Paper short abstract:

This presentation examines AI's role as a dynamic narrative agent in worldmaking in recent art projects. It then extends this exploration through speculative posthumanism, highlighting AI's potential to redefine interactions among humans, non-human animals, and the planet.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation delves into 'ReCollection', an art project by Weidi Zhang and Jieliang (Rodger) Luo, which employs artificial intelligence (AI) to transmute language inputs into visual narratives encapsulating collective memories. Beyond traditional memory retrieval methodologies in dementia research, 'ReCollection' innovatively merges memory with imagination, leveraging AI as a dynamic, non-human narrative agent in collaborative worldmaking. It vividly demonstrates AI's capacity to enable diverse and evolving self-perceptions through inter-embodied subjectivity.

The installation and user engagement of 'ReCollection' subtly open avenues to reflect on AI's material implications. While the project primarily showcases AI's potential in reshaping narratives and identities, the physicality of its installation — from the hardware running AI algorithms to the interactive interfaces facilitating user engagement — serves as a tangible manifestation of AI's presence in our material world, prompting an investigation into how technology-mediated experiences are deeply intertwined with the physical dimensions of AI's operation, including resource consumption and environmental impact.

Through the lens of speculative posthumanism, the discussion broadens, urging a profound reconceptualization of AI's role within our interconnected ecosystems. This perspective challenges the anthropocentric view of technology, advocating for an understanding of AI that recognizes its agency and entanglements in a web of relations encompassing humans, non-human beings, and the environment. Speculative posthumanism invites us to consider AI not merely as a tool or an extension of human will but as a participant in the broader ecological and social fabric, capable of influencing and being influenced by multiple actors within this network.