Beyond the Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI

An investigation of the cultural and academic discourse around new technology through a lens of artistic practice

In 1970 Japanese engineer Masahiro Mori introduced the concept of the “uncanny valley” as a terrain of existential uncertainty that humans experience when confronted with autonomous machines that mimic their physical and mental properties. As subjectivities are increasingly organized and shaped by algorithms that track and evaluate our data, the question of what it means to be human has shifted.

The featured artists mine the tropes and modalities of AI and machine learning for critical and aesthetic potential, proposing new ways of thinking about intelligence, nature, and artifice.