In his lecture, K Allado McDowell explores the concept of neural media and its historical significance. He outlines a typology of media, with a focus on AI and neural media, and argues that we are at a pivotal moment where we can shape its future. McDowell uses the example of the AI-generated image "Trippy Squirrel" and the art and machine intelligence program he co-founded at Google to illustrate it. In addition, he references Fred Turner's research on the history of the internet and technology, which influenced his taxonomy of media. He divides media into four categories: broadcast media, immersive media, network media, and neural media, and seeks to identify their historical periods, spaces, content, and identities. McDowell also discusses the concept of interpolation and its role in producing different subjects through interactions between people and systems. He reflects on the limitations of ontologies in AI and the importance of considering identity as an embedding within the medium itself. McDowell emphasizes that neural media constructs subjects through their embedding in the space of the medium, and that individuals can be understood as specific vectors in this larger neural network. He also imagines the possibilities of richer identity structures when biometrics are introduced and suggests that there may be a way to translate the concept of embedding and embeddedness into a larger, non-media-oriented or technological picture.
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K Allado-McDowell is a writer, speaker, and musician. They are the author, with GPT-3, of the books Pharmako-AI, Amor Cringe, and Air Age Blueprint, and are co-editor of The Atlas of Anomalous AI. They created the neuro-opera Song of the Ambassadors, and record and release music under the name Qenric.
K established the Artists + Machine Intelligence program at Google AI. They are a conference speaker, educator and consultant to think-tanks and institutions seeking to align their work with deeper traditions of human understanding.
K’s work has been covered by The New York Times, The Atlantic, WIRED, Bookforum, Artforum, BOMB, Lithub, The Warburg Institute, Institute of Network Cultures, and by writers including Erik Davis and Bruce Clarke.
K has spoken at TED, New Museum, Tate, Serpentine Gallery, HKW, Moderna Museet, Christie’s, MacArthur Foundation, MfN Berlin, Ars Electronica, Sónar, and many other venues, and has taught at SCI-Arc, Strelka, and IAAC.
15 окт 2024
