THEMATIC PROGRAMS:
Artificial Intelligence
AT Group
Jungle

BEIJING, CHINA
2020 – 2022

Supported by the M Art Foundation and exhibited in the China Pavilion of the 59th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, this work by AT Group is a collaborative endeavor involving emerging talents from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Institute of Sci-Tech Arts, and the Tsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence.

In their 2022 work “Jungle,” plant-shaped mirrors were strategically distributed throughout the China Pavilion exhibition hall, creating a vegetal environment. The mirrors’ fronts were adorned with prints of plant images, creating an illusion of real plant photography. However, these images were not conventional captures but the result of artificial intelligence’s (AI) plant learning. The AI, through deep learning processes on plant images worldwide, generated lifelike plant representations, blurring the line between truth and uncertainty. This conceptualization of plants and nature from the perspective of nature, the projection of reality onto AI, and the fantasy of the virtual world formed the crux of the installation.

The plant-printed mirror installation seamlessly projected both the outdoor natural environment and the indoor artificial space. Viewers, projecting their images onto the mirrors adorned with plants, actively participated, completing a synthesis of different fantasies. The artwork weaved together discussions on collective memory and machine learning, the interplay of artificial and natural elements, and the dynamic between reality and fantasy. This amalgamation offered a thought-provoking projection into the potential future relationship between humanity, technology, and the environment.

 

About the Artist

The AT group was born out of a collaborative research process between the CAFA Institute of Sci-Tech Arts (CAFA Institute) and the Tsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence (THBI), and its members are committed to exploring and practicing new paths and possibilities for the intersection of art and technology in today’s multidisciplinary and multi-disciplinary era, promoting innovation in art development while providing new imaginations and practices for technology. AT is also an acronym for Art and Technology.

AT is also an acronym for Art and Technology. The combination and collaboration is the result of the thinking and attitude towards the common world of human beings. Collective thinking, discussion, and then practice can make the world a better place.

The group will continue to include new members from different fields of interest, depending on the direction of the research and the nature of the project.