A new online exhibition of works by black artists from Africa and its diaspora explores AI’s misrepresentations of black identity, which they say offers “a fragmentary, perhaps even violent image” .
As is now well understood, data, and therefore AI, reproduces the same human biases that are pervasive in our daily lives. In response, “In/Visible” on digital art platform Feral File brings together “defiantly visible” works by black artists who use AI to tell stories despite its inevitable shortcomings.
“Black artists using AI today must work harder than their white counterparts to achieve results that they believe accurately represent them,” Senegalese curator Linda Dounia told Artnet News. “They achieved this with perseverance and stubbornness, repeating endlessly, correcting distortions and breaking down stereotypes. While black artists should be celebrated for the incredible persistence they show using a tool that barely understands them, it really shouldn’t be that hard for them to participate in the emergence of new technologies.
Classic examples of AI bias in Dounia’s experience include face and body distortions, lack of detail or definition of features like hair, and failure to understand cultural references like types of braids or clothing. “A prompt on a ‘building in Dakar’ will likely return a deserted lot with a dilapidated building when Dakar is a vibrant city with a rich architectural history,” she also noted of AI’s reproduction of common stereotypes. .
“For a technology that was developed in our time, it feels like AI has missed an opportunity to learn from the heavy legacies that older industries struggle to untangle,” she added. . “’Invisible’ is a way for black artists to feel less alone in their experience of AI, to see their challenges expressed in a way that resonates materially and emotionally, to reject the normalization of their exclusion in emerging technologies.
In her curatorial statement, Dounia elaborated further on the ways in which data fails to adequately capture ambiguity, while also failing to offer an “objective” reflection of our reality. “Logical measures of the mysteries of the universe and instruments capable of pulverizing the elusive down to its most objective elements,” is how she described the data. “Yet what we measure, and where and how we measure it, are affected by who we are and where we stand in relation to others.”
“In/Visible” is currently playing on wild file. Preview of the works in the exhibition below.
Adaeze Okaro, Hibiscus Planet, #33. Images courtesy of Feral File.
Minne Atairu, Blonde Braids Study II. Images courtesy of Feral File.
Linda Dounia, At Jo’s. Images courtesy of Feral File.
Zoe Osborne, Summer edition. Images courtesy of Feral File.
Nygilia, Confetti. Images courtesy of Feral File.
Serwah Attafuah, PERCEIVED. Images courtesy of Feral File.
AFROSCOPE, Spirit Proof – Act II. Images courtesy of Feral File.
arc light, UNTITLED. Images courtesy of Feral File.
Rayan Elnayal, Cities and spaceships. Images courtesy of Feral File.
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