Soraya Mazarei

“Training Humans,” an idea and exhibition crafted and curated by Kate Crawford, co-director and co-founder of the AI Now Institute at New York University, and Trevor Paglen, an American artist principally concerned with issues including privacy, surveillance, and these two realms’ changing definitions as affected by digital technology. The website of the Osservatorio Prada, Prada’s dedicated contemporary photography space, defines the exhibition as “the first major photography exhibition devoted to training images: the collections of photos used by scientists to train artificial intelligence (AI) systems in how to “see” and categorize the world.” Upon entering the exhibition space, the visitor faces an open-plan floor plan with photos covering the walls and some dark marks pasted onto the windows. Peering closer, one can distinguish thanks to the light streaming through another part of the building diagrams and texts demonstrating how to split the human face into an x-, y-, and z-axis: how to read it three-dimensionally, as well as texts aspiring to classify people’s appearance so that “humans could be economically employed to make a final specific identification.” These startling efforts seem as though they belong either to the colonial past – they are similar to the practices of European doctors in Africa, who tried to make a case for Caucasian superiority on physiological terms – and modern – calling to mind the Chinese government’s use of facial recognition technology to track the movement of Uighurs, the country’s Muslim minority who have been increasingly monitored and moved into internment camps in the western province of Xinjiang. However, it is from neither the 19^th or 21^st centuries that these window decals originate – they are the work of an American governmental report of 1963, cluing the viewer into the fact that the digital surveillance and classification of appearance is neither antiquated history or dystopian future, but the recent past, and, therefore, the present.

Dragging you back into the moment is the recorded loop, playing the same script read in different accents, meant to reveal implicit biases in the listener’s perception of the same information given by people from different genders, parts of one country, or races. This audio is played from a speaker on the stairs, leading one to the second floor of the exhibition. Before you get there, however, you come across a board showing Michael Lyons, Miyuki Kamachi, and Jiro Gyoba’s “The Japanese Female Facial Expression (JAFFE) Database, developed in 1998. The set contains pictures of ten Japanese women making seven different facial expressions, meant to be used to help datasets learn to categorize these emotions for themselves. However, there are several implications here: firstly, there are only emotions worth studying; secondly, there is no room for one’s displayed emotion not being reflective of the internal one, and lastly, that the meaning of these seven emotions is constant for each individual. This quantification of the human is the central focus of the exhibition: ImageNet.

Crawford and Paglen trawled through thousands of images from the image database ImageNet, which was created so that “machine learning” could take place: humans identified millions of images, attaching subjective labels to them. From these identifications, the database began to teach itself, applying these same labels to individuals based on what their characteristics. This, as Crawford and Paglen, put so clearly in their article, “Excavating AI: The Politics of Images in Machine Learning Training Sets,” leads to extremely problematic results: a young African-American man is labelled a “murder suspect,” a young girl in a bikini is called a “slut.” Others are just bizarre: Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, clad in red hard-hats, become “animists.” People believe that the digital, the technological, the scientific is infallibly objective. In “Training Humans,” Crawford and Paglen demonstrate that the calls digital technology and AI make are extrapolations of the prejudices and judgements of human beings. The exhibition also makes a joke. Crawford and Paglen grant viewers the opportunity to insert themselves into ImageNet technology: a chance to see how the machine would judge you. I was a “flatmate” and “little sister” – both correct, as the technology is, at times. It also gauges your emotion and age range, often missing the mark by a major distance. The lack of accuracy, the mismatch between what someone is, what someone feels themselves to be, and what the machine read them as, created a humorous response among visitors – though this could well be different had the individuals had a different racial identity or been dressed in a different way. Regardless, this section of the exhibition is the most photographed and uploaded – people amused by what digital technology judges them as, uploaded to a digital platform so that a machine’s judgement may be judged by humans. Paglen and Crawford shed light onto human ignorance: the blame for apparent desynchrony between human judgements and machine judgements cannot be placed upon a breakdown in communication, for it is we who taught them to think as such.

Kate Crawford | Trevor Paglen : Training Humans

Osservatorio Prada, Milan

12 Sep. 2019 – 24 Feb. 2020

Editor:

From Washington, DC. Spent four years living in a Scottish fishing village obtaining a degree in Art History & Modern History before relocating to Milan. Particular interests in German expressionism and works on paper and people-watching at art fairs.

By Natale Labia

A forty minute drive from Lyon through winding countryside lanes and rustic farmlands takes one to the remarkable site and sight of Le Corbusier’s homage to sprituality and peace ‘for one hundred souls’: the Dominican monastery of La Tourette.

Initial impressions are of a concrete monolith perching at the apex of a hill, surrounded by trees and fields, and complete at odds with the scenery. However, the genius of Le Corbusier becomes apparent when walking towards and around this magnificent expression of modernism; it actually floats above the ground, it is not heavy at all; rather there is a lightness and delicacy which befits its role as being a place of solace with God.

In 1952, Le Corbusier was personally approached by the Dominican monks to design and build them a new convent at La Tourette. Built over the next 8 years, and inaugurated in 1960, it has become one of the great architect’s most loved works and one of the clearest expressions of his genius. Forms are simultaneously massive yet fragile and organic. In the midst of this mass of concrete, the most touching and human details and textures abound. From what initially seemed foreboding becomes a place of welcoming sprituality and meditation.

Since 2009, La Tourette has been used as a venue for the Biennale of Lyon, and this year it served as  the celebrated German artist Anselm Kiefer’s exhibition space. Importantly, Kiefer spent three weeks at the Priory in 1966, and he has commented on how it was Le Corbusier’s extraordinary forms and perspectives which taught him ‘the sprituality of concrete’. His collection of works, done mostly over the last four years and installed over the course of three visits by Kiefer himself, are a remarkably powerful homage to the master architect; forms and mediums mix and echo each other, the ‘Modulor’ and delicate sinews of the building are echoed in Kiefers organic expressions in steel, concrete and dead organic matter. They seem to agree with each other; nothing is permanent other than faith and God. Even concrete, like humanity, is temporary.

Anselm Kiefer at La Tourette, 15th CONTEMPORARY ART BIENNALE OF LYON

Curator: Friar MARC CHAUVEAU

24 Sept.— 22 Dec. 2019

Editor:

From Cape Town, South Africa. Former investment banker with a passion for all great art, but especially contemporary African and photography. 

By Soomin Sophie Kang

Kiki Smith (American, 1954-) is having a solo exhibition in Monnaie de Paris. Much of her work rotates around the human body and organs, their connection with the outer world, and to the whole universe. The flow of the show was devised by the artist in a way that amplifies the ‘alternation,’ or juxtaposition of different materials and senses. The collection of her works incorporates widely different mediums, ranging from bronze, wood, and glass to wax and tapestry. Some are visually pleasing enough to make one marvel for hours, while others create a sense of (intentional) discomfort in the eyes of a beholder. With the apparatus of various materials and forms, she tries to investigate and arouse a sense of consciousness on our own body and world.

The first figures one encounters upon entering are terracotta-colored bronze sculptures of girls idling on the floor with sheep. Each girl and sheep are made to the size of an adult, and they seem to be unaware of sudden appearance of visitors. As the title Sleeping, Wandering, Slumber, Looking About, Rest Upon (2009-2019) suggests, the installations convey silent yet strong sense of peace. Originally this group of sculptures was intended to be set in a large green space for children; nevertheless, two large windows overlooking La Seine and the tall trees along the riverbank create a green, natural backdrop to an exhibition space that otherwise could have been a mundane museum hall. The theme of wandering here is in line with the recent exhibition that was held in Galerie Johann Widauder in Innsbruck, Austria, where two artist Beatrix Sunkovsky and Alfons Egger, together with an opera singer Alois Mühlbacher investigated the idea of wandering and romanticism . Visitors were free to walk in between the sculptures of Kiki, but went unnoticed, which evokes a feeling of peace and comfort, but at the same time loneliness and incompatibility.

Past the peaceful and pastoral scenery, rather raw, or authentic, depiction of human bodies and organs await the arrival of the visitors. The two sets of works, specifically Untitled (1995), and Untitled III (1993), display a real-size female body, completely naked, with the upper body bent over. The former is hanging from the wall, and the latter has its two feet firmly rooted on the ground that resembles ‘uttanasana’ posture in yoga. One could easily feel the footsteps picking up speed in this room because the figures make people uncomfortable. It is rare to see a person (or even a human-like figure) hanging from a wall except in a church. The inspiration of the sculpture was indeed from the Christ in a crucifix, where the artist’s personal background of coming from a Catholic family comes in. During the 1990s the artist focused on human body, its organs and fluids. Untitled III(1993) used beads as a medium to portray bodily fluids, depicting something visceral through very beautiful materials. The contradicting concept of the reality and the replica is what makes this piece especially memorable.

Halfway into the exhibition space is a room full of tapestries hanging from every wall. Six tall tapestries, mostly in blue, gold, grey, and white, surrounding the viewers is a part of a series of twelve tapestries that she created between 2012 and 2017. Surreally beautiful in color and dreamy in texture, the tapestries were inspired by medieval Apocalypse Tapestry (1377-1382) but with much lighter hue and atmosphere. These works not only show that the artist enjoys playing with different kinds of material, but also that she is extremely talented at storytelling. The ambience of the tapestries is somewhat similar to multicolored paintings and carpets by American artist Hernan Bas, who also draws upon medieval wall hangings for inspiration.

In a short video about the artist and her works at the end of the exhibition, she explains the concept of her ‘inventory’ of ideas. Every idea that came across her mind at one point but did not come to life is stored in the physical inventory in a form of ‘work in progress.’ Often, she goes back to her inventory and revisits the ideas from the past, and it is then that the ideas are reincarnated. Hence, one could understand her collection as a smooth convergence of newborn and revived works. The exhibition is open until Feb. 9, 2020.

Editor:

Born in Korea, raised in Japan and the US. Former financial analyst and gallerist that loves art, jazz, food, dogs and horses. Absolute introversion(though it’s hard to notice).

Photo Courtesy Dep Art Gallery, photo by Bruno Bani, Milan.

Alba Conde

Carlos Cruz-Diez (Caracas, 1923 – Paris, 2019)

Colore come evento di spazi, is the title of Carlos Cruz-Diez exhibition curated by Francesca Pola, which is taking place in Dep Art Gallery in Milano from October 9th, 2019 to January 21st, 2020. All of the exhibiting works are for sale, prices range from € 59.000 to € 360.000.

This is the first solo show of this Venezuelan artist after he passed away this summer at the age of 95. Cruz-Diez is the pioneer of Kinetic Art and he is a key figure of the 20^th century in the field of colour due to his investigations and reflections around colour.

He is internationally renowned and his art works are housed in the collections of the major contemporary art institutions of the world such as MoMA, New York; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Tate Modern, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne.

Colore come evento di spazi, is bringing Milan sixteen art pieces where audiences will be able to discover some of the different lines of colour research in Cruz-Diez’s work: Couleur Additive (radiation of colour), Physichromie (changing colour according to the intensity of the light and to movement of the viewer), Induction Chromatique (retinal persistence phenomenon), Chromointerférence (colour interferences and chromatic variations can be additive or subtractive depending on the nature of the support) and Couleur à l’Espace (irradiated colour).

These are only five of the eight different investigations in colour and its possible ways of expression that the artist developed throughout his artistic career. All these represent different ways in which the artist experimented with colour as an autonomous reality and where the colour is seen as an entity not dependent on shape or support.

In the exhibition, the Pyramide d’Interferences Chromatiques is noteworthy; it is      an interactive projected installation displayed in an intimate environment where the viewers can immerse themselves in the movement of the shapes. Moreover, Cromointerferencia mecánica Nova 6, is another particular piece with an internal engine, where it is possible to see the dynamism and movement of Cruz-Diez’s work at its maximum exponent, as it is the only work with real movement due to the engine and the intense vibration.

The experience of entering in Dep Art Gallery on a rainy day in Milan is like stopping time. The feeling is like being in a parallel universe: the world of colour. Walking through the space and seeing the art works makes you feel taken away by the colours and the sensations that the art works evoke; it is something hypnotic and immersive. There is a strong connection between the works and the viewer that creates a huge sense of attraction emphasized by the optical illusions and its eye-catching colours. Cruz-Diez decontextualizes the colours and turns them into individual elements, instead of being a secondary element used to fill shapes. Here, colour clearly takes centre stage and becomes the protagonist of the environment.

Observing Cruz-Diez’s art works makes you feel attracted to them because they are requesting the viewer’s attention. Therefore, in order to appreciate the essence of his works, it is necessary to look at them in person, with bare eyes. By physically being in front of his artworks, viewers are able to experience how colours vibrate, rotates, and progressively change in different angles.

 With different technique mediums in the pieces, the meanings of each work don’t easily translate into words.

The vibration of the colours, the movement and dynamism are something fascinating about Cruz-Diez’s works of art, as they change according to the angle of where viewers stand and according to the light.

The effect created is something wonderful. Colours start to appear in the space as viewers move, then a wide range of colours floating in space and a rainbow created as if by magic, the magic of colour.

Gallery information:

Dep Art Gallery

Via Comelico 40, 20135 Milano.

Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Tel:  +39 02 36535620

E-mail: art@depart.it

Website: www.depart.it

Editor:

Born and raised in Madrid. Obtained Bachelor of Art History with a specialization in contemporary art at Complutense University. Five years of experience working at Cayón Gallery. Passionate about photography and yoga.  @alburaa