Imagine driving on the expressway at 70km/h and noticing a crumpled piece of paper on the road. Do you a) drive over it or b) slow down to a stop? The answer is obvious—you know a mere piece of paper cannot hurt, so you keep your foot on the accelerator. But Google’s self-driving car chooses option B.
Wilful Machine: Genevieve Chua’s artistic exploration of AI and humanity at SIFA 2024
03 May 2024
By Team Catch
This finding from an article in the MIT Technology Review, titled “Hidden Obstacles for Google’s Self-Driving Cars”, caught the attention of Singaporean artist Genevieve Chua a few years ago. “It got me interested in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how we approach labour in the future,” Chua said.
Indeed, AI and its impact on society would become a prominent theme in many of the artist’s subsequent works, including Chua’s upcoming installation, Wilful Machine, at the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) 2024.
The installation will feature Chua’s debut in performance art, where live performers will present a 40-minute seated performance in the exhibition space.
Chua ultimately hopes to bring to mind experiences of touch and sound even as we live in a digital age. “I hope that audiences will maybe discover a new, rhythmic way of living,” Chua said, expressing the wish to leave their art open to interpretation.
Finding their rhythm
Chua designed their performance installation with the goal of “allowing everything to breathe”. Embracing a sense of fluidity, Chua attached scaffolds and dust mats to long metal poles to form an elegant rectangular structure. Wilful Machine invites audiences to walk around the installation or sit in for a captivating live performance, with performers interacting with the structure.
Working on Wilful Machine has brought about several “welcomed challenges” for Chua, one of which was communication. As an abstract artist, they are accustomed to working alone. Having to collaborate with a large, multi-disciplinary team meant Chua had to learn new artistic vocabulary to effectively converse with team members.
But the past eight months have been as eye-opening as they were challenging. “There are more unknowns because new ideas are always coming in. But this also means that there are more avenues to explore,” Chua said.
Embracing our collective voice
The theme of SIFA 2024, “They Declare”, invites the audience to take in other voices, geologies, and recognise our co-existence with the natural environment. When asked what the theme means to Chua: "For me, the word 'declaration' means something big...and that takes into account the many voices of people who have shared experiences of something."
While Wilful Machine stands out as an impressive installation, it also embodies a multi-disciplinary approach that embraces diverse perspectives from various art disciplines such as abstract and performance art. Chua’s declaration is one that is bold and speculative, leaving space for the boundless imagination.
Catch Wilful Machine in action from 23 to 25 May 2024 at Artspace @ Helutrans. Tickets are priced from $38.
Image credits: Sean Lee, Arts House Limited and SIFA.
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