8.11.2023
Artist Lecture; Through the Medium: Navigating the Shifting Landscape of Creative Expression and Machine Collaboration
In 1967, Marshall McLuhan proposed that “All media are extensions of some human faculty — psychic or physical” and, further, that “electric circuitry [is] an extension of the central nervous system.” This would suggest that all forms of media act as extensions of our faculties, thereby shaping our various modes of existence. This perspective prompts us to reflect on how the mediums we utilize to navigate the world influence the intellectual intuition we employ. As technological advancements continue to reshape our being, it becomes increasingly necessary that we critically examine the role of media and its implications for our understanding and engagement with the world. As artists, we bear a responsibility to engage with the emerging phenomena brought about by computer science and engineering. The broader field of arts, particularly within those areas with a focus on craft-based practices, is currently witnessing an unprecedented set of challenges and opportunities presented by machine learning technologies. We should reflect on but also ourselves investigate these emerging creation and fabrication methodologies in order to be able to collaborate and work alongside different degrees of machine agencies, as they come to play in the various forms of what is today referred to as “artificial intelligence” (AI). Embracing robotic systems operated by AI in the artistic process by no means implies an irreverent disregard for the physical knowledge that underlies craft-based practices. On the contrary, it presents an opportunity to transcend the limitations of the purely digital medium of image production and delve into new realms of artistic exploration. By incorporating artistic concepts as subjects of investigation and potential re-evaluation in the context of AI, we can push the boundaries of our understanding and challenge traditional notions of creativity. By creating an interactive and adaptive platform (co-painting with a machine) and working with implicitly complex materials and tools (paint and brushes), I wish to challenge the absolutism of screen-based, computer-generated image production, adding a level of complexity — inherent to the use of organic materials — and surprise into the outcome of the work, freeing it from acquiesced understandings of painting and image making. Through further development of an interactive human-machine platform of robotic painting, my artistic work challenges conventional approaches to the generation of visual information using learning machines, as they predominantly serve to increase, expand and recreate stochastic forms of existing cultural-aesthetic tendencies and artefacts.
■ Past Events
Incomputable Imagery: Reimagining the brushstroke
9.6-24.6.2023
Curation/Group Exhibition — Data Alchemy–Observing Patterns from Galileo to Artificial Intelligence
Co-curation with Adrian Notz. ETH AI Center, Zurich Art Weekend
Based on the history of the Semper Observatory, the exhibition explores the human fascination about the creation of meaning out of patterns like the constellations of stars and planets and, today, from all kinds of extracted data. Diverse AI algorithms and applications help us recognize patterns, often for predictions and prognostics. In this field, where deep learning and artificial networks are often referred to as black boxes, one also talks of “Data Alchemy.” The openness of today’s scientists and engineers towards different ways of understanding the world, seems to be closing the gap between science and art, mysticism, and other systems. Connecting code to cosmology and scaling from predictions and prognosis to prophecies links us to more holistic and plural modes of knowledge creation. And it may ultimately lead us to a terrestrial understanding of humans as a part of the biosphere on this planet. Participating artists: Hannes Bajohr, Daniel Berio, Tiziano Derme, Rohini Devasher, liat grayver, Dr. Barbara Imhof, Yasmine Meroz, Daniela Mitterberger, Omar W. Nasim, Marcus Nebe, Robert Nißler, Oliver Sahli, Christopher Salter, Liat Segal, Solveig Suess, Jennifer Wadsworth, PhD, Christian Waldvogel
19.5-16.7.2023
Group Exhibition — Art Encounters Biennial, My Rhino is Not a Myth
National Museum of Art Timisoara; Romrnia
The 5th edition of the Art Encounters Biennial My Rhino is not a Myth focuses on the intersection between art, science and fictions, by exploring their potential to reclaim reality as a mesh of complex processes. In between scientific explorations and imaginative speculation, it touches upon stories of the unknown and the drive to change, adapt or subvert.
Incomputable Imagery: Reimagining the brushstroke
04.2022
Pannel Discussion — Rethinking Human and Machines, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.
ETH ZÜRICH | CHRIS LUEBKEMAN, LIAT GRAYVER, ALEXANDER ILIC, ADINA POPESCU
RE-VOLUTION of the working relationship between humans and machines in the AI Age
The future of robotics and machine learning will be about how humans and machines can form the best teams. From robotics and biology to law and art, they can, and will, relate to each other in many different ways. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has changed the scientific discovery process. And, more profoundly, it is altering our understanding of the fundamentals of human creativity. We should not be sizing up the potential of humans nor machines in isolation. Designers must investigate solutions whereby humans and machines complement each other, maximizing the potential of both. We need to develop and build interactive human-machine platforms to challenge conventional approaches.
01.07 - 11.09.2022
Group Exhibition — Magic Machines, Technische Sammlungen Dresden
Die Ausstellung Magic Machines ist eine Ode an den Erfindungsreichtum der Welt! Einfache und großartige Mechanismen – angetrieben durch Wind, Wasser, Dampf, Elektrizität – prägen das Leben auf unserem Planeten. Hat die erste programmierbare Maschine von der algorithmischen Revolution und dem universellen Einsatz von Computern geträumt? Und was haben all diese neuen magischen, beeindruckenden, beängstigenden und albernen Maschinen, die in unseren Alltag einzogen, vor? Es geht um besonders innovative und künstlerische Maschinen. Aber es geht auch um Ethik, Werte und Vielfalt und natürlich um Mensch-Maschine-Interaktionen. Und um ganz viel Spaß!
Ein Projekt von Rosy DX, Studio für Digitalität in Zusammenarbeit mit dem C. Rockefeller Center, dem Netzwerk Medienkunst und den Technischen Sammlungen Dresden
Incomputable Imagery: Reimagining the brushstroke
18.07.2022
Solo Show — Continuum, A collaborative work with Daniel Berio and Nora Al-Badri, Silent Green Kulturquartier / Transmediale, Berlin
Liat Grayver and Nora Al-Badri have conceptualized Continuum to thematize and personally engage with the æsthetic(al) heritage of their own families’ origins in mid- to late-20th century Baghdad. Al-Badri’s digital conceptual art and Grayver’s robotic painting merge as a means for the artists to explore, reconnect with and reappropriate this heritage. The resulting composite artistic methodologies, processes and practices are enhanced through the collaboration of graffiti artist and computer scientist Daniel Berio, who specializes in the computational generation of calligraphic patterns and forms, and their reproduction using drawing machines and robots.
15.08.2022
Online Group Exhibition — Heimat Europa, Fotofestival Görlitz
Incomputable Imagery: Reimagining the brushstroke
11.06.2022
AI+Art Conversation: Liat Grayver + Prof. Dr. Inge Hermann, Zürich Art Weekend
Artistic interest and work in the fields of science and technology, especially Artificial Intelligence (AI), has been ongoing for over half a century. Lately, these attempts have generated a lot of attention and turned art into a topic of high interest in science and technology research, as well as development thanks to AI affecting all of human society.
In three tandem presentations and conversations between scientists and artist we explore how they can engage with each other, what topics drive them, and what research is currently happening in the field of AI at the ETH AI Center.
Incomputable Imagery: Reimagining the brushstroke
04.03-22.5 2022
Group Exhibition — Kunst Forscht, Kunstverein Wolfsburg
Künstler*innen: Liat Grayver, Katharina Hauke, Marcus Maeder, Martin Lucas SchulzeIn Experimenten und Testungen operiert man in Systemen, die auch für ein Scheitern offen sind. Das Zulassen dessen enthält als bewusste, experimentelle Anordnung die Möglichkeit, Neues, Unbekanntes zu entdecken und über das Tradierte und Konventionelle hinauszugehen. Das Scheitern ist also ungleich dem Versagen und Rückschritt, sondern birgt die Chance des Fortschritts. Das Gleiche gilt sicherlich auch für das Experimentieren und Forschen in der bildenden Kunst, das nicht zuletzt auf Leonardo da Vinci als prominenten Vertreter zurückzuführen ist. Die Gruppenausstellung Kunst forscht, deren Titel auf den bekannten Schüler- und Jugendwettbewerb im Bereich der Naturwissenschaften anspielt, bewegt sich in eben diesem Spannungsfeld und präsentiert Künstler*innen, die eine Wissensproduktion unabhängig des hegemonialen anerkannten Wissens anstreben.
24.03.2022
Pannel Discussion — Diversify the Code! Deichtorhallen Hamburg
Auf dem Eröffnungspanel des neuen Residenzprogramms THEHOST.IS von Deichtorhallen Hamburg und Kampnagel diskutieren Expert*innen für Kunst und Digitalität über Perspektivenvielfalt im Code, die Notwendigkeit von Zugänglichkeit, was Code mit De/Kolonisierung und Queerfeminismus zu tun hat und was passiert, wenn Kunst und Code aufeinandertreffen.
Mit Tiara Roxanne (Künstlerin, Wissenschaftlerin und Cyberfeministin), R. Buse Çetin (Forscherin und Beraterin für KI-Politik und -ethik) und Darsha Hewitt (Medien- und Soundkünstlerin). Moderation: Liat Grayver (Medienkünstlerin). Begrüßung durch Amelie Deuflhard, Intendantin Kampangel, und Dirk Luckow, Intendant Deichtorhallen Hamburg.
18./19.02.2022
Workshop — Agency, Life and Creativity, University of Konstanz
This workshop brings together experts from different disciplines - philosophy, computer science, and the arts - who share an interest for one or more of the notions of agency, life, and creativity. Its aim is that of discussing the reciprocal influence that these notions have on one another when we attribute them to natural or artificial systems. Talks have been grouped under four main titles: `The Nature of Creativity', `New Paradigms of Creativity', `Life and Learning in Artificial Agents', and `Artificial Agents and Scientific Discoveries'. The influence of the questions asked during each presentation, however, extends beyond its own section, to involve cross-disciplinary and cross-thematic discussions on the nature of agency, life, and creativity, and their implementation in artificial systems.
The workshop is funded by the Dr. August und Annelies Karst Stiftung, University of Konstanz and organised by Dr. Caterina Moruzzi, Department of Philosophy, University of Konstanz.
Information & Link
03.12.2021 – 30.01.2022
Group Exhibition — Israelische Künstler:innen in Deutschland
Im Rahmen des Festjahres 1700 Jahre Jüdisches Leben in Deutschland präsentiert die Kunsthalle Trier Werke von sieben israelischen Künstler:innen.Gezeigt werden zeitgenössische Positionen von Alma Alloro, Zohar Fraiman, Michal Fuchs, Liat Grayver, Yair Kira, Yehudit Sasportas sowie des Komponisten Amir Shpilman.
Gemeinsam ist den Künstler:innen, dass sie in Berlin leben und arbeiten oder dort gewirkt haben. Berlin ist seit der Wiedervereinigung ein Hotspot der internationalen Kunstszene. Auch junge Israeli siedelten sich in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten in der deutschen Hauptstadt an und bilden ein loses Netzwerk innerhalb der Metropole. Viele kamen zuerst zum Studium an eine europäische Kunsthochschule und zogen dann nach Berlin. Die israelischen Künstler:innen präsentieren nun erstmals ihre aktuellen Werke in Trier – Malerei, dreidimensionale Arbeiten und interaktive Medieninstallationen. Mit der repräsentativen Auswahl wird eine Übersicht über die junge israelische Kunstszene in Deutschland ermöglicht und der Öffentlichkeit in der Großregion zugänglich gemacht.
Incomputable Imagery: Reimagining the brushstroke
05.11.2021
Solo Show — InComputable Imagery: Reimagining the brushstroke, Kulturzentrum (Konstanz, DE)
The show instigates a complex dialogue between an evolving deterministic process, computational vision analysis and organic painterly action. Data extracted from a simulated world is transformed into real-world materials before being translated back into data in a continuous loop of action and reaction, of observation and depiction.
08.12.2021
Online Group Exhibition — The Golden NFT Project, Freedom of movement is a capitalist right!
We live in a world where, on the one hand, billions are invested in financial products and, on the other, people are fleeing war and hunger. Capitalism and nationalism form the pillars of our political systems, the cause of ever more escalating injustices.
But what happens when you short-circuit them? What if freedom of movement, if human rights become nothing but a USP and national border regimes can be bargained away, like in a casino?
Together with international artists – Nora al Badri, Sibylle Berg, !Mediagroup! Bitnik, Liat Gravyer, Nadine Kolodziey, Felix Kosok, Gretta Louw, Rui Major, Volker Behrend Peters, Tayyebeh Rasouli, Milat, Yaser and Mahmoud from reFOCUS medialab, Jill Senft, UBERMORGEN, Nushin Yazdani, Yes Men and Laura Zalenga – we set up this experiment.
SÉANCE FICTION
2021
SÉANCE FICTION, Kunstverein Familie Montez, Frankfurt (DE)
DRUCK SACHE Tendenzen zeitgenössischer Druckgrafik zwischen Tradition und Innovation
2019-2021
DRUCK SACHE Tendenzen zeitgenössischer Druckgrafik zwischen Tradition und Innovation [Catalog],Gallery Pankow (Berlin, DE)
Open Closed Open/ פתוחסגורפתוח
2019
Open Closed Open/ פתוחסגורפתוח, with Yair Kira and Amir Shpilman, Jewish Museum (Berlin, DE)
(Learning) The Grammar of the Act
2019
(Learning) The Grammar of the Act [Catalog], University of Konstanz (Konstanz, DE)
Traversing the Threshold
2018
Traversing the Threshold, Ex-girlfriend Gallery (Berlin, DE)
Transhuman Expression
2018
Transhuman Expression, Casa Paganini| InfoMus (Genova, IT)
Étude de l'Objet: Bilder und Klangbilder
2017
Étude de l'Objet: Bilder und Klangbilder, Kurt-Tucholsky-Literaturmuseum (Rheinberg, DE)
Supervision
2017
Supervision,Studio Lange Strasse 31 (Frankfurt, DE)
Pinselstriche im digitalen Zeitalter
2017
Pinselstriche im digitalen Zeitalter,Interdisziplinäre Forschung in Malerei und Robotik, Halle 14 (Leipzig, DE)
Transparent Bodies
2017
Transparent Bodies [Catalog], Gallery Hinterconti and Gallery 21 (Hamburg, DE)
VSAC Art Night
2017
VSAC Art Night,Kunsthaus ACUD (Berlin, DE)
Leipziger Grafikbörse
2016
Leipziger Grafikbörse [Catalog], Museum für Druckkunst (Leipzig, DE)
Portrait of a Sabra: Gestalt of a Symbol
2016
Portrait of a Sabra: Gestalt of a Symbol,Jafo Creative (Jaffa, IL)
Civilization
2015
Civilization, Gallery KUB, curated by Franziska Eißner (Leipzig, DE)