Jinah Rho studied fine arts at Seoul National University and earned her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and PhD in Art & Technology from Sogang University. She is currently an assistant professor at Kyunghee University.
Installation view © Oil Tank Culture Park T1
As
part of the collaborative exhibition of the Oil Tank Culture Park's Tank Art
Festival, artist Jinah Roh's solo exhibition 《Incomplete Model》 will take place at T1. The
exhibition explores the relationship between non-human entities that engage in
real-time dialogue with visitors.
Among
the various AI entities on display are a baby robot that starts from a blank
slate, learning to speak one word at a time as taught by visitors; an
immaterial metahuman modeled after the artist’s 3D-scanned face, capable of
real-time conversation with visitors; and six massive head robots. Each entity,
possessing diverse materials and forms, interacts with visitors, accumulating
data throughout the exhibition. The collected data continually influences the
quality of dialogue and the AI entities' personalities.
In
this open-structured exhibition environment, where the outcome of learning
varies according to the visitors' attitudes toward non-humans, unstructured
data accumulates. Since this data is reused for further learning, the
completeness of the resulting learning model is not guaranteed. If the
exhibition space is considered a small society, the visitors' approach to
communication and the collectively agreed rules within the exhibition space
significantly shape the robots' intelligence, personality, and demeanor.
Consequently, a future in which robots, shaped by such interactions, coexist
with humans could result in an unpredictable and unstable society.
This
exhibition aims to metaphorically reflect the data environment that, once
collected and accumulated, recreates future systems. To that end, it presents
non-human AI entities of various forms and substances within the exhibition
space. These entities embody the concept of data utilization and the resulting
incomplete models within an inherently flawed system. They resemble the
precarious future of our lives, where we transparently accept systems that mask
control under the guise of technology and connectivity.
These
precarious non-human entities, seemingly confident and self-assured as they
await the visitors' mercy, raise an unsettling question: What kind of life will
these artificial beings lead, as they continue to develop within the confines
of our expectations and interventions?