Generation to Generation: Conversing with Kindred Technologies

Nathaniel Stern

Generation to Generation: Conversing with Kindred Technologies illuminates the intertwined evolution of humanity and technology - from fire, language, and writing to automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) - inviting viewers to reconsider the relationship between humans and the tools we invent, in six site-conditioned poems-as-installations.

The E-Waste Land (10x15x10’) embodies the relationship between technology and remembrance as AI poetry-inscribed electronic waste. The Word After Us (15x7’) explores the future of language, connection, and understanding, “published” as a generative, modular mural of AI-powered poetry and images. Weighing (Mother Computer) (10x10x6’) is a material metaphor for the weight of technology’s ecological consequences, a concrete poem hand-forged of recovered metal from a broad range of recycled media. Feral Font (15x7x7’) is an interactive installation that invites viewers to practice writing a transhuman alphabet -Neural Network Font Type (NNFT)- created by a Generative Adversarial Network trained on hundreds of human letters. With Still Moving’s (12x7’) custom-built motion tracking, wave your hands and play in front of 12 iPad cameras, and watch as your movements are translated into AI poetry in real time - activating the space between human and machine.

And Oral Binary has gallery visitors enjoy an intimate performance of spoken word poetry and music created in collaboration with AI in a private listening booth - fusing ancient oral tradition with cutting-edge tools. Generation to Generation as a whole intertwines art and technology to inspire constructive thinking about the power of AI to help strengthen creative imagination and reaffirm core human values.