, culture and technology in her hometown of Linz, Austria. She speaks on AI and art, maker culture and creative coding and is part of several open-source communities. In her work, she reflects on human behaviour, society and systems through “programmable machines”. She has authored several complex art projects, including the curation service Exhy (2015), which creates cultural events automatically, and The Art Retriever (2014), a real-time online visualisation of the index of value and visibility of works of art, also exhibited at the Ars Electronica Festival. She has participated in several international art festivals and exhibitions, among others, at the Ars Electronica (AT) festival, TADAEX Tehran (IR), Medialab Prado (ES), Gwangju Media Arts Festival (KR), amberplatform (TR) and MKH Wels (AT). As a lecturer, she jas collaborated with the NODE Forum for Digital Art (DE), D.A.H. Project Shiraz (IR), Kepler Salon Linz (AT), Creative Coding Barcelona (ES), Digital Welten (DE) and Schmiede Hallein (AT). She earned her master's degree at the Interface Cultures Department of the University of Art and Design in Linz (Kunstuniversität Linz).
Artist: Rosi Grillmair
Curator: Maja Burja
Assistance with interface development: Staš Vrenko
Technical support: Valter Udovičić, Miha Zupan
Logo design: Maruša Račič
Production: Ljudmila, Art and Science Laboratory, and Projekt Atol Institute.
Supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, the Municipality of Ljubljana – Department for Culture and JSKD – Public Fund for Cultural Activities. The project is part of EASTN-DC Network, which is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.
Technical partners: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art Ljubljana, Rampa Lab · Kersnikova Institute, RogLab
Acknowledgements: Bashir Bastan, Cristina Cochior, vvvv Community, Luka Frelih, Anže Zorman, Tilen Sepič, Nataša Martina Pintarič, Jana Wilcoxen, Blaž Božič, Vesna Bukovec, Ann-Katrin Krenz, Michael Burk, Lotte
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