Museum of Change: Old Main Post Office in Vienna Becomes AI Canvas
"The museum opens at sunset," says curator and media artist SHA in an APA interview. The aim is to take on a mediating role between new technologies and society and to encourage a "dialogical approach to technology instead of fear," which is being promoted as the world's first AI museum.
AI images on old main post office in Vienna in constant change
According to MOC, light, sound, image, space, and the interaction between human and Artificial Intelligence merge into a futuristic total work of art. The images shown are generated live by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and are constantly changing. However, human creativity is behind the development of the artistic signature: SHA, who describes himself as a "perception researcher," has trained the algorithm dialogically with images and language for years together with ten programmers: "We have tamed the beast." However, the media artist mostly speaks lovingly of his "digital being, which is now allowed to live here from the opening."
The initiative for the transformation of the Posthof for the public was launched seven years ago by the owner company PG8 GmbH to promote the vibrancy of the district and strengthen the axis between the city center and the Ring at its location. The project in the listed building from the imperial era was created in close collaboration with the Federal Monuments Office (BDA), so the structural interventions are minimally invasive: "The invisible is the elaborate," says SHA.
Postcard motifs as a starting point
For example, speakers integrated into the facade decor under the windows are only discovered at second glance. In reference to its long-standing use as a post office building, the focus of the artistic concept is on collective, globalized postcard motifs, which were collected here from all over the world and spread back out into the world. These "world images" were among other things fed into the AI, which develops the shown projections in its trained visual language and precisely aligns them with the built architecture.
There is an overlap between material perception and virtual space, with the MOC becoming the interface. Those who want to dive deeper can consult the AI guide "SHAKI" via smartphone, into which the entire project research of recent years has been fed: "The artist has been digitized. SHAKI knows everything we know." The curator summarizes: "Basically, we have a simple message - almost as simple as it needs to be nowadays - 'We are all one.'" This refers to a holistic approach that invites technology to be seen not as an independently acting threat, but as an equal extension of humanity and to engage in dialogue with it. The creative team also wants to do the same with the audience on the opening weekend when they are personally on site from October 2 to 4.
(APA/Red)
This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.