What if the museum information text label for an artwork was „personalized“ to the reader (and perhaps a little untrustworthy)?
This talks presents the AI-based intervention »Flatware, Hardware, Software, Wetware« (2024) by the Hertzlab, ZKM Karlsruhe’s own department of artistic research. The interactive work draws on previous development with smart text labels from the ZKM’s intelligent.museum project. The artworks, here called »flatware«, come from the ZKM Collection and are rarely shown to the public. Through the usage of AI, we are constantly challenged to find new individual interpretations of classic »flatware«. In the process, the supposedly true description of the picture actually turns out to be tongue-in-cheek disinformation that invites us to make our own interpretation. The installation thus questions our subliminal trust in the written text and undermines the cultural institution’s presumed sovereignty of interpretation over what we see.
»Flatware, Hardware, Software, Wetware« can be seen in the „(A)I Tell You, You Tell Me“ exhibition at ZKM Karlsruhe, 04 May – 24 Nov 2024.
https://zkm.de/en/exhibition/2024/05/ai-tell-you-you-tell-me
