UNCANNY VALUES at the MAK by Some Place Studio

Concept text by Some Place Studio

The exhibition design for Uncanny Values is based on the spatial, material and atmospheric layering of ephemeral conditions. Through the extensive use of translucent and curved scrims, the display presents a radical departure from the traditional white box gallery showcase. 
Visitors moving through the layers become part of a fluid non- linear narrative. The transparency of the curtains allows for a dynamic, if uncanny space, where shadow-like figures pass by on the borders of perception. 

In contrast to the floating, non-cartesian spaces created for the exhibition, the plinths, benches and platforms are firmly rooted in the ground and highlighted through contrasting colors. The lighting concept is diffuse, adding to the overall abstract atmosphere. Natural light is allowed in through a filter, still allowing for a perception of the outside world. While creating an overall atmosphere, the system can adapt to a range of conditions and artist requirements. The work of Trevor Paglen for instance, requires completely enclosed and darkened spaces. The layering in this case intensifies, creating an enclosed area narrowly focused on a particular kind of work. 

Importantly, while particularly designed for the MAK location, the exhibition could easily be re-adapted and installed in other locations. Since the materials are relatively lightweight and foldable, the display can be easily transported. 

At times the scrims become carriers of artwork and information themselves. Operating as projection surfaces, and holding a portion of the wall text, their subtle presence is intensified in these moments. Just like a virtual layer, they can selectively be activated for various content streams. Mediating between physical artifacts, projections and digital content, the exhibition design is taking simple elements such as fabric screens and adapting them to our increasingly digitized world.

Exhibition text by MAK – Museum of Applied Arts

In the exhibition UNCANNY VALUES: Artificial Intelligence & You, the MAK is exploring one of the most important subjects of the coming decades, one that has significant consequences for all areas of our lives: artificial intelligence (AI).

In order to understand, help shape, and sensibly implement the potentials of artificial intelligence and the associated technologies, we need a new cultural sensibility, and this exhibition seeks to stimulate that. Installations in various media by 18 international artists and designers spread out in a generous parcours enhanced by examples and scenarios from current applications of AI.

It is exactly 100 years ago that Sigmund Freud wrote “The Uncanny.” The Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori coined the term “uncanny valley” for machines that are so humanoid that we shudder. It is therefore unsurprising that machines that can learn, think, and act seem uncanny. AIs are increasingly part of our lives, our social connections, our political and economic activity. This raises the question what sort of a living creature the omnipresent AI already is and will become.

In society, politics, business, ecology—in short, as a civilization—we have to develop new values together with our machines. UNCANNY VALUES: Artificial Intelligence & You opens up a number of perspectives on an area that is developing rapidly but is, at the same time, increasingly difficult to understand. The exhibition centers on questions of culture and technology, being human, power, control, and orientation in the uncanny valley of artificial intelligence.