Ben Bogart | Conference | Chantier IA 2

ben bogart’s conference title: Machine learning as relational and situated practice: A survey of artistic engagements with AI since 2006

We invite you to an online lecture by artist Ben Bogart on their use of machine learning in the creation of their works!

Two ways to attend the lecture:

• Come to the gallery at Sporobole, we’re having a gang viewing party with alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages AND chips;
• Stay in the comfort of your own home and attend the conference with your favorite drink and your own chips;

This presentation is part of Chantier IA 2. It will cover a survey of Ben Bogart’s artistic works making use of Machine Learning (ML) from 2006 to the present. Bogart’s use of ML began as a strategy for creating systems that are “capable of forming a relation to [their] context.” This survey will follow two major trajectories in their work where ML is used to situate digital processes in visual geographical and popular culture contexts. Since 2019 Bogart has been diffracting their work and thought through Karen Barad’s theory of Agential Realism, where constructive interference produces an emphasis on boundary-making and relationality.

To whet your appetite, we’re sharing an interview of the artist with Nathalie Bachand, our Director of Digital Arts Development and curator of the current exhibition “Sous la surface: une étude Solaristique” by Juliette Lusven and Memo Akten. In this interview, Bogart discusses about artistic practice and several aspects of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), including how boundary-setting processes define structures and concepts; the notion of agential realism and its relationship to their practice; references to popular culture as material in their work; and the link between meaning, reality and discourse.