Interview with artistic director at Serpentine Hans Ulrich Obrist

Artists have long engaged with new technologies. In particular, in the 1960s, engineer Billy Klüver collaborated with artists Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Whitman and Fred Waldhauer to co-found Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT), a non-profit organization that had a fundamental role in the fusion of technology with art. Contemporary artists are similarly immersed in cutting-edge technology, but now face even more pressing issues as generative AI embarks on its own expansive and unpredictable journey.

Serpentine is well aware of the challenges faced not only by artists but also by audiences. For more than a decade, the London cultural institution has been diving deep into the ocean that is AI. Through the research body Serpentine Arts Technologies and the Creative AI Lab, a collaborative project with King's College London, he has been investigating the impact, positive and negative, of new technologies on the arts and artists.

In recent years, the Serpentine Galleries have hosted numerous exhibitions highlighting the work of some of the most interesting and diverse digital artists of our time, including Brazilian artist Gabriel Massan and Los Angeles-based artist and designer Refik Anadol. This fall, the gallery hosts Berlin-based artists and technologists Mat Dryhurst and Holly Herndon (named by TIME magazine among Al's 100 most influential people) who are envisioning the art institution as a laboratory for finding new technologies through 'an artist-run Al system.

The exhibition coincides with the publication of 'Future Art Ecosystems 4: Art x Public Al', the Serpentine's latest strategic briefing which aims to break down the implications of Al for the cultural sector and offer strategies for claiming greater agency within of the economies driven by Al.

I took the opportunity to speak with Hans Ulrich Obrist, curator, critic and art historian and artistic director of the Serpentine. I wanted to understand why the cultural institution is so involved with AI art and how it sees the potential and dangers of the technology.

Why is it essential for a cultural institution like yours to be directly involved with artists working with cutting-edge technology like artificial intelligence and help realize their projects?

It is important for arts institutions to engage with technology, which is why we have been developing our technology department over the past 12 years. In the 1960s Billy Klüver and EAT worked with the leading technology company of the time Bell Lab, which made it possible to create projects that otherwise would not have happened. We have a similar situation today with artists who want to work with technology. To give you an example, the brilliant young Brazilian artist Gabriel Massan wanted to make a video game (for “Third World: The Bottom Dimension”, exhibited at Serpentine North in 2023). Working with our tech team of five curators, we were able to produce this.

Your Creative AI Lab initiative creates spaces for AI systems research, with data and results available to other cultural institutions and artists. Why is Serpentine investing in an open source research project?

Part of what we do is to activate and enable artists who want to work with new technologies. The second point, which is very important to us, is to think beyond the boundaries or walls of the Serpentine, to consider the whole sector. The Creative AI Lab provides a research platform and is a space to investigate AI systems from a cultural perspective. It builds a solid foundation for leadership for all the arts. Our alliances are crucial. The production of knowledge is very important to us.

Is that why you invest in these in-depth reports and make them readily available for everyone to see?

As a cultural institution, we want to be useful to the artist and to the entire art sector. So far we have published four reports, available for any download. The latest, “Future Art Ecosystem: Art x Public AI,” looks at AI and is a strategic briefing that breaks down the topic and makes it accessible to the cultural sector. It offers strategies for large agencies for the art sector within the AI ​​economy.

What is the potential of working with a dataset of your own creation: open source AI models like the artist that Refik Anadol has been developing together with the Smithsonian and the National History Museum, and through his own collection of data in the amazon jungle?

We believe that artists can not only show us how to use these technologies in a positive way, but also show us the dark corridors of technology, the dangers, which is just as important. Refik Anadol shows us that art can mediate between culture, technology, society, ecology, etc. Artists can make the invisible visible. Another important aspect is, of course, the question of how we get the data, how we can get files ethically, and who owns these data sets. We think this is a bargain.

Anadol's work is very much about connecting us with nature through technology; through his immersive art with AI, he reveals the possibilities of our interconnection with the rest of the environment, what we can see and what we can't. We saw it vividly and viscerally in “Echoes of the Earth: living archives” staged at Serpentine North this winter. Can you talk about how the eco message is within your vision for the gallery?

We can use technology to encourage attention to the natural world. We need to look at how technology can create a spiritual connection with nature to ensure that we are communicating with the environment instead of continuing this colonial separation from nature, which is destroying the environment. It's about expanding the possibilities of how art can act as an intermediary between culture, technology and society, and how art can free us from being stuck in a quantified world, which is very dangerous .

As a curator, is it exciting, perhaps even daunting at times, to work with AI artists who work in very different fields, with different expressions, some of which are new to you all?

This is a very interesting question because we learn from each artist we are working with tremendously. And these artists enter the DNA of the organization since an institution is a learning system. Their work is very collaborative, and they bring with them all their own partners, a whole ecosystem. Gabriel Massan, for example, brought an entire interdisciplinary team of people to create his video game. We are always listening, we are learning, we are transforming, we are changing. What is also interesting is its shelf life. While an exhibition would normally last several months, these digital artworks are like a living organism. They never end.

Visiting these digital exhibitions, what catches my attention is the diversity of the public and the participation of the visitors. Do these exhibitions and interventions impact the Serpentine as a gallery and learning space?

Absolutely. We want to be in constant evolution. With the artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg we created (“Pollinator Pathmaker”, April 2022 to March 2024), a living sculpture in Kensington Gardens for pollinators, not humans, which became a of London's most enduring public outdoor projects. He was able to create this work in collaboration with AI where he collected data on plants that like to pollinate for an exhibit that encourages multi-species dialogue. These are long-term projects that are interesting for a gallery.

Exhibitions like that of Gabriel Massan gave rise to new audiences. Many were young teenagers brought by their parents. In my experience of 30 years of museum practice, it is always the other way around! These exhibits can help connect a younger audience with the museum.

What do you think is the role of museums and cultural institutions in engaging the public in understanding the impact of AI on our lives, bridging the gap to almost demystifying it for the public?

Our role is to build bridges between cultures, technology, science and society. In this fragmented world we need more bridge building, and we hope that with our work we can contribute to this. Technology often creates separation. Social networks create filters. With art we can break this filter bubble and be an intermediary between culture, art, science and technology. It's about union.

Read my interview with Refik Anadolsee digital artist Cao Fei's “Duotopia” at Sprüth Magers in Berlin, and read why French video game artist Sara Sadik is exploring loneliness through play.