Entangled Others
Entangled Others
Entangled Others

2022
www.criticallyextant.com

Photos by Michael Hull, courtesy of Times Square Arts
Photos by Mike Bink, Kunsthall KAde

“Critically Extant” is a project that explores just how little we know about the natural world by testing the limits of the data openly available to us in our digital lives.

To achieve this, AI algorithms were trained on millions of open source images of nature and some ten thousand species. The resulting models were then used to generate visual representations of species that are critically endangered, yet have little or no online presence specially on social media The goal of this was to not only trace the edges of our knowledge, but to also explore how we can create feedback loops in the digital that can be positive for the natural world.

The project was inaugurated as an Instagram exhibition, exploring how the pieces can become part of our daily digital intake of content as a means of creating awareness and potentially engagement on behalf of the species shared. Naturally, as the data available to us represents but a partial fraction of the real number of species currently estimated as known to us, the pieces in this series show animated specimens that bear some, little, or even no resemblance to the species they are meant to depict.
This underlines the difficulties we face in shifting also our digital spaces towards more balanced representation, but it should be grounds for agency too: as we can all create and contribute both physically and digitally and as such can actively work to form new feedback loops that can help bring the critically endangered species into our daily lives in order to get to find ways to care for them?

This project was made as part of the 'Meta AI Artists in Residence' program.

exhibited:

2023 The Photographers' Gallery (UK) (link)
2023 Miraculous Beings - Kunsthalle KadE (NL) (link)
2023 POSTNATURE - Casa Hoffmann (CO) (link)
2022 Arebyte 'Futures Past' (UK) (link)
2022 Times Square Midnight Moments (US) (link)
2022 "Latin American Futurity" at EP7 Paris (link)

 

Entangled Others
Diagram of process: once having a "nearest neighbour" within the tree of known data, it's corresponding class within the latent space of the neural network was used as a starting point to try an "reconstruct" the critically endangered specimen in question.
Entangled Others

above: Documentation of showing at EP7 Paris

Zygonychidium gracile (Streamertail)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Crustacea
Poecilotheria Metallica (Peacock Tarantula)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Chelicerata
Gobio hettitorum (Taurus Gudgeon)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Anguilla anguilla (European Eel)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophytes
Class: Angiosperms
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophytes
Class: Angiosperms
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophytes
Class: Angiosperms
Pelophylax cerigensis (Karpathos Frog)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Etheostoma lugoi (Tufa Darter)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Pangasianodon gigas (Mekong Giant Catfish)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Peromyscus bullatus (Perote Deer Mouse)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Lanius newtoni (Newton's Fiscal)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Sarothrura ayresi (White-Winged Flufftail)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Kingdom: Fungi
Phylum: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Coregonus bavaricus (Ammersee kilch)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Acanthobrama Centisquama (Long-spine Bream)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Acilacris Furcatus (Mt. Coke False Shieldback)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Alsophis Antiguae (Antiguan racer)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Amphisbaena Gonavensis (Gonave Worm Lizard)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Kingdom: Fungi
Phylum: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Caridina Woltereckae (Harlequin Shrimp Sulawesi)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Crustacea
Cotoneaster cambricus (Great Orme Berry)
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophytes
Class: Angiosperms
Cyclura Stejnegeri (Mona Rhinoceros Iguana)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Erikssonia Edgei (Waterberg Copper)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophytes
Class: Angiosperms
Geocrinia Alba (White-bellied Frog)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Geospiza Heliobates (Mangrove Finch)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Piliocolobus Pennantii (Pennant's Red Colobus)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Pseudonestor Xanthophrys (Maui Parrotbill)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophytes
Class: Angiosperms

credits:

Feileacan McCormick (Technical Production Design)
Stefano Rosso (AI engineer)
Alan Ixba (Technical Assistant)
Alejandro Mune (Music artist)
Devi Parikh (Director FAIR)
Songwei Ge (Research Intern)
Larry Zitnick (Research Scientist)
Sasha Sheng (Software Engineer)
Vedanuj Goswami (Software Engineer)
Xinran Yuan (Curator)
Kristen Leung (Partnerships)
Anna Bruemmer (Communications)
Maggie Azary (Social Media)
Sun Helen Isdahl Kalvenes (Exhibition Designer)
Rafael Flores (Partnerships)
Nick White (Media Partnerships)