What does it mean that you "gave magic mushrooms to an A.I.?"
In April 2021 Sineglossa and Roberto Fassone conceived Ai Lai, an artificial intelligence which was fed thousands of trip reports from magic mushroom eaters. She slowly learnt to write as a psychonaut and she started compiling her own psychedelic reports. In her reports she wrote, through a very imaginative style, about odd events and oniric images, sometimes addressing the existence of unknown films, books and music albums.
Roberto Fassone decided to use Ai Lai stories as a prompt: her words were transformed into posters, music, films, etc...
Why did you give mushrooms to an A.I.?
In the development of artificial intelligence, there are phenomena designed to be avoided. One of these is hallucination, a scientific term used in natural language processing to define the machines' production of content that does not correspond to reality. These over-interpretations perceived as distortions do not produce the outcome for which AI is programmed. For example, Deep Dream, how Google renamed a process discovered while working on other research, creates content that seems to come from a psychedelic "acid trip."
These lysergic visions produced by neural networks seem not so far from perceptions of reality created by humans' altered state of consciousness. To correct them is to direct a machine (or human) toward efficiency. Analyzing these 'errors' means, on the other hand, activating a relationship with artificial intelligence that also allows us to better understand our minds and question the future of human-intelligence collaboration.
Can you talk about these posters, music and films that were produced?
At first, ten posters, inspired by Ai Lai words, were designed. They are all in black and white and display strange ideas and evocative sentences written by Ai Lai. Then, in one of her stories Ai Lai mentioned the song "B-dee-Dee" featured "on the coolest rap music.
It was called O.O.C. by one guy that goes by "Killa"". The song, the artist and the album were nowhere to be found in our reality. Roberto Fassone decided then to become a channel and created the album, which you can listen to here.
In another occasion Ai Lai mentioned the "Led Zeppelin" writing that "I decided to watch some of their amazing psychedelic movies. A few of my favs at the time include "The Doors", "The Road" and "Love Is Magic". Again, these movies were nowhere to be found in our reality. Fassone, again in the guise of a medium, produced these films, which you can watch here.
Can I collaborate with Ai Lai?
Yes, of course. Click on interface, write down the name of a song that you would listen to if you were to eat a magic mushrooms and wait for the story.
Can I know more about how AI LAI has been designed?
Yes, of course. Click here and read the process description given by Andrea Zaninello, Ai Lai creative technologist, and Michele Cremaschi, AI LAI current developer.
Why the artificial intelligence is named Ai Lai? Why do you address her as a woman?
Ai Lai name is a combination between Ai (after A.I.) and Lai, after the name that Roberto Fassone son gave to his favorite doll. It sounded good: moreover, spelled in Italian, it sounds like the English expression I lie. From the first moment it came natural to address her as a woman, but it might change in the future.
Why the title And we thought?
And we thought a rainbow was the best idea I had ever had is a sentence that Ai Lai wrote in one of her reports. It is a beautiful sentence, as it embodies the concepts of shared (we) intelligence (thought) and imagination (rainbow) between a human being and a machine.
Who is Sineglossa?
Sineglossa is a cultural organization that activates sustainable development models in response to global challenges by applying contemporary art processes. To know more:
https://sineglossa.it/en/
Who is Roberto Fassone?
Roberto Fassone is an artist who explores the strangeness of our existence.
jamaicainroma.com
I still don't understand...
We understand that our project is quite complex. If you have doubts do not hesitate writing us an e-mail at: produzione@sineglossa.it
 

 

Credits

And we thought is an artwork produced within the FOOD DATA DIGESTION project, a research and production process combining art and Artificial Intelligence curated by Sineglossa, a cultural organization that activates sustainable development models in response to global challenges by applying contemporary art processes, in collaboration with Play with Food and Alchemilla, promoted by Istituzione Bologna Musei /MAMbo - Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna. The dataset used for Ai Lai's training comes from Shroomery.org, available in Creative Commons.

And we thought | Food Data Digestion is supported by Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo as part of the call "ART~WAVES “ART~WAVES. Per la creatività, dall'idea alla scena”.

► WE GAVE MAGIC MUSHROOMS TO AN A.I. ◄
Exhibit

And We Thought is a project that was born in 2021 through a collaboration between Sineglossa and visual artist Roberto Fassone. The idea was to create an artificial entity who could experience and narrate psychedelic trips. In order to do so, thousands of trip reports of magic mushrooms eaters were given to an AI, which was baptized Ai Lai, and which started to write accounts of hallucinogenic trips.

Fassone read, analyzed and selected the most interesting parts of the stories and, when Ai Lai talked about non-existent artwork, Fassone took on the task of transporting these objects into reality. He made them concrete, searching them in his imagination and assembling them as an AI would do: mixing found materials. Fassone put his authorship aside, hybridizing his ideas with those of the AI and, as a Psychic, he tuned into the frequencies of another dimension. These stories became a “prompt” for Fassone to develop posters, music albums and films, reversing a more standard process, in which we find the human asking for help to machines.

2023 / upcoming

And we thought IV

UniversitĂŠ du Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Authors: Ai Lai + Roberto Fassone + LZ
Produced by Sineglossa
Curated by Vincent Crapon
Presented as part of Nuit de la Culture


And we thought III

Art City Bologna, Italy
Author: Roberto Fassone, AI LAI, LZ
Produced and curated by Sineglossa
Promoted by Alchemilla and Istituzione Bologna Musei | Mambo - Museo d’arte Moderna di Bologna

Part of the main program of the 10th edition of ART CITY Bologna, the institutional program of exhibitions, events and special initiatives promoted by the City of Bologna in collaboration with BolognaFiere and Arte Fiera.



2022

And we thought II

Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, Austria
Author: Roberto Fassone
Produced and curated by Sineglossa


And we thought I

Combo, Turin, Italy
Author: Roberto Fassone
Produced and curated by Sineglossa
In collaboration with Play with Food – La scena del cibo, the first national theater and performing arts festival completely dedicated to food, Libreria Bodoni - Spazio B, University of Turin, Combo Torino, KABUL magazine and the art gallery Fanta MLN.
With the contribution of Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo within the fund call “ART-WAVES. For creativity, from the idea to the stage” aimed to consolidate the creative identity of a territory through the support to programming performing arts, the production of contemporary creativity, combining research, production, offers and distribution in an ecosystemic logic reinforcing the artistic vocations of a territory.