Beyond the Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI

(Paperback)

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An investigation of the cultural and academic discourse around new technology through a lens of artistic practice
In 1970 Japanese engineer Masahiro Mori introduced the concept of the "uncanny valley" as a terrain of existential uncertainty that humans experience when confronted with autonomous machines that mimic their physical and mental properties. As subjectivities are increasingly organised and shaped by algorithms that track and evaluate our data, the question of what it means to be human has shifted.
The featured artists mine the tropes and modalities of AI and machine learning for critical and aesthetic potential, proposing new ways of thinking about intelligence, nature, and artifice.

Author Bio

Claudia Schmuckli is curator in charge of contemporary art and programming at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Yuk Hui is on the faculty at the Bauhaus-Universitt Weimar. Janna Keegan is assistant curator of contemporary art at FAMSF. Matteo Pasquinelli is professor of media philosophy at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. Tobias Rees is the founding director of the Transformations of the Human department at the Berggruen Institute in Los Angeles.