Do algorithms know more about us than we know about ourselves?
At a time of intense debate about artificial intelligence, especially strong in the creative community as ever more capable AI generators spread at a dizzying pace, the second edition of Biennale Warszawa brought together artists from around the world who explored the issues and boundaries of the role algorithms play in human life. The exhibition was titled Seeing Stones and Spaces Beyond the Valley / Widzące kamienie i przestrzenie poza Doliną, a reference to the palantíri from J.R.R. Tolkien’s books and to Ramesh Srinivasan’s book of a related title.
Does artificial intelligence have handwriting? Can machine learning help us understand animal communication? Can energy be stored in plants? Do algorithms influence the results of political elections? These and other questions were addressed by a futuristic, large-scale exhibition in the very centre of Warsaw, in the spaces of the Wars Sawa Junior department stores on Marszałkowska Street. I had the pleasure of working on it as the producer of the exhibition’s visual communication.
As a producer, I worked in the visual identity team between April and July 2022. My role was to bring to life the communication, identity and exhibition signage design, full of unconventional solutions, created by the Polish graphic designer Jakub de Barbaro.
fot. Biennale Warszawa: Bartosz Górka
Exhibition's description as of Biennale's website:
"The exhibition entitled Seeing Stones and Spaces Beyond the Valley – the main event of the second edition of Biennale Warszawa 2022 – is devoted to relations between power, authoritarianism, capital, extractivism, and technology. This perspective is supplemented by the presentation of technological alternatives, prototypes, ideas, and speculative projects that enable us to imagine a more democratic and egalitarian future.
The name of the exhibition refers to the motif of palantíri – the seeing stones in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. At the same time, Palantir is the name of a technological company founded in 2004 by Peter Thiel, a conservative lawyer and investor, which engages in advanced data analysis, mainly for the US government. The second part of the title alludes to Ramesh Srinivasan’s book Beyond the Valley: How Innovators around the World Are Overcoming Inequality and Creating the Technologies of Tomorrow. The author presents alternative solutions, objects, and prototypes serving as a potential counterbalance for the current technological model created and governed by private, monopolistic corporations in cooperation with political centres all over the world.
One part of the exhibition addresses the conservative ideology of Silicon Valley, the data transmission infrastructure, the materiality of technology, the state’s role in digital systems of surveillance and control, and the extractivism of resources and data. Meanwhile, the second part presents algorithmic, organisational, ecological, and infrastructural alternatives allowing to overcome the intertwinement between the authoritarian power and technology.
An integral part of the exhibition is a public programme consisting of workshops, lectures, performative lectures, talks and debates."
// source: Biennale Warszawa: https://2022.biennalewarszawa.pl/en/o-wystawie/
fot. Biennale Warszawa: Bartosz Górka
fot. Biennale Warszawa: Bartosz Górka, Marta Ankiersztejn, Monika Stolarska
The challenge was to propose and implement unconventional materials and printing technologies consistent with the concept of the exhibition and the graphic design, despite a limited budget, a tight schedule and the specific nature of the venue. This included:
→ Large-format embroidered panels with bilingual curatorial texts, produced in a way and from materials that would allow them to travel the world after the exhibition, including to Ars Electronica. The embroideries had to be aesthetically and conceptually consistent with the exhibition design and meet fire safety regulations. Above all, they were larger than the standard sizes that embroidery machines can produce.
The embroidery company showed invaluable help and commitment in creating the project. They adapted non-standard fabrics and silver threads, and above all made every effort to make the machines meet our considerable demands for how the typography should look.
→ So-called black mirrors made of plastic, used as artwork labels and wayfinding elements.
→ Large-format public programme displays, whose production technology, fire safety compliance and installation could fill a short story. In the end, they took the form of paper sheets suspended at height and were also shown in the shop windows of Wars Sawa Junior.
→ Communication in the windows of the Wiecha Passage and along the promenade on the Marszałkowska Street side. Because of the nature of the building and the limited availability of accurate plans, this was demanding, but it succeeded despite all the difficulties and challenges.
→ Wayfinding throughout the exhibition space.
Wystawę można było oglądać pomiędzy 13.06, a 17.07.2022 r.
Colophon
Anne Alombert, Clara Balaguer, Andrea Beste, Zach Blas, Border Emergency Collective, Tega Brain & Julian Oliver & Bengt Sjölén, Paolo Cirio, Frederik De Wilde, Forensic Architecture, Fabien Giraud & Raphaël Siboni, Kyriaki Goni, Vanessa Graf, Grow You Own Cloud (Cyrus Clarke & Monika Seyfried), Yuk Hui, Karolina Jarmołowska, Vladan Joler, Paweł Kobielus, Paul Kolling, Weronika Koralewska, Steffen Köhn & Nestor Siré, Luis August Krawen, Michał Krzykawski, Kuba Kulesza, Felix Lenz & Angela Neubauer & Eszter Zwickl, Ulises Ali Mejías, Metahaven, Joanna Murzyn, Helena Nikonole, Bahar Noorizadeh, Matteo Pasquinelli, Špela Petrič, Laura Poitras, Oleksiy Radynski, Daniel Ross, Jan Skoczylas, Ramesh Srinivasan, Jenna Sutela, Magda Szpecht, terra0 (Paul Kolling & Paul Seidel), Territorial Agency (John Palmesino & Ann-Sofi Rönnskog)
Organiser: Biennale Warszawa, Cultural Institution of the Capitali City of Warsaw
Project of visual identification and website: Jakub de Barbaro; cooperation: Mikołaj Hałabuda, Marta Kowalska, Alina Lysachkova
Project funded by 𝗺.𝘀𝘁. 𝗪𝗮𝗿𝘀𝘇𝗮𝘄𝗮
Partners: Wars Sawa Junior, Goethe Institut, Institut Francuski, Austriackie Forum Kultury, Fundacja Heinricha Bölla, Ambasada Królestwa Niderlandów, Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie, TR Warszawa
Media patronage: „Przekrój”, „Tygodnik Powszechny”, „Szum”, „Notes na 6 Tygodni”, „Le Monde diplomatique”, Going, TOK FM, True Story, Architektura & Biznes
Biennale online:
https://2022.biennalewarszawa.pl/en/
https://biennalewarszawa.pl
https://cenazasztuke.pl/artysci-na-biennale-warszawa-2022/
https://kultura.um.warszawa.pl/-/biennale-warszawa-2022-zapowiedz
https://www.whitemad.pl/futurystyczna-wystawa-biennale-warszawa-otwarta-w-domach-towarowych-wars-sawa-junior/
https://biennalewarszawa.pl
https://cenazasztuke.pl/artysci-na-biennale-warszawa-2022/
https://kultura.um.warszawa.pl/-/biennale-warszawa-2022-zapowiedz
https://www.whitemad.pl/futurystyczna-wystawa-biennale-warszawa-otwarta-w-domach-towarowych-wars-sawa-junior/
I would also like to thank Marta Michalak from the production team for the remarkable collaboration while creating the project, CENTRALA for their patience with my questions, and Wars Sawa Junior for the most meticulous measurements. Thanks also go to HaftyNadruki.pl for the outstanding quality and very fast delivery of an enormous order, to Lentimax for their knowledge and professionalism, to Mr Łukasz for the prints on the day of the opening, and to the whole team for an incredible artistic undertaking of the highest aesthetic value.
